The UCI is boasting the green credentials of a race sponsored by host country’s largest oil company – how environmentally friendly is ‘The Green Breakaway’?

After a scorching Tour de France, a few damp days of 14 or 15°C at the Arctic Race of Norway (ARN), from 13 to 16 August, may come as a relief to the pro peloton. But not even Norway can guarantee a post-Tour ice bath any more; temperatures at the 2024 race won by Magnus Cort, averaged 25°C, the hottest on record for Arctic Norway. The 2025 edition, when Tom Pidcock finished second to Corbin Strong, took place after the country’s most severe heatwave on record, in what turned out to be its warmest recorded year, taking the country as a whole.

This July, Rjukan, in Telemark county – considered one of the best ice climbing areas in Northern Eu