Dauphiné – Sébastien Hinault «We must constantly think about hydrating»

The heat was ever present on the roads of the third stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré.  The day came down to a sprint with Nikias Arndt (Giant Shimano) taking the victory, which did nothing to upset the standings in the general classification where Chris Froome (Sky) still holds the advantage.

Like all teams in the race, IAM Cycling has been combatting the heat wave by every means possible, particularly on this day which was the longest of the race.  Sébastien Hinault (40 years old) ended up as the best finisher for the Swiss team, taking 16^th place in the chaotic sprint, and recognizes how important it is to keep drinking water, especially when the temperature indicated on their SRM computers soars up to 44°C (about 110° F).

“We must constantly remember to hydrate, from the moment we wake up to all the hours we spend on the road.  From the moment the races starts, we must drink and drink again, and also sprinkle ourselves with water. We wear small pockets of ice around the neck to help keep the engine cool.  You really have to be careful, which is why we also add small pellets of salt in the water bottles.  This helps our body retain a little more water.” 

Having taken part already in a long breakaway yesterday, Matthias Brändle joined in the team effort to keep their leader watered.

“I recovered well from my break yesterday.  And like all the guys, I started working for our leader Sébastien Reichenbach to bring him water bottles.  When it is over 40°C, we can easily drink between 10 and 15 bottles during a stage.  We had only 20°C in recent races, so to have to deal with this extreme heat can be difficult; acclimating to this type of temperature swing is not something that everyone finds easy to do.”