Tadej Pogačar’s anticipated bid to win the Tour de France for a record-equalling fifth time subsequent July might be formed by the double ascent of Alpe d’Huez on back-to-back levels within the ultimate weekend, a troublesome first week go to to the Pyrenees and the race’s first opening staff time trial since 1971.
Additionally on the menu of the 2026 Tour de France might be a return to the Vosges mountains within the east of the nation, the unprecedented ascent of Plateau de Solaison on stage 15 and – simply as in 2024 – one other ultimate stage throughout the Montmartre climb in Paris.
Jonas Vingegaard may even be happy to see every week 2 repeat of the 2024 stage end in Le Lioran within the Massif Central, the scene of Pogačar’s one defeat by the Dane within the Tour – or certainly in any race – since 2023. The summit finishes in Gavarnie-Gedre within the Pyrenees and Orcières-Merlette within the Alps, scene of Luis Ocaña’s legendary defeat of Eddy Merckx within the 1971 Tour, and a person time trial on stage 16, may even be excessive factors of the 2026 Tour.
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Challenges from the phrase go
Nonetheless, a full three weeks earlier than reaching the double Alpe d’Huez whammy, the GC contenders face their first main problem – the opening staff time trial in Barcelona, simply 19.1 kilometres lengthy however with two quick however punchy ascents in Montjuic Park to complete off. Instances might be taken on the primary rider to cross the road, placing the general favourites immediately within the highlight, after which a second troublesome stage alongside the Barcelona coast will certainly preserve the contenders on their toes.
The GC obstacles will come thick and quick, although, on a route the place the primary week might be notably more durable than in 2025, given the Tour hits the Pyrenees as quickly as stage 3 – a lot sooner than traditional. The opening mountain stage and summit end at Les Angles will mark the Tour’s return to France, too, on a day with practically 4,000 metres of climbing.
Simply 4 kilometres lengthy, that ultimate ascent of Les Angles stands in marked distinction to the Tour’s subsequent main mountain day – stage 6’s ultimate climb of Gavarnie-Gèdre. A ‘mere’ 20 kilometres lengthy, albeit with not too robust a gradient, Gavarnie-Gèdre might be instantly preceded by such dauntingly acquainted Pyrenean monsters because the Aspin and the Tourmalet. All in all with such a troublesome begin, similar to when the Tour visited the Pyrenees within the first week again in 2023 after its begin in Bilbao, the favourites can have no selection however to hit the bottom operating.
Three days later, a really tough experience throughout the Massif Central, with loads of alternatives for ambushes that embrace the ultra-hard mid-stage Suc au Could climb, will carry the 2025 Tour de France to its first relaxation day. July 14 is an excellent more durable model of the identical sort of climbing, with a high-risk sequence of challenges that includes the Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol, Col de Pertus and the Lioran – precisely the identical end the place Vingegaard briefly managed to first catch Pogačar after which outsprint him again in 2024.
After two flat levels taking the race north and east, Friday 13 July sees a return to the Vosges for the primary time for the reason that 2023 Tour, tackling the mountain vary’s most emblematic limb, the Ballon d’Alsace on the finish of the 2025 Tour’s solely stage over 200 kilometres. Probably the most troublesome day within the Vosges, by far, although, is stage 14, the place the peloton grinds their means up the previous forest monitor of the Col du Haag, a really irregular 11-kilometre ascent with gradients of as much as 15%, that then brings them as much as the 2023 end at Le Markstein Fellering. There is no return to the Vosges’s most notoriously steep ascent of Planche des Belle Filles of 2020, then, besides this is without doubt one of the hardest days of your complete 2025 Tour.
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The climbing challenges come thick and quick for the Tour’s general contenders from hereon, too, with the second week’s final stage that includes the ultra-hard end at Plateau de Solaison (11.3 kilometres at 9.2%). Already used within the Critèrium du Dauphiné, the northern Alpine climb concludes a day of practically 4,000 metres of climbing, preceded as it’s by the very troublesome if quick Montée de Salève and the non-classified Côte de Arbusigny.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) will certainly have paid further shut consideration when Christian Prudhomme supplied particulars of the race’s solely particular person time trial on stage 16. A medium-length 26-kilometre effort that opens up the essential third week, the hilly course between Évian-les-Bains and Thonon-les-Bains might be his finest probability to influence in his favoured terrain on the Vingegaard-Pogačar hegemony. After a quick return to the flat on stage 17 – the final of the 2026 Tour – stage 18 will start a triple whammy of summit finishes. And, albeit in as legendary a mountain-top end as Orcières-Merlette, that ascent is positively benign as compared with what’s to return.
Friday’s first ascent of two of the Alpe d’Huez comes after a brief, punchy stage, simply 128 kilometres lengthy and takes the race up the same old, dauntingly troublesome 21-hairpin climb. However for the primary time since 1979, the race will then return to the identical legendary ascent in 24 hours, however this time with a brand new strategy, through the Col de Sarenne. It will make for a really totally different strategy to the Alpe, albeit preceded by way more acquainted mountains just like the Croix de Fer, Telegraphe, and Col du Galibier, totalling practically 5,600 metres of climbing.
Mix the 2, notably with an unclassified 3.7 kilometre rise to the ultimate mountain end line on Alpe d’Huez on the second final day, and it makes for a fearsomely troublesome conclusion to a course the place the opening difficulties of the primary week already imply the riders should needed to hit the bottom operating.
