Race thread: 🇫🇷 Tour de France 2026, first week, July 4–12
(www.letour.fr)
8
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.
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 4^th^ category climbs, and 2 and points for the first 2 riders on 3^rd^ 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, Sunday 5
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, Monday 6
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?
Stage 4, Tuesday 7
182 km, D+ 2900 m
After a uselessly long bus transfer, this stage meanders in the Cathar Country, the Pyrenean piedmont, and may offer opportunities for breakaways, as well as sprinters if there isn't too much action.
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Stage 5, Wednesday 8
158 km, D+ 1600 m
A stage which looks very much like the first 2 stages of the Route d'Occitanie a couple of weeks ago. Despite some use of the hills of Gers, they will probably insufficient or too separated to get rid of the sprinters on their favourite finish city (Pau). There is almost no reward for breakaways, with only 1 GPM... I don't suppose riding by my high-school (in a distant past) will be a motivating reward.
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this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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Stage 6, Thursday 9
Summary: a mountain stage + a UAE team = another Slovenian victory
Visma attempted several times to put someone ahead so that Vingegaard🇩🇰 could get some help after the Tourmalet, because of the terrible final false flat. First they tried with Campenaerts🇧🇪 who left at km, soon joined by AArtz (🇧🇪 Lotto) and later by M. Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) for the Green jersey points. But after they got a gap of more than 1 minute, there was movement at the front of the peloton (by Ineos I think), and the gap went down to about 30 seconds. Also, AArtz🇧🇪 had never gotten his car, complained at the commissar's car, and ended up receiving a yellow card, supposedly for incorrect position on the bike, and dropped.
Pedersen🇩🇰 got the I.S. points and kept on helping Campenaerts🇧🇪 a while after that to thank him, but the gap was decreasing even more. There was then other attempts by Visma from the peloton, but none managed to break away.
Both Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) and Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) were dropped because of a pee stop... It took them a while to come back, especially for Bora to bring the Belgian back.
O'Connor is the only one (at first, with a Q36.5) who managed to break away for good in the beginning of Aspin Pass, but he couldn't resist when Pollitt🇩🇪 finished his work and UAE accelerated for real with Wellens🇧🇪. On the end of the pass, Paret-peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS) and L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Barhain) detached and fought for Mountain points; no one else was interested in remaining points.
Cian U*.* (🇧🇪 Movistar) was dropped in the beginning of the Tourmalet (or was it Aspin already?) and was later announced DNF. 😞
The Tourmalet Pass was ridden the usual way: a UAE train, a UAE launcher, and Pogatchar🇸🇮 going away. Evenepoel🇧🇪 cracked first (after blocking Seixas🇫🇷 a bit...), then Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) lost Vingegaard🇩🇰's wheel. There were a few small recompositions, but stable positions emerged with 2 lone riders ahead (the Slovenian, then the Dane), and then a trio with Seixas🇫🇷, Lipowitz (🇩🇪 Bora) and the Mexican plaster Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE), and then, was it a quatuor, a quintet, with Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora), Ayuso🇪🇸+Skjelmose🇩🇰 (Lidl-trek) and the French plaster L. Martinez🇫🇷.
There was not much gap between the two groups, and it was funny to see Lipowitz🇩🇪 accelerate at the top as if he didn't want Evenepoel🇧🇪 to come back.
The cooperation between those 2 teammates was going to be awful after the two groups joined at the bottom, anyway. The angry chip got angry at other riders as usual. They never managed to close the gap with Vingegaard🇩🇰 even though they reduced it substantially, as the Dane was also losing time to Pogatchar🇸🇮 ahead of him. Del Toro🇲🇽 outsprinted the Belgian for 3^rd^ place time bonus, which allowed him to seat on the GC podium third place.
Oh, and the guys who made it into GC podium positions thanks to their breakaway 2 days ago all vanished, despite the fact that they had some climbing abilities. Vatsek (🇨🇿 Lidl-Trek) and Sean Quinn (🇺🇸 EF) were dropped early (early in the Tourmalet or even in Aspin?), and T. Træen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) crashed in the descent of the Tourmalet after hitting in an hairpin bend the wheel of his own teammate, who waited for him after he was dropped over 10 km from the top of the Tourmalet! Icing on the cake for Uno-X, T. Johannessen🇳🇴 was dropped later from the group of favourites and had to teammate left with him since his twin brother had stayed with T. Træen🇳🇴.
A stage which eliminated all excitement from the GC battle early. Mission accomplished by the ASO?!