The Tour's very first Rider Board, out of Khartoum, with
information about the upcoming stages ... temperature, distance,
destination, and so on. You can see, for example, that Day
Two was a ride of 148 km (about 92 miles), with temperatures
ranging from 12 to 26 degrees Celsius (54 to 79 in real
degrees). Worth noting is the wind, a gusty, buffeting
headwind of 30 km/hr that felt like continuously being punched in
the face by the Pillsbury Doughboy for eight hours at a
time.
It would get much, much hotter than that in the Sudanese
desert. Oh, yes it would. It would get so hot that the
riders who spontaneously combusted into flames would be considered
the lucky ones.