Tour de France 2026

Stage 21, Sunday July 26, Paris finale. The traditional Champs-Élysées finale was shortened to 89 km due to unprecedented wildfires burning across France in 2026, police forces were redeployed to manage the fire emergency, requiring organisers to cut the planned 133 km stage from Thoiry. The race started in Paris itself and included three ascents of the Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1.1 km at 5.9%). Tadej Pogačar sealed his record-equalling fifth Tour de France title on the Champs-Élysées, equalling Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Induráin as the only riders to win five Tours. Sources: CyclingUpToDate, total-velo.com, idlprocycling, NBC Sports.

Stage 20 result (July 25, Le Bourg-d’Oisans → Alpe d’Huez, queen stage). On the race’s second straight Alpe d’Huez finish, a brutal 170.9 km queen stage packing roughly 5,600 m of climbing, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost, Ecuador) soloed clear from the breakaway to take the stage and cap the King of the Mountains competition he had already locked up. The American Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) crashed late in the finale. Tadej Pogacar, in yellow, marked his rivals and defended his overall lead. Sources: CyclingUpToDate, idlprocycling, CyclingNews.

Stage 19 result (July 24, Gap → Alpe d’Huez, HC summit finish). Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) produced one of the great modern Tour rides, chasing down a deficit of more than three minutes on the iconic 21-hairpin climb before dropping Richard Carapaz and Lenny Martinez to win atop Alpe d’Huez in the yellow jersey. His ascent was the fastest in history, breaking Marco Pantani’s long-standing 1997 record, and made him only the second rider to win on Alpe d’Huez while wearing yellow, after Geraint Thomas in 2018. It was Pogačar’s fifth stage win of the 2026 Tour and effectively sealed the general classification. Remco Evenepoel remained second overall. Sources: NBC Sports, CyclingUpToDate, CyclingNews.

Stage 18 result (July 23, Voiron→Orcières-Merlette, 185.2 km). Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost, Ecuador) won the first Alpine summit finish of the 2026 Tour, attacking from the breakaway with approximately 3.5 km to go on the Orcières-Merlette summit and soloing to victory (stage time: 4h 26’21”). Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) was second at +45 seconds; Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished third at the same time. The GC favourites rode in the maillot jaune group well behind the break, with no time changes between the top five. Carapaz jumped from 12th to 10th overall, EF Education-EasyPost’s first top-10 result of the race. GC after Stage 18: 1. Pogačar (yellow, UAE) 2. Evenepoel +4:32 3. del Toro (white, UAE) +6:51 4. Seixas (FRA) +7:11 5. Ayuso +9:22. Sources: CyclingUpToDate, procyclingstats.com.

Stage 17 result (July 22, Chambéry→Voiron, 174.7 km). Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech, Belgium) won the supersonic 40-rider breakaway sprint in Voiron for his 11th career Tour de France stage victory, with Mathieu van der Poel delivering the lead-out. Mauro Schmid (Jayco–AlUla) finished second, Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM) third. The GC contenders arrived safely and the general classification is unchanged. Pogačar retains the yellow jersey; Evenepoel remains second at +4:32. Sources: CyclingNews, CyclingUpToDate, procyclingstats.com.

Stage 16 ITT result (July 21, Évian-les-Bains → Thonon-les-Bains, 26.1 km). Remco Evenepoel won emphatically, clocking 32’19” at 48.45 km/h average to claim his second stage victory of the 2026 Tour. He set the fastest split at every intermediate checkpoint. Tadej Pogačar finished second (+0:28), riding a controlled effort to limit GC losses; Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) was third (+1:04), Paul Seixas fourth (+1:16), and Isaac del Toro fifth (+1:21). The hardest moment of the stage: Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), who was fifth in the GC before the stage, crashed on a technical descent and was forced to abandon the race. GC after Stage 16: 1. Pogačar (yellow, UAE) 2. Evenepoel +4:32 3. del Toro (white, UAE) +6:51 4. Seixas +7:11 5. Ayuso +9:22 6. Skjelmose +10:14. Sources: CyclingNews, CyclingUpToDate, FloBikes, Procyclingstats.

