Wildfires Shorten Tour de France

France sent a hulking military cargo plane to dump tons of flame retardants as it battled raging wildfires on Saturday and slashed the final stage of Tour de France to redeploy security personnel to the blazes that have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Race organizers and Paris police announced a truncated 21st and final stage on Sunday for the three-week Tour, France's most famous annual sporting event, reflecting the immense strain that two large fires in the southwest are causing for emergency services, the AP reports.

Tour riders will race Sunday inside Paris, the AP reports, rather than starting from Thoiry, west of the capital, on a circuit of 55 miles—down by a third from the planned route. Part of the race's security detail will instead "reinforce the response efforts in the areas affected by the wildfires," according to the statement. The event still will end with the usual passage down Paris' Champs-Elysees, per the Athletic. Including some 70,000 people evacuated in central Spain, wildfires in southern Europe this week have displaced more than 250,000 people.