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Getting 39.5 on a garmin in the sun doesn't mean that was the air temp.
True but air temp is measured in the shade so even if the Garmin was getting radiated heat, so was I. Maybe it wasn't as hot as previous years but the climbing was harder so there was less ventilation compared to the more rolling finish of Greece/Turkey. I cramped pretty hard on the descent of that Bulgarian UFO and had to make an effort to up the salt intake after that.
hippy-
OK - I see what you mean - although I do remember a bit of a climb just before Alexandroupoli in Greece in 2016 that was very hard in the heat. Also relatively short climb out of Bellinzona in Swiss part of Italy.
On the first day it was uncomfortable in the afternoon on the main road with no shade and little breeze, but my stupid fall meant that I was an hour or two later than I should have been, so it had cooled down by the time I got to the first climb, and it was a good amount of shade once I'd got into it. I was taking salts from my first water refill stop at about 10 or 11am.
I hit the second big climb at 11am on the second day, just when I thought it would be getting really hot. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too bad as there was a fair bit of shade on the way up and I guess it was a cooler day. At the top, it was even a bit chilly.
The climb on the third day was ok too. Started in sun but a good bit of shade and I had some rain near the top of the first bit.
If we had had the kind of weather they have had in virtually every other TCR, ie 40+ degrees for at least a couple of days, those three climbs would have been much harder and probably knocked a few people out of the race.
frank9755
Getting 39.5 on a garmin in the sun doesn't mean that was the air temp. Likely to be a bit of sun radiation inflating that.
I've ridden in 40 degrees plus twice, Greece in 2016 and the nullarbor in 2017, and this year was not nearly as hot as those days were. Above 40 water was horrible to drink after half an hour as it was above body temp, and a real effort to plod on, having to back off effort, etc. I didn't do tcr last year or the year before but, with lucifer, etc, both were much hotter. This year has just been normal seasonal temps. Summer in Bulgaria is always going to be hot!
Also the hot part of the day is about 4 hours from 1-5. The other 20 hours are much more comfortable, even pleasant!