Stage 15 result (July 19, Champagnole → Plateau de Solaison, 183.9 km, mountain summit finish). Remco Evenepoel beat Tadej Pogačar in a sprint at the 11 km Solaison summit, Evenepoel’s first road-stage victory at the Tour de France (he had won two ITT stages in 2024 and 2025). Isaac del Toro finished 6 seconds back in third. The stage was dominated by the dramatic and sudden abandonment of Jonas Vingegaard, who crashed on a routine curve approximately 24 km from the finish and was stretchered away with a broken collarbone. It ends his Tour (his third DNF-adjacent year after wins in 2022, 2023 and runner-up in 2024, 2025). GC after Stage 15: 1. Pogačar (yellow) 2. Evenepoel +5:00 3. del Toro (white jersey) +5:58 4. Seixas +6:23 5. Lipowitz +6:48 6. Ayuso +7:28. Sources: CyclingNews, FloBikes, WeloveCycling, cyclinguptodate.com.

Stage 14 result (July 18, Mulhouse → Le Markstein Fellering, 155.3 km, mountain stage, Vosges). Tadej Pogačar won solo, his 4th stage of the 2026 Tour and 25th career Tour stage win. He attacked 1.5 km from the summit of the Col du Haag and soloed to the line. Isaac del Toro (UAE) sprinted to 2nd; Paul Seixas was 3rd, just 0:38 behind; Vingegaard came in 4th at 0:44. GC after Stage 14: 1. Pogačar 2. Vingegaard +4:30 3. Evenepoel +5:04. Sources: CyclingNews, FloBikes, cyclinguptodate.com.

Stage 13 result (July 17, Dole → Belfort, 205.8 km, hilly, longest stage of the race). A 57-rider breakaway went the distance; Mauro Schmid (Jayco–AlUla, Switzerland) won the two-up sprint ahead of Harold Tejada after breaking free on the descent of the Ballon d’Alsace despite suffering cramps. Tom Pidcock came third in the breakaway (+0:02). The peloton (and GC group) finished 7:32 behind; GC at the top unchanged after Stage 12. Sources: FloBikes, Sunday Guardian, CyclingNews.

Stage 12 result (July 16, 179.1 km, flat sprint). Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) took his third stage win of the 2026 Tour, edging Stage 5 winner Olav Kooij and fellow Belgian Jasper Philipsen in a chaotic sprint after a big crash nearly wrecked the finale inside the closing kilometres. It is Merlier’s sixth career Tour de France stage victory. The GC men came through safely and the general classification is unchanged: Pogačar keeps the yellow jersey, 3:36 ahead of Vingegaard, with Evenepoel third at 4:06 and Ayuso fourth at 4:22. The race continues with Stage 13 today, July 17. Sources: CyclingNews, FloBikes, cyclinguptodate.com.

Stage 11 result (July 15, Vichy → Nevers, 161.3 km, flat sprint). Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) won the bunch sprint in Nevers, the third different sprint winner in four sprint finishes so far. The GC men finished safely in the peloton and the general classification is unchanged: Tadej Pogačar keeps the yellow jersey, 3:36 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, with Remco Evenepoel third at 4:06. Mads Pedersen holds the green jersey on 317 points, though Biniam Girmay closed to within 45 after finishing sixth. The stage was the fastest in Tour de France history, smashing a 27-year record for average speed. The race now turns back toward the mountains with Stage 12 on July 16. Sources: CyclingNews, VAVEL, cyclinguptodate.com.

July 6 update, Stage 2 result and Stage 3. Stage 2 (July 5, Tarragona to Montjuïc-Barcelona, 183 km) produced one of the most talked-about moments in years: Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates – XRG, 22, Mexican) won the stage after Tadej Pogačar, who had controlled the Montjuïc climb finale, launched the final sprint and then visibly eased to let his younger teammate cross the line first. Del Toro finished ahead of Pogačar in a UAE 1-2; Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was third and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) fourth, all four arriving in the same group. General classification after Stage 2: 1. Vingegaard (yellow), total 4h 01’48”; 2. Pogačar at +0:06; 3. Evenepoel at +0:15; 4. del Toro at +0:16; 5. Juan Ayuso (UAE) at +0:19. The gaps reflect Visma’s Stage 1 TTT margin over UAE. Polka-dot jersey (best climber): Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural) leads the mountains competition after Stage 2 with 5 points; Brandon McNulty (UAE) is second on 4 pts. Sources: CyclingNews, VAVEL, CyclingWeekly, PezCyclingNews.

