Now that we've covered two of the most interesting fellas who will be riding the 2026 Tour de France, and the theory of why they'll be riding this particular route, it's time to talk about the route itself. This year's Tour will span 3,321 kilometers of Spain and France while flirting with the Swiss and German borders. The route's 54,450 meters of vertical gain make it the third-most demanding Tour of the last 20 years, though that's deceptive, since a lot of that gain is distributed across the many intermediate, hilly stages rather than condensed in set-piece mountain stages. The 26 kilometers of individual time-trialing are also the third fewest of the last 20 years. There are four obvious sprint stages, as well as two stages I am pretty sure will come down to bunch kicks. It's a difficult route, but also quite fun. The second week is where I think I will crack, the third where the race will be decided.
As a means of previewing each stage, I'm less interested in picking winners than in discussing the possible shape of each day's racing. I will also award each stage a number of radishes, on a scale from one to seven, to indicate how exciting I think it will be. Allez!
Stage 1: Barcelona - 19.6 km (team time trial) (Three radishes)
Perhaps the 2026 Tour's biggest innovation comes in its first stage. Stage 1 is the race's first team time trial (TTT) since 2019, and the first under the new TTT rules. Instead of the entire team getting the same time when the fourth rider crosses the line, each rider will get their own time. This upends the structure of the discipline, turning it from an exercise in coordination into a 16-kilometer leadout. The fellas will still have to be in sync, though less so than before. This is why it gets three radishes, when most time trials get one.
That difference is exacerbated by the profile, which winds through the streets of Barcelona before ending on a pair of interesting little climbs. Getting through the first 80 percent of the stage will take precise coordination and big power, demands which teams will dedicate their biggest engines to fulfilling. The goal will be to shelter the general classification riders so they can be fresh for the finishing kick, but it's not so simple. Will teams zip out as fast and destructively as possible in order to unleash their leaders on Montjuïc, leaving them to manage the final descent on their own, or will they preserve their resources on the flat section to make sure they can put everything into delivering their leaders onto the Côte du Stade Olympique? With how many riders will they slam into the final climb?
The recent TTT at the Dauphine was instructive. On a much harder course, a handful of teams finished with two guys at the end, and while Visma's winning margin over Netcompany-Ineos was a mere nine seconds, there were big gaps. Paul Seixas's Decathlon–CMA CGM team didn't have a good TTT, and the standard will be significantly higher at the Tour. Because there will be time gaps from the very first stage, many team selections were made with this specific stage in mind. Keep an eye out for the handful of teams whose leadership situation is somewhat murky, like Red Bull or Trek, or whose leadership is clear but I want it to be murky, like UAE.
Stage 2: Tarragona to Barcelona - 168.5 km (Five radishes)
We're getting some good food right away. This abridged, World Championships–style city circuit course looks like a harder version of the Paris masterpiece that ended the race last year. Let's take a closer look at the finishing circuit.
The riders won't hit the city streets until roughly 130km of flattish roads with one Cat. 3 on the way. While some sort of breakaway will probably form, the big teams (one of whom will presumably be defending the yellow jersey) will work to reel them in to set something up for the finishing frenzy. This circuit is similar to the TTT, though riders will do the easier Stade Olympique climb and, critically, the harder Montjuïc one. The profile helpfully points out the 13-percent section, which is where the winning move will probably be made. But something could happen on one of the earlier circuits, since the twisting, bouncing city streets will be very hard to coordinate a chase across.
Stage 3: Granollers to Les Angles - 195.9 km (Three radishes)
This is the sort of mountain stage that defines this year's first and second weeks. On paper, none of these climbs are horribly difficult, and the hardest one is 70 km from the finish. However, 3,850 meters of vertical is a ton, and the Cat. 1 Col de Toses is preceded by a long uphill drag that will drain energy before the categorized climbing begins. A theory: It seems as if the organizers are almost daring UAE to try and control the race too early, on terrain that's very hard to control, in order to force them to overwork themselves in the first week of the race. If they decline the gambit, cool; maybe the breakaway will have some real chances this year. Which brings us to ...
Stage 4: Carcassonne to Foix - 181.9 km (Three radishes)
The race moves west along the Pyrenees through what should be some form of breakaway stage. The sprint point coming before the first Cat. 2 is a sign that organizers don't think this one ends in a bunch sprint, which I'd have to agree with. If the big teams don't try to control this one, the 35 km between the Col de Montségur and Foix has all manner of potential launching points for anyone willing to go Ben Healy mode.
