Official website of Tour de France 2026
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Tour de France 2026 - Official site of the famed race from the Tour de France. Includes route, riders, teams, and coverage of past Tours

The great Circus of July arrive in town on Saturday, for 3 weeks.

It starts in Catalunya, Spain and reaches France by the road. Strangely, while many days are spent in the area, Pyrenees as a mountain are almost avoided.

There are only 2 rest days this year, so the first week is relatively long: 8 days.

Again, there are no long stages this year: only 1 barely goes over 200 km. And the total course is probably the second shortest in history (just a few miles longer than last year’s edition…)

Another heatwave is expected over France in July, starting at the same time as the race. It may not be as bad as the heatwave of June, but it is still going to be significantly hotter than normal for days if not weeks.

PCS page

Regulations

You’ve got the usual Yellow, Green, Red Polka Dots, and White jerseys. Mountain and Points final classifications bring UCI points for the first 3 riders (only).

On top of the Agressive rider daily and final prizes, there is now a smaller weekly and final ‘best teammate’ prize. Both are jury-based prizes.

Each stage brings almost the same UCI points as a 1.Pro race (!)

The scale for Green jersey points has been tweaked to favour even more the pure sprinters… There seems to be only 1 Intermediate Sprint per stage.

The scale for small GPM points remains as ridiculous as before: only 1 point for 1 rider on 4th category climbs, and 2 and points for the first 2 riders on 3rd category climbs…

There are no other secondary or tertiary classification to animate stage or give smaller teams an achievable goal.

Riders

The cream of the mutant crust will be present, probably for the only time this year.

Stages

Stage 1, Saturday 1, Team Time Trial

20 km, D+ 220 m

A very short TTT in the streets of Barcelona, with some climbing near and at the end (your usual Montjuic). Together with the new rules, it means that it is designed to bring the leaders to the front as soon as day 1.

Stage 2

169 km, D+ 2000 m

A stage for punchers, again finishing in Barcelona’s Montjuic, pretty much like the final stage of the Tour of Catalunya even though the circuit is a little bit different

Stage 3

196 km, D+ 3900 m

Arrival in a ski resort in French Catalunya. Is this a mountain stage or a puncher stage? Or simply a very good day for breakaways?

  • Deschanel2032@lemmy.worldM
    0·
    2 months ago

    Reluctant with good reason! It’s the day after a time trial and more than a week to a rest day. Would you really risk a good classification place or later stage wins this early, attacking on a hillside crit circuit that the breakaway has maybe 1% chance of winning? Be serious.

    1. A circuit like this, like any punchy finish, is a perfect place to attack if one is afraid of losing GC: losing GC won’t happen. One can pick one’s distance for attacking, and if it fails, one may recover or attack anew when it comes back again. Even if one blows up, gaps won’t be big.
    2. There aren’t only GC leaders in the race, there are punchers who don’t give a damn about classification and who won’t be served many suitable profiles this year.
    3. Last year, both punchers and GC leaders did use punchers stages. There were attacks by Visma lieutenants and even a bit Vingegaard as soon as stage #2. Pog and Ving attacked and created splits in the punchy finish as soon as stage #4, the day before the ITT. It was just an attack 6 km from the goal, but still better than yesterday.
    4. I’ve heard of Time Trial ‘blocking’ the race for a couple of days before the TT, but blocking it for a few days after the TT would be a first ;)