2026 Tour de France

On July 26, 2026 the Tour de France ended again. This time repeating the last stage of the previous year with the modified Champs-Élysées course. The winner was again Tadej Pogačar who has now claimed wins in 2026, 2025, 2024, 2021 and 2020. Only to be bested in 2023 and 2022 to Jonas Vingegaard who unfortunately crashed out of this tour.

I was heavily in World Cup mood, but as the Tour started I was only aware of a few things I was tracking:

• Could Tadej Pogačar win a 5th Tour?
• Would Jonas Vingegaard steal back a win?
• Remco Evenepoel was looking strong to challenge
• Would Jasper Philipsen come for revenge after crashing out last year?
• Would Juan Ayuso be a threat after leaving UAE for Lidl-Trek?
• Would the new UAE Isaac del Toro be a challenge for White jersey?

So let's jump into a mini recap of the 21 day event.

Stage 1 was a team sprint stage which had been a long time since I'd seen this type of stage at the Tour de France. This time the rules were a bit interesting that riders got their own individual time, even though they raced together at once. So it seemed each team was rocking and pushing their yellow jersey contender to the line. Visma ended up winning this by a few seconds with the powerhouse of Ganna taking 2nd and Pogačar 3rd.

Stage 2 was a regular hilly stage where we saw the contenders for the green jersey battle out over the intermediate sprint. Once the breakaway was caught it was UAE holding an insane pace slowly dropping riders until just a few remained. They broke for the line and we saw Tadej help his teammate Isaac del Toro obtain the victory. It was great to see Jonas (Visma) and Remco (Red Bull) right behind them as this was suggesting a great tour to come.

Stage 3 was the end of Barcelona as the stage would veer into the Pyrenees and setup the remaining stages in France. It was a long (~200km) mountain stage which roughly flowed like the previous. A breakaway took off and sprinters fought for the intermediate sprint before the mountains began. Once the climbs towards the end began we saw UAE take control, increase the pace and drop riders pushing Tadej past the others for a sprint for the line. He out sprints everyone by just a few bike lengths and takes his first stage.

Stage 4 was such an interesting stage that showed myself I don't really truly understand cycling at the professional level. As the breakaway took off with a solid amount of riders the group of yellow jersey contenders let the gap go out further and further until it was around 8 minutes. With Tadej only in yellow by seconds it looked like a lot of jerseys would be moving hands after this stage. The teams probably had immense confidence most of the riders ahead on this stage could not hang in the mountains so they let them fight it out alone. This led to a great sprint finish with Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek. Torstein (Uno-X) ended up going into yellow after this stage with a 7 minute 53 second lead over Tadej.

Stage 5 was a flat stage built for the sprinters and pretty much a calm stage until the end. The breakaway was caught with like 10 miles to go, so teams were jousting for space for their sprinter. At roughly the 3 mile mark a crash occurred which really reduced the group of riders to around 20 for the sprint. This crash and break up of organized team lines led to a chaotic sprint that had Olav Kooij (Decathlon) taking the win by a solid bike length.

Stage 6 was a mountain stage in some hot weather (95F) and we saw the true power of Tadej be asserted. As the mountain arrived - UAE increased the pace massively dropping riders until just a few remained. Roughly around this time the present yellow jersey (Torstein) crashed and recovered, but left the tour the next day after medical discovered a concussion and multiple rib fractures. With roughly 3 miles left on the 2nd to last climb del Toro attacked and Tadej followed with Jonas unable to stay with either of them. Shortly later Tadej went solo and pushed that advantage with 27 miles left in the race pushing his margin to 2 minutes and 38 seconds. This was an extreme show of force by Tadej leading the yellow jersey by minutes now.

Stage 7 was a break from the mountains and a regular flat stage where the sprinters would have a race for the end. Nothing really happened for the majority of the stage as the breakaway was caught with 11 miles to go just as the sprinter teams were getting setup for the sprint. It looked like the lead out for Alpecin (Philipsen) was solid, but they went too early and ran outta gas with ~1000ft to go. This led to Soudal rider Tim Merlier to squeeze through and beat everyone to the line.

Stage 8 was another flat stage which would be a great chance for revenge for all the sprinters to fight back. This stage had an interesting breakaway that wasn't caught until the extreme pace of the sprinters caught the individual with ~2 miles to go. This time it seemed Philipsen was set with teammates again, but Tim Merlier could not be stopped. He won back to back stages and moved up on the green jersey points.

Stage 9 was shortened due to the heat wave with the idle temperature laying at 100F (38C). Roughly 30km was removed from the middle which caused the intermediate sprint to be only 13km into the race. This led to an interesting quick start at those competing for the green aiming for the points. Once Pedersen won the intermediate sprint breakaways started developing and being caught until ~16 riders broke out with 60 miles to go. One of those in the breakaway was Mathieu van der Poel who'd be tough to catch. Sure enough the peloton raced to catch the breakaway, but van der Poel held out and won the stage in a sprint holding off the breakaway riders and the rampaging peloton.

Stage 10 was a stage after a rest day and it was heading into the mountains. This was the famous French Bastille Day so the French were probably going to aim for a stage win. The stage was pretty calm until the final summits when Carapaz (EF) went for it and got a solid minute on everyone else. However, Tadej attacked and no one could go with him as he scaled the mountain on an insane pace. Sure enough Tadej passed Carapaz and took the stage win by 30 seconds. It was just showing how strong Tadej had become and how he seemed unstoppable on the mountain.