Stage 5: Lannemezan to Pau - 158.3 km (One radish)
Our first sprint stage of the race comes into Pau, which is always at the Tour, though typically for more mountainous fare. There's a great crop of sprinters this year. Alpecin brought back the entire Jasper Philipsen setup, and leadout ace Mathieu van der Poel is as good of a teammate as anyone in the race has. QuickStep's Tim Merlier is as fast as anyone in a straight line, though he hasn't been super healthy this season. Mads Pedersen is back for Trek and he has Mathias Vacek's crazy engine to set stuff up for him, though Pedersen is less a straight-bunch power guy than the pure sprinters. Biniam Girmay is finally winning races again, and Decathlon was not so committed to the Seixas project that it didn't make some room for Olav Kooij to make his Tour debut.
Stage 6: Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre - 186.2 km (Four radishes)
The Col d'Aspin! The Tourmalet! Over 4,000 meters uphill! And only four radishes? Despite the famed Pyrenean double making its second consecutive appearance at the Tour, and despite the Tourmalet coming close enough to the finish that it will force quite the selection, I just don't think Gavarnie-Gèdre has that dog in it. It's too gentle. Yes, 18.7 km is so many for the final climb, but 3.7 percent is just not steep enough to keep speeds down to the point where teamwork can't bring back any soloists. That could work in the other direction, however, if any escapees commit to working together. I'm kind of talking myself into this one, but maybe that's just because I know what's coming.
Stage 7: Hagetmau to Bordeaux - 175.1 km (Two radishes)
A pancake-flat day through the heat of southwestern France, but a second radish for Bordeaux's return to the Tour. There's a lot of history here, and the Tour has only been back to Bordeaux twice in the past 16 years. Bordeaux has hosted the second-most Tour stages after Paris with 80, and the last two times, the best sprinter in the peloton won. Also, it's a big enough city that I'll probably be able to do laundry.
Stage 8: Périgueux to Bergerac - 180.4 km (One radish)
Back-to-back sprint stages on the first weekend of the Tour—what are we doing here?
Stage 9: Malemort to Ussel - 185.5 km (Two radishes)
More undulating fare, probably enough to discourage too serious of a chase from whichever sprint teams missed out in the previous two stages. That said, the final Cat. 4 is less than a kilometer long. If the breakaway is catchable, the final climb shouldn't preclude a good chase.
The first rest day is also the following day, which means we'll be far enough into the race that it's basically impossible to predict the rhythm of stages in specific terms. Maybe some guy from Uno-X rode into the yellow jersey in a breakaway a few days earlier and the Nordic guys are going nuts trying to protect it. Maybe several big contenders have fallen and are nursing injuries, and their teams are doing the opposite of going nuts. Maybe Paul Seixas has a nine-minute lead and has been elected President of France. All we have is a guarantee of cycling's eternal call and response: break and chase.
In the context of Stage 9, it'll make for amazing racing. Everyone is going to be emptying the tank to get into this breakaway. The fight to make the day's move is going to be great TV, as is the finish. I suspect that any sprint team that has come up dry this far won't mind putting in a hard chase, given that they get to chill the next day.
Stage 10: Aurillac to Le Lioran - 166.6 km (Five radishes)
As is tradition on Bastille Day, the ASO has put together a fun stage that a French guy could theoretically win. But I think it's too hard for that, with all due respect to the type of French guy (a middling one) who is typically accommodated here. Our first day in the Massif Central is a hard one, and the Pas de Peyrol–Pertus duo is demanding enough to draw out some serious GC action. In 2024, the peloton raced a very similar stage, and Jonas Vingegaard surprised Tadej Pogacar at the line. This year's version is more difficult than its predecessor, and I think with the rest day before and the two boring stages to follow, this stage is going to see some fireworks go off.
Stage 11: Vichy to Nevers - 161.3 km (One radish)
The Tour de France's official guide notes that Vichy is known for its potato pâté and Bourbon castles. Huh! Anything else?
Stage 12: Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours to Chalon-sur-Saône - 179.1 km (One radish)
This is the final sprint stage in this year's race, finishing out the second pair of back-to-back flat days. I might relish this one, since the race is about to become pretty nutty. Eat your vegetables!
Stage 13: Dole to Belfort - 205.8 km (Five radishes)
This is such a weird stage. I love it. Everyone will be nervously watching each other as the yellow-jersey team will deputize two or three guys to smash through the wind and get bugs in their teeth for over 150 km, at which point everything will explode and maybe or maybe not come back together. The first part will be faintly interesting, if only to see which sprint teams feel called to do work at the front for green jersey points, but the back half is basically unpredictable.