If the brand new strategy to the Alpe d’Huez through the Sarenne on stage 20 constitutes one main twist to a well-known situation, then the identical goes for Sunday’s end on Paris’ Champs Elysées. Preceded by the trio of ascents of the Montmartre climb. The rain-soaked finale on the climb’s debut was thought-about a convincing success in 2025, and this time round, the organisers are hoping for a equally spectacular conclusion, albeit one which as soon as once more will see the race’s sprinters disadvantaged of their beforehand conventional probability to shine in ‘essentially the most stunning boulevard on the planet’.
Whether or not Tadej Pogačar (UAE Staff Emirates-XRG) is as soon as once more in yellow, and equaling that all-time file of 5 Excursions de France within the course of, we’ll solely know for positive on the night of July 2026. However with 5 summit finishes – six in case you embrace the second ascent to Alpe d’Huez – and challenges in all 5 of France’s fundamental mountain ranges, no one will be capable of say that the Slovenian star can have a simple pathway in direction of one among sport’s greatest all-time challenges.
Tour de France 2026 – Stage by stage information
Stage 1
The third-ever begin in Spain after San Sebastián in 1992 and Bilbao in 2023 may even see the primary staff time trial as a Grand Départ stage for the reason that 1971 Tour de France. Ending with two ascents in Montjuic Park, one among Barcelona’s most hallowed stomping grounds for biking the place the Volta a Catalunya finishes every year, that is additionally the Tour’s first staff time trial since 2019.
Stage 3
The primary full mountain summit end of the 2026 Tour de France, taking the race again into house soil, this might properly be the third GC stage in as many days. Whoever is within the lead after 4,000 metres of vertical climbing will seemingly be there to remain at the very least till the second massive Pyrenean stage three days later.
Stage 4
Foix historically acts as a situation for breakaways and this rugged however not excessively troublesome stage will seemingly see the GC favourites take a again seat as soon as once more. The final winner in Foix was Canada’s Hugo Houle again in 2022 on the finish of a 40 km breakaway.
Stage 9
One other stage with breakaway written throughout it: too onerous for the sprinters, on the eve of the race’s first relaxation day. 3,800 metres of climbing however the crunch second will seemingly come on the mid-stage Suc Au Mary.
Stage 10
The twisting, tecnnical and little-known roads of the Massif Central hardly ever disappoints, and in 2024 the identical end of Le Lioran noticed Jonas Vingegaard inflict his most up-to-date direct defeat of Tadej Pogačar – and spark acres of hypothesis about whether or not he might then beat the Slovenian general. That did not occur, after all, however this time spherical, the choices for ambushes and surprises stay as plentiful as ever.
Stage 14
Not for the fainthearted, that is precisely the identical end the place Tadej Pogačar claimed a ultimate stage within the 2023 Tour de France and Thibaut Pinot bade farewell to his followers on house roads – however by then the general was finished and dusted in Vingegaard’s favour.
This time spherical, the 2025 Tour’s second day within the Vosges is extra prone to open up the GC battle’s ultimate rounds in earnest. The Ballon d’Alsace (already tackled the day gone by) and Grand Ballon had been already tackled within the 2023 route, however the addition of the ultimate climb of the Col du Haag – a tarmacked-over forest path seemingly a lot more durable than the Platzerwasel used as an equal final problem three years in the past – will mix to make this one of many hardest days of your complete race.
Stage 16
The 2026 Tour’s solely time trial and a possibility for the specialists to regain floor on the climbers after the weekend of mountain racing. Nonetheless, being a 3rd uphill, a 3rd downhill and a 3rd flat, it is maybe extra one for Vingegaard than it’s for Evenepoel. The opposite curiosity level is that it comes straight after the ultimate relaxation day, a break to the every day race rhythm one thing which may have an effect on riders badly.
Stage 18
Scene of a small group dash win by Primoz Roglič when the Tour final visited this ski station in 2020, Orcières-Merlette is a end endlessly related to Eddy Merckx and Luis Ocaña. This was the place Ocaña, a massively gifted time triallist, used the regular grind of the ultimate climb and the plains beforehand to inflict the worst stage racing defeat suffered by Merckx in his profession in the course of the 1971 Tour de France. Merckx misplaced practically eight minutes that day, and the gaps might be smaller for positive this time spherical. However as an appetizer for the ultimate two Alpine levels, it may possibly’t be matched.
Stage 19
A ‘true problem for the formidable’ is how Christian Prudhomme described this stage and the shortness of the build-up to one among biking’s most legendary ascents will seemingly encourage some long-distance strikes. For the GC favourites, the dilemma between both taking part in it conservative to avoid wasting their power or going all-out to say as a lot time as potential previous to Saturday’s showdown goes to be a tricky one to resolve.
Stage 20
In a phrase, yikes. A massively dramatic finale to the Tour’s climbing levels, with the added motivation for these nonetheless with any power to attempt to develop into biking’s first double winner on Alpe d’Huez since 1979 in the identical version of the race. Nonetheless, the inclusion of ascents as hallowed because the Galibier and Croix de Fer solely underline how robust this present day might be, notably given the added problem of the Sarenne.
The pitfalls of the Montmartre stage on Sunday however, that outdated cliché about whoever’s in yellow in Alpe d’Huez might be in yellow on the Champs Elysées might not have been true after stage 19. However it is going to be after stage 20. In order the definitive conclusion to the 2025 Tour’s mountains, if not (fairly) the race, this stage actually cannot be faulted.