Stage 11 was a flat stage and was insanely fast - it averaged to 31.6mph for the entire stage, which might be the fastest road stage in history of the Tour de France. It was a pretty calm day with exception of a few crashes that led to a slightly disorganized end. While I expected Philipsen to finally win a stage, he was once again was beaten at the line by Wærenskjold of Uno-X.

Stage 12 was another flat stage with a crazy finish. With probably under 1000ft to the end a crash broke out that messed up a lot of the sprinters. The remaining sprinters went for it and it seemed like Philipsen finally had the stage, but Merlier snuck through and beat everyone at the line for another stage win.

Stage 13 was a hilly stage that had probably the largest breakaway of this year with like 60 people in it. Pidcock was in the breakaway and when the gap got to like 8 minutes it seemed crazy that he was virtually in 2nd place at that time. As the distance reduced to about 16km left - just a few riders remained in the breakaway. There was no chance the peloton was catching this group and sure enough Schmid/Tejada raced at the end and Schmid squeaked out the victory.

Stage 14 was back into the mountains so we were bound to have a crazy day. The intermediate sprint was heavily challenged by Philipsen as he was slowly clawing his way back into the green jersey challenge. As we approached the climbs it seemed Carapaz was going for the stage win, but once again as the gradient hit 16% it was time for Tadej to shine. He took off dropping the others and passed everyone to take another stage - he seemed unbothered by the immense heat and incline. I am convinced I am watching the greatest cyclist of all time continue to break records.

Stage 15 was another mountain stage and was quite a sad stage once all was said and done. At roughly 1/3 into the stage Jonas took a corner and clipped the concrete and went down hard. Moments later he is getting into an ambulance and his tour is over. This was insanely sad because Jonas had gotten #1 or #2 in the last 5 Tours. Later on we also said goodbye to Tim Merlier who abandoned the tour in the mountains after 3 stage wins due to exhaustion. For the stage win we saw the breakaway get caught by Remco, Tadej and del Toro with ~5km to go. They all sprinted for the line and Remco squeezed out the victory against both UAE riders.

Stage 16 was after a rest day and this time was an individual time trial of 26.1km in length. It was such an interesting time trial having a large gradient then downhill to a straightaway. Remco won back to back stages with a colossal showing of strength in the time trial. The fastest time after all but 2 riders finished was 33 minutes and 23 seconds. Remco did 32 mins and 19 seconds, which even Tadej (32m 47s) could not beat. Though, let's be fair Remco is the time trial world champion - it was going to be very tough to beat him.

Stage 17 was another flat stage, but knowing Tim Merlier was out it was bound to be an exotic finish among the remaining sprinters. The intermediate sprint was really late in the stage, but Pedersen held strong and got 25 points when it came. As the stage was nearing the end we saw the train of Alpecin pull Philipsen into prime position and he did it - claimed his first stage win of the 2026 tour. This stage win made the green jersey event so close - 452 points (Pedersen) vs 445 points (Philipsen).

Stage 18 was back into the mountains with the continued pattern of a breakaway, but the riders among the breakaway had some heavy climber names. The yellow jersey group didn't seem to mind who was in the breakaway this time letting them get 8 minutes out. The breakaway was full of some names that any could win, but Carapaz excelled past the group to win the stage.

Stage 19 was further into the mountains, but a much shorter stage at roughly 60km less than the previous day. A breakaway took off to try and get a jump on the peloton before the climbs hit. As the mountains were hit, the yellow jersey group starts to pick up the pace to see if they can catch the breakaway, but the gap at this point was at 4 minutes. This was no match for the teammates of UAE and Remco who clawed back to the towards to the front. They still had 3 to beat (Carapaz, Martinez & Kuss) but those 3 didn't seem to be working together. Thus Tadej caught up and passed them all for another stage win.

Stage 20 was the last mountain stage which had another breakaway take off with roughly 35km to go. This group had Carapaz and Kuss again who had been doing some serious breakaway work in the previous stages. Kuss seemed to have the edge as he took the lead with roughly 15 seconds on Carapaz. However, Kuss crashed out of the tunnel and that gap reduced to 8 seconds. It seemed he got lucky and continued on, but disaster struck when he crashed again against the net that protects you from falling off the mountain during a turn. During that 2nd crash Kuss had Carapaz squeez by and took the victory. Carapaz took a 2nd stage victory as the group with Tadej couldn't catch him in time.

Stage 21 was the famous last stage on the Champs-Élysées, which had an amazing battle between Van der Poel and Tadej. They went back and forth on the climbs holding back a large chase group. As the distance neared to under a 1000ft we saw Tadej sit up and it was up to Van der Poel to hold off the swooping sprinters. It was too close to call, but it almost seemed like his teammate almost beat him in the chase group as the photo above shows. However the cameras showed Van der Poel won and we the viewers got to witness him passed out against the barrier for a few minutes as he regained his energy. He looked like he pushed his body to the ultimate limit. The tour was over with Mathieu Van der Poel taking the stage, but Tadej Pogacar the event.

Jersey Winners

• Yellow (time) - Tadej Pogacar
• Green (points) - Mads Pedersen
• Polka Dot (mountains) - Richard Carapaz
• White (young time) - Isaac del Toro

With another tour ended I'm not sure how anyone can beat Tadej unless they build a powerhouse team to support a new challenger or he ages out. I thought Tadej losing a great teammate was going to hurt his chances, but losing Ayuso and gaining a strong Isaac del Toro proved that to be false. The green jersey is a fun battle each event and as the 2027 Tour de France arrives I hope to see more records broken from Tadej. I strongly believe I am watching the greatest cyclist ever on his journey to become the best and excited for the next year.