Stage 3 result (July 6, Granollers → Les Angles, 195.9 km, 3,850m climbing): Tadej Pogačar won the Tour’s first mountain stage, attacking in the final 400 metres on the summit finish at Les Angles to take the stage and wrestle the yellow jersey from Jonas Vingegaard. Vingegaard finished 2 seconds behind in second place; Richard Carapaz (EF Education – EasyPost) came third. The stage was raced in extraordinary circumstances: race organisers imposed a huis clos (no spectators) on the final 40 km after a raging wildfire in Pyrénées-Orientales burned more than 4,500 hectares and forced roughly 10,000 people to evacuate. The publicity caravan was cancelled. Tom Pidcock described the atmosphere as “ridiculous, it looked like a war zone.” Around 700 firefighters and four EU Canadair aircraft are battling the blaze. General classification after Stage 3: 1. Pogačar (yellow); 2. Vingegaard +0:02; 3. Evenepoel +0:17; 4. del Toro +0:18. Sources: CyclingNews, VAVEL, ProCyclingStats, CyclingWeekly.

Stage 4 result (July 7, Carcassonne → Foix, 181.9 km): A 30-rider breakaway went the distance in scorching 40°C heat, and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) won the bunch sprint in Foix, his third Tour de France stage victory (2022, 2023, 2026). Teammate Quinn Simmons finished second for a Lidl-Trek 1-2, Raúl García (Movistar) third. The GC contenders rode in together and conceded the breakaway its full advantage: Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility), a Norwegian climber who lurked in the break, now wears the yellow jersey, the first of his career. Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel all lost around 7 minutes 53 seconds to the move, a standard GC teams’ decision not to chase on a transition stage ahead of the Pyrenées. Mads Pedersen also claims the green jersey (points classification), his second specialty jersey after his world-champion rainbow bands in 2019. General classification after Stage 4: 1. Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility), yellow; 2. Sean Quinn (EF-EasyPost) +0:28; 3. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +3:50; 4. Tadej Pogačar (UAE) +7:53; 5. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma) +7:53. Sources: CyclingNews, TNT Sports, FloBikes.

Stage 5 result (July 8, Lannemezan → Pau, 158.3 km): Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM) won the stage sprint in Pau, his first Tour de France stage victory. Max Kanter finished second, Tim Merlier third. A crash 5 km from the line disrupted the peloton but did not change the GC group outcome. Torstein Træen retained the yellow jersey for another day.

Stage 6 result (July 9, Pau → Gavarnie-Gèdre, mountain): Tadej Pogačar delivered the race’s defining performance of the first week: he attacked on the Col du Tourmalet and rode solo for approximately 43 km to the summit finish, arriving more than 2:38 ahead of Vingegaard. The gap was enough to strip Træen of the yellow jersey and put Pogačar back in command. General classification after Stage 6: 1. Pogačar (yellow); 2. Vingegaard approx. −2:38; 3. del Toro; 4. Evenepoel. Sources: CyclingNews.

Stage 7 result (July 10, Hagetmau → Bordeaux, 180 km, flat sprint): Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) won the bunch sprint in Bordeaux, his first Tour de France stage win in 2026, Soudal Quick-Step’s first stage at the Tour this year. Søren Wærenskjold was second, Biniam Girmay third. Pogačar retained yellow. General classification after Stage 7: 1. Pogačar (yellow, UAE); 2. Vingegaard +2:42; 3. Isaac del Toro +3:27; 4. Remco Evenepoel +3:30; 5. Juan Ayuso +3:34. Sources: CyclingNews, cyclinguptodate.com.

Stage 8 result (July 11, Périgueux → Bergerac, 180.4 km, flat sprint): Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) claimed back-to-back stage wins in dominant fashion. Breakaway rider Liam Slock (Lotto-Intermarché) was caught just 1.3 km from the line before Merlier launched from seventh wheel and proved unstoppable. Biniam Girmay (NSN) finished 2nd; Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM) 3rd. GC unchanged; Pogačar retains yellow.

Stage 9 result (July 12, Malemort → Ussel): Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won after the breakaway held off a charging peloton into the finish in Ussel. Tobias Halland Johannessen 2nd; Tom Pidcock 3rd. GC contenders arrived safely in the bunch; the general classification standings are unchanged from after Stage 7. GC after Stage 9 (into Rest Day 1): 1. Pogačar (yellow, UAE); 2. Vingegaard +2:42; 3. del Toro +3:27; 4. Evenepoel +3:30; 5. Ayuso +3:34. Sources: CyclingNews, cyclinguptodate.com, Procyclingstats.