The Ballon d'Alsace was the first official climb in the Tour de France, way back in 1905. It's difficult enough to shatter the peloton, though the question of whether the GC guys get involved or not is a fascinating one. There's a long descent and flat section on the run-in to Belfort, and given what's coming in the next two days, burning energy to chase a stage win could be very costly.
Stage 14: Mulhouse to Le Markstein Fellering - 155.3 km (Six radishes)
As seen by the Germanic names sprinkled throughout the profile, we're bumping right against the German and Swiss borders. The first true summit finish of the race features another trip up the Ballon d'Alsace before ending atop the Col du Haag. Well, kind of:
The finishing profile here is fascinating, as it shows that the Col du Haag is at its most difficult right at the start and that riders finish six kilometers from the summit. This reminds me of the day when Pogacar cracked in 2023, as that stage also finished on a flat little drag after the summit. Racing-wise, this means the stage winner is more likely to have to win a reduced sprint rather than pop off alone on the slopes.
Stage 15: Champagnole to Plateau de Solaison - 183.9 km (Six radishes)
The Plateau de Solaison just featured as the queen stage of the Dauphine a few weeks ago, and it's a real bear. Isaac del Toro won with style, dusting a strong field after an early attack. Zero riders finished within a minute of him, and only 11 finished within three. My point is not that Del Toro is going to win this stage—though I would love for him to win it, out of either mutinous intent or perfect decoy work—but that this climb is going to be very decisive. At this point in the race, we'll probably have some decent time gaps in the top 10, though the Solaison is going to be so much harder than anything else the race has tackled thus far. This stage also precedes the second rest day, so nobody will hold anything back.
I also found the climb very beautiful. I like when a climb gains so much altitude that it swings through several distinct biomes, starting in the forest, gradually becoming clearer, and finally finishing above treeline, in the clouds.
Stage 16: Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains - 26.1 km (individual time trial) (One radish)
The lakeside setting will be nice to look at.
Stage 17: Chambéry to Voiron - 174.7 km (Two radishes)
Though seemingly an obvious sprint, this stage gets a pair of radishes, because I'm not so sure it will be that simple. There's a lot of uncategorized climbing in the back half of the stage, and this will be late enough in the race that organizing a big chase will be harder than usual.
Stage 18: Voiron to Orcières-Merlette - 185.2 km (Four radishes)
This feels more like a breakaway day than a GC day, given what's to come, and given that the climb up to the Orcières-Merlette ski resort isn't that steep. One unfortunate side effect of Pogacar's ruthlessness is that climbing specialists who aren't GC guys rarely get the chance to win stages. Last year, he was sick, so Thymen Arensman and Ben O'Connor got to win, but it's been a rarity. Why not let Einer Rubio have a chance? Alex Aranburu?? Lennert Van Eetvelt??? Those guys should be allowed to fight each other.
Stage 19: Gap to Alpe d'Huez - 127.9 km (Seven radishes)
This is the platonic ideal of a Tour de France stage.
The Alpe d'Huez is the most famous climb in the history of the Tour de France: 21 switchbacks of pain, packed with tens of thousands of screaming, besotted fans. Alpe d'Huez has only featured twice in the last 11 years, which hints at the tension between tradition and the need to break new ground. The Tour de France has to experiment. It must offer both novel challenges to its participants and interesting arrangements for its fans. As much as everyone loves to see Alpe d'Huez, the Tourmalet, the Galibier, and Mont Ventoux, the race preserves the elevated status of those climbs by avoiding reliance on them, seeking out new challenges in their place.
But also, you have to give the people what they want, and what they want is Alpe d'Huez. I think the GC battle will probably be wrapped up by this point, but if it's not, we could have an epic fight for yellow here. My dream is that Pogacar is about one minute behind Vingegaard heading into Stage 19, forcing them to duel on Alpe d'Huez, not once ...
Stage 20: Le Bourg d'Oisans to Alpe d'Huez - 170.9 km (Seven radishes)
But twice! If your tummy was full after Stage 19, do something about that, because Stage 20 offers another helping of premium food. Pretty much everything happening here is going to be fun and beautiful and thrilling, even if the GC fight is over. The Glandon should soften everyone's legs up for the legendary Galibier, and the descent off the Galibier is steep enough and close enough to the start of the Col de Sarenne (which goes up the backside of Alpe d'Huez) that someone could try something super ambitious.
Stage 21: Thoiry to Paris Champs-Élysées - 133 km (Five radishes)
The second go-round of the good Paris parcours is slightly different. In 2025, the final lap up Montmartre finished six short kilometers from the finish, where this year's is 11 km out. That could change the composition of the winning group and motivate different teams to dedicate more resources to chasing. Both times there have been bike races on this sort of course, they have been bangers. I expect a third.
