Tour de France challenger Kévin Vauquelin rumoured to be Ineos Grenadiers-bound in 2026

Up-and-coming French talent Kévin Vauquelin, currently third overall in the Tour de France, is reportedly close to signing for Ineos Grenadiers in 2026.

A Tour de France stage winner in 2024, Vauquelin has already led the best young rider classification for three days in this year's race, prior to being ousted from the top spot by stage 5 time trial winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).

Despite that time loss, after taking an excellent fifth in Wednesday's race against the clock, he nonetheless remains well-placed overall, 59 seconds down on current leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Local fans are hoping the 24-year-old from Normandy will shine on home roads on stage 6, a tough 201.5-kilometre run from Bayeaux – Vauquelin's birthplace – to Vire Normandie.

As for his longer-term future, news has emerged of a possible new berth for the rising French star in 2026. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Vauquelin is likely to sign for Ineos Grenadiers next season, with other suitors for the Frenchman's name like Visma-Lease a Bike and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale losing out to the British WorldTour squad.

The spate of interest in Vauquelin comes just as his current team, Arkéa-B&B Hotels, are engaged in a last-minute search for new sponsors for 2026.

In late June when it emerged Arkéa's current backers were definitively ending their involvement after 2025, manager Emmanuel Hubert said he was confident of the chances of the squad continuing into 2026. However, Hubert also added the caveat that if nothing sponsor-wise emerged by the end of the Tour it would be "really difficult to believe in it afterwards" and interest in snapping up any top out-of-contract riders in the squad is hotting up fast.

A pro since 2022, Vauquelin's breakthrough season was in 2024, when he took tenth overall in Tirreno-Adriatico, eighth in the Itzulia Basque Country and second in La Flèche Wallonne, prior to clinching stage 2 of the Tour on a hilly day's racing finishing in Bologna.

This season he has won the Étoile de Bessèges and Region Pays de la Loire, as well as claiming another runner's up spot in Flèche Wallonne. That was prior to giving no less a star than João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) a serious run for his money for the top spot overall in the Tour de Suisse in June.

Since finishing second overall in Suisse, Vauquelin has been on the attack during the first week of the Tour, with his main target in the 2025 race, as he told media on Wednesday, being a stage win.

Although his GC position may complicate that particular task, his next big opportunity to shine will come on Thursday's lumpy run across Normandy, described by race director Christian Prudhomme as "the most legbreaking flat stage in recent Tour de France history," and concluding with a 700-metre slope at 10% in Vire Normandie.

Regardless of how stage 6 plays out, Vauquelin said on Wednesday, the mere experience of being part of cycling's biggest bike race on roads he knows very well and starting in his home town make Thursday's stage hugely special.

"I'm over the moon. Going home is very emotional," Vauqeulin told L'Équipe. "I want to cry. It's a childhood dream, I just want to pinch myself."

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