Stage 10 result (July 14, Bastille Day, Aurillac → Le Lioran, 166.6 km, mountain finish). Tadej Pogačar delivered another crushing display of dominance on the French national holiday, attacking solo with approximately 15 km to go and arriving 32 seconds clear of the field for his third stage win of the 2026 Tour. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finished second, and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM, French, 24) took a debut podium finish in third, just 34 seconds behind at +0:34, which explains the surge of French attention on his name today. Jonas Vingegaard crossed 44 seconds back in seventh, losing a further chunk of time to Pogačar; the most alarming development was the collapse of Isaac del Toro (UAE), Pogačar’s young teammate who cracked on the climb and came in 1:31 down, tumbling to 7th in the GC. General classification after Stage 10: 1. Pogačar (yellow, UAE) 2. Vingegaard +3:36 3. Evenepoel +4:06 4. Ayuso +4:22 5. Seixas +4:35 6. Lipowitz +4:44 7. del Toro +5:08. Stage 11 today (July 15, Vichy → Nevers, 161.3 km, flat sprint) is a rest day for the GC men, targeting a bunch sprint finish; Merlier, Kooij and Girmay are the main sprinters eyeing a stage win. Sources: CyclingNews, cyclinguptodate.com, FloBikes.

July 13, REST DAY 1. The race resumes on July 14 with Stage 10 (Aurillac → Le Lioran, 166.6 km), a mountain stage that will test the GC contenders before the race moves toward the Alps.

July 5 update, Stage 1 result: Visma-Lease a Bike won the opening team time trial in Barcelona. Jonas Vingegaard wears the first yellow jersey of the 2026 Tour. Netcompany-INEOS finished 2nd; UAE Team Emirates (Pogačar) 3rd. Vingegaard, who won the Giro d’Italia 2026, has immediately seized GC initiative over his great rival. Stage 2 begins on July 5. Sources: letour.fr, Olympics.com.

July 4, 2026, The 2026 Tour de France has started. Stage 1, the 19.7 km team time trial through Barcelona’s streets, launched this afternoon (first teams off from 17:05 CEST). All eyes were on whether Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates, or Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike, would set the fastest TTT time.

July 2, 2026, Race-eve update. The 2026 Tour has its biggest pre-race story before a wheel turns in anger. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) has been ruled out, an infected elbow wound from a training crash forced the Belgian all-rounder out of the race he had targeted all season. With 10 career Tour stage wins and a role as Vingegaard’s enforcer in crosswinds, mountain transitions, and sprint days, van Aert’s absence is deeply felt. His replacement: Davide Piganzoli, a 23-year-old Italian who finished 8th at the 2026 Giro d’Italia and won La Route d’Occitanie. Meanwhile, Jonas Vingegaard himself arrives carrying the 2026 Giro d’Italia title, making him only the eighth rider in history to win all three Grand Tours. He now attempts the celebrated and rare Giro-Tour double, a feat not completed since Marco Pantani in 1998. Remco Evenepoel enters the race in his first season at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe (he left Soudal Quick-Step over winter), and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) has emerged as a genuine fourth option for GC. The team presentation took place July 2 at the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, with around 80,000 spectators. The race begins Saturday July 4 with Stage 1’s team time trial through Barcelona’s streets.

The Tour de France returns in 2026 with one of its most anticipated editions in years. The race departs from Barcelona, Spain on July 4, a Grande Départ abroad for the first time since 2009, giving the opening stages a distinctly different character from the usual French countryside start. Stage 1 is a team time trial over 19.7 km through Barcelona’s streets, a format last used at the Tour way back in 1971 and one that will give the teams with the most powerful squads an immediate advantage. The team presentation ceremony took place on July 2 at the Sagrada Família in Barcelona.

The three weeks that follow trace a demanding path across France and its mountains. With 54,450 metres of total vertical gain across 3,333 km, this is one of the harder recent editions in terms of climbing. The signature set piece: Alpe d’Huez appears twice, a rare double booking for cycling’s most storied mountain finish, 21 hairpin bends, 14 kilometres, a gradient that destroys even the best legs. Expect those two ascents to be defining moments in the general classification battle.

The title race in 2026 centres, as it has for several years, on the rivalry between Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). Pogačar arrives as the clear favourite, chasing a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title. Vingegaard, who has beaten him head-to-head before, arrives with point to prove. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) adds a third dimension to what promises to be an absorbing three-way fight for the yellow jersey. The race concludes in traditional fashion on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 26.