2026 Tour de France

The 2026 Tour de France is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in history, with defending champion Tadej Pogačar facing off against two rivals showing impressive form this year and one fresh face with incredible talent.

Jonas Vingegaard, twice a winner of the race, has a new strategy for the Tour de France and ample confidence after a solid Giro d'Italia overall victory.

Remco Evenepoel has had his best off-season and early season to date, and is taking a 68-day break from racing to do specific preparation.

Meanwhile, young French phenom Paul Seixas has been putting in huge rides in anticipation of his Tour de France debut.

Where do the Tour de France contenders stand before the final build-up races? Updated 2026 form ranking after the Classics and Giro d'Italia

The 2026 Tour de France heads to Spain for the Grand Départ in Barcelona on July 4, 2026 where the race will begin with a team time trial.

It's been rare for a Grand Tour team time trial to land on the first stage, and the last time the Tour de France began with one, it was 1971, and the opening stage was an 11-kilometre TTT in Mulhouse, won by Eddy Merckx's Molteni team.

The Tour de France will have three stages in northern Spain, centred around Barcelona and the climb to Montjuïc, before entering France and the Pyrenees as early as stage 3 to Les Angles.

The remaining details of the route were revealed on October 23, 2026 by Christian Prudhomme in Paris, with back-to-back gruelling mountain stages and a double use of Alpe d'Huez on stages 19 and 20 unveiled as the highlight.

After snaking its way from Bordeaux over to Le Markstein and back down to the Alps, racing at the 2026 Tour de France will return to Paris and once again feature the electric Montmartre climb that saw the final stage lit up in 2025.

See the full details of the 2026 Tour de France route.

2026 Tour de France race schedule

How does the Tour de France work?

The 113th edition of the Tour de France starts in Barcelona on July 4 and ends three weeks later.

Riders have to cover all 21 stages of the 2026 Tour de France route.

The rider who completes the distance in the fastest time wins the race, also known as the 'overall classification'. Each day, the rider who has completed the entire distance raced the quickest is the leader of the Tour de France, and wears a yellow jersey to signify him as such.

Read more about the jerseys of the Tour de France.

There is a secondary time classification for the best rider under the age of 26, the best young riders' classification, and he wears a white jersey if leading.

Riders also gain points for their position at the end of each day of racing, known as "stages". There is a secondary prize for the rider who gains the most points - the points classification, and the leader each day wears a green jersey.

There are also points atop a select number of mountain passes for the first riders to cross the top, with more points available the harder the mountain is to climb. The leader of the mountains classification wears a white jersey with red polka dots.

Most days, the peloton race the distance of the Tour de France stage as a bunch. This year's Tour de France features two individual time trials, where riders race a set distance alone against the clock.

There are other prizes, too. Read about the Souvenir Henri Desgranges and Souvenir Jacques-Goddet.

Who is riding the Tour de France 2026? Stay tuned for the start list.

Find out how to watch the Tour de France.

Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Tour de France - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from every stage of the race as it happens and more. Find out more.