It's midday in Tarragona, and Team Visma-Lease A Bike's mascot parades along the crowd barriers, fist-bumping fans. The yellow jersey bearer Jonas Vingegaard is hidden away, probably keeping cool somewhere in an air-conditioned team bus – so a giant bee will suffice for a selfie.

Since, unbelievably, they're not actually a bee but a living, breathing human inside a six-foot polyester costume, I go up to speak to them. The temperature in the car on the way to the start of stage two recorded 33 degrees outside, and it feels hotter. Their costume is girthy, but I can't imagine they have the luxury of an ice vest underneath to keep them cool, unlike the riders who cruise past on the way to the team presentations. I want to know how they're handling the heat.

The bee shrugs, and goes for a fist bump instead. Must be a pretty prescribed job description.

Interestingly, it's a similar reaction given by riders in the mixed zone (sans fist bump). Matteo Jorgenson, like his Visma compatriot, wasn't too fussed either.

"It's pretty normal for the Tour – I think there's a lot of talk about heat waves and stuff, but every year in France it's hot, so it's nothing new. You have to drink a bunch of water, you know you're gonna sweat, and you have to try to cool yourself as best you can."

Soaring climes aren't unusual for July in this part of Europe, and the impact of heat on riders is something teams regularly take into consideration. But as the race heads into the Pyrenees before returning to its home nation, temperatures are set to reach searing heights of up to 44 degrees Celsius. Anything above 28 degrees enters what the UCI deem the "red zone", high risk to athlete safety which can lead to modification of race times, neutralisation, and cancellation.

The indifference of riders – in the mixed zone, Jayco AlUla's Ben O'Connor said that the peloton needs to get on with it – is probably partly because they have bigger things to think about (like actually racing a bike race) and also because they can seek comfort in the knowledge that cooling strategies are being taken care of.

"The good thing is it's already been quite warm the last few weeks, so heat adaptation is part of this process. When you're getting used to these conditions, you can do capacity training which is super important," Jan-Niklas Droste, Director of Health and Performance at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, explains to Rouleur. "Yesterday the weather was still quite okay. In the TTT, that's probably where you see most of the cooling strategies – ice slushies, cooling vests, all these aspects, and then throughout the race we always try to keep the core body temperature down."

He did, however, warn of limits in the current conditions: "Above a certain threshold, then it gets to a point where it's more difficult for the body to handle it."

But the difference now is that the issue of weather has extended beyond the peloton. Just two hours after Isaac Del Toro became the second Mexican to win a stage at the Tour de France, organisers ASO announced major changes to stage three caused by a raging wildfire in the Pyrenees. The route from Granollers to Les Angles will be limited to riders and essential vehicles only, and fans have been asked not to support roadside in an attempt to limit the pressure put on public resources in the heat.

Christian Prudhomme, the Tour race director, said after stage three: "Adapting is daily life of organisers of cycling races like the Tour de France. All of this is done in agreement with the state authorities. Again, we were in constant contact with the teams of the Pyrénées-Orientales prefecture and the teams of the Tour de France. And we will adapt again tomorrow, the next day. Next year if we need to, or in three years."

Whether the course will be altered or shortened is unknown, but what is clear is that it's an eerie reminder of Covid times when access to fans was limited, and an alarming – and visceral – instance of the impact of climate change. The Tour has been derailed in the past by wars, strikes, civil unrest, but a stage has never been cancelled because of extreme heat.

The Grande Boucle muscles on. But while riders, for now, aren't too concerned about not being able to stay cool, cancelled stages can't be solved by ice vests and frozen water bottles. There'll be disappointment no doubt.

No fans, no fist bumps – it's a shame, too, for our buzzy friend at Visma.