Newer reactors don’t require as much water. The older reactors in France require them to shut down the plant when the temp in the river rises too much. This is so that they avoid environmental impacts due to manmade temperature rise in the river.
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I guess it depends on your choice of weapon (forecast) but Dev’s in the thread he started before discovering this one, and ventusky suggests 35oC by noon: too hot for
safety.
https://www.ventusky.com/#p=48.821;2.454;9&t=20260712/1200
And they were starting at a leisurely 7am-7:50am so “most athletes” would not finish by noon: “most athletes” would be at their most exposed to exertional heat injury by and after noon. Sunrise is at 6am.
This is strange to me, they run Ironman 70.3 Boulder in early/mid June here every year and the temp has been hitting 85-90 (30-35C) by noon the last couple years. Its dreadful but I think a move that is is too cautious especially for this inaugural event when people are likely already in town for it.
This prefecture level closure is nutty. Even in Colorlodo this weekend is the triple bypass (117mi /12k climbing) and It is not being shut down even with 80F temps at the finish and wildfire smoke all throughout the state.
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Comparing apples and oranges. Boulder is a young and sporty city. While a large part of Versailles population is over 60 years old and very much sedentary, so at risk with the heatwave.
Comparing temperatures alone does not make a lot of sense. Otherwise let’s just say there is a marathon in the desert (marathon des sables), so no high temperature is too high.
Plus there are many factors other than just temperatures.
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It’s official.
This morning, the Préfecture des Yvelines issued a formal request to IRONMAN France to postpone IRONMAN 70.3 Versailles due to the rising temperatures and the potential impact on health and safety resources in the region.
In its notice, the Prefecture stated:
The district has been under an orange heatwave alert since Tuesday 7 July 2026 and is currently facing a severe risk of natural wildfires. Furthermore, a deterioration in weather conditions has been forecast for the coming days.
These circumstances no longer allow this sporting event to be conducted under conditions that ensure adequate health and safety for the public and for all personnel mobilised for its organisation.
Since receiving this notice, we have discussed at length with various officials in local and national government, exploring every possible option that would enable us to safely deliver the event while respecting the guidance of the public authorities and the measures set out within our heat contingency plans. In conversation with officials, an agreement was reached to postpone the event to date later in the season in order to support public health and safety.
We are deeply disappointed that we cannot hold this race this weekend as planned, but we thank the city and Palace for working fast to help us find a solution that will still allow you an opportunity to race in Versailles later this season. We are committed to continue supporting our athletes and our host communities as we navigate through this extreme weather event in the region together.
If you are already on-site or planning to travel to Versailles, you will still be able to pick up your event backpack and t-shirt in the registration tent, Avenue de Paris, from Friday (11am to 7pm) to Saturday (9am to 3pm).
Our immediate priority is to confirm the new date of the race, and we will communicate this, alongside other options for registered athletes such as refunds and transfers. We are working through these as quickly as possible and will update further in due course.
FWIW I’ve driven here and been in France for several days. I would have preferred a full race to a bike/run and I’ve now got 3 days to spend, I do at least have a major city to visit although I’ve been before.
Whilst I’m disappointed and out of pocket I accept that conditions for other people aren’t good when you include air quality,.
Not sure I’ll make a rearranged race due to cost, holidays and other races but will see what we get offered.
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It’s always been the case that the media frenzy over the heat wave is the main driver for this. There’s always going to be a balance with a risk inherent activity. Would Nice allow an epic downtown airsoft battle to take place with 1000 participatants? No, not because it’s inherently unsafe, but because the culture is opposed to it, it lacks constituents etc.
Would Nice cancel their finish line segment for the Tour de Femmes? Presumably no, because the culture is more accepting of it.
There is absolutely an unspoken balance that gets weighed. A people an culture rise to the occasion with a “this is who we are” stubbornness in the face of adversity if it’s something they care about.
If it’s something they don’t care about, or actively dislike? Surely we can all see how that sliding scale changes the unspoken resiliency calculus.
So on to Versailles. It doesn’t have to be a “conspiracy” of letters going back and forth. Does one tree conspire against the whole forest when the fire spreads from branch to branch in the wind?
The media frenzy, the cultural biases, mingled with individual biases of decision makers, all act to create a chilling effect, no pun intended, on certain actions.
So, if you want to hunt for conspiracy theories, I would not be the least bit surprised in the chain of actions all across media and government and regulators and researchers and so on there absolutely are people with a “no crisis goes to waste” approach that also increase the severity of attention on the crisis, precisely because it puts them in a more important position. If people can’t see that, they don’t understand human nature and never worked in an organization or politics with their eyes open.
What Peter means by “Nice speculations” I think is the one about the mayor of Nice allegedly conspiring to get rid of Ironman by using the heatwave as a pretext. So now the heatwave has eliminated another race, so maybe that one wasn’t a pretext after all.
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It does not sound like Mayor of Nice was actively trying to boot out the June 70.3+140.6 because those races are an option for athletes who missed this year for next year
Wonder how the new schedule will look like. Ironman should think about June and July races being probably better close to the Atlantic (such as Les Sables d’Olonne), whereas Cote d’Azur, Provence and Ile-de-France might be better in May, late August/September, even October. Personally I am up for that. There are lots of countless races in June in France (Deauville, Alpsman, etc), would be great if Ironman starts freeing up that space a bit too.
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thumbs up! It would be great to have more races in september/october (more flexibility for planning the season).
I wonder when registration opens for Versailles 70.3 2027? I guess step one is for a date to be established!!!
It read like 70.3 Versailles 2026 will still happen, I think September. Its great cycling near Paris that time of year
Well that’s great for all of you. I’ll keep my eyes on this for next year. I registered for Mallorca70.3 and did so onsite so can transfer to “open races” next year. Doing a bike camp in 3 weeks at Bourg D’Oisins and scouting Alpe d’Huez Long Course by doing the duathlon (just to see the run course up top) to decide next year’s plans. Between work and racing, it feels like going back to Europe every 6 weeks !!! I should just work from there, but that’s not in the cards LOL
They just shared another e-mail that they are aiming to come back late this week with a new date for this year. The aim is to re-schedule, but it will have to be September. I heard that they already knew the swim wasn’t happening weeks ago, it was all mucky and green and has been so for a while. So I doubt if they will be able to have a swim even in September, given the water is so shallow and has no current.
I’m not sure how others feel, but I went for a run the day before, on the hottest part of the day and it was so doable it made the whole situation even more frustrating.. Then on race day itself, I would even call the conditions mild, especially before noon. I can’t help feel that this was so premature to call it, and all the precautions that were being made would have been more then sufficient.
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Agreed, I also went for a run around noon (I would’ve finished by then). It was definitely warm in the sun, but nothing too extreme.
Having seen the course, I do feel it’s a missed opportunity to not have the swim in the “Grand Canal” and the run around it. It would’ve meant an out and back swim (rather than the M shape) and a 95% shaded run.
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Yea odd decision in the first place. Grand Canal would have been more festive and better indeed as hinted. All in all very bad for a first time IM 70.3 event.
We got the email about our options today.
Rearranged for 11th October
Options for 5 different 70.3’s including Florida and Jones Beach, along with Leeds (UK) and Oman full distance
Full refund
I can’t make any of the alternatives or they don’t interest me so have gone for the refund.