Dame Sarah Storey announced her retirement from professional sport on Thursday, 34 years after her first Paralympic gold medal.

The 48-year-old is the most successful British Paralympian of all time, with 19 gold medals, 14 of which came in cycling, plus a further 39 titles at the UCI Para Track and Road World Championships.

Before turning to cycling, which began in the mid-2000s, Storey was a champion swimmer, with five Paralympic gold medals and six world titles in the pool. She first competed at the 1992 games in Barcelona, going on to represent GB in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris.

"I am so privileged to have spent 35 years as an international athlete. I genuinely pinch myself that my childhood dream of being an athlete for as long as I possibly could has led to nine Paralympic Games and opportunities across so many sporting events," Storey said in a press release.

"This has included women’s and Para sport alike, and I feel so proud to have contributed – alongside so many incredible people – to the progress we’ve all witnessed and enjoyed in that time."

Ahead of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Storey is keen to use her position to push Para sport forward, saying that it is at a "critical stage".

"There’s also no doubt in my mind that, within Para sport, we have stalled somewhat since London 2012, and the years between each Games haven’t been utilised well enough to create the momentum that I and others hoped to see," she explained.

"I see this as a critical stage; there are many areas of Para sport that still need attention, and that is something that has played a big part in my decision. I fully believe that I can have a greater impact off my bike, rather than chasing a tenth Games and possibly further titles.

"I’m excited to be part of a future where we inject the momentum that is needed to ensure the future is bright for all Para athletes."

Storey has also won titles at the British National Track Championships and UCI Track Cycling World Cups, competing alongside able-bodied athletes. She was also nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year twice, in 2012 and 2024, and is Manchester's Active Travel Commissioner, as well as being Chair of Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Her last world titles came at the UCI Road World Championships in Zürich in 2024, after she had won the C5 time trial and C4-5 road race at the Paris Paralympics.

“Physically, I fully believe that I could be on that start line in Los Angeles, confident of defending my two titles from Paris," Storey added. "However, I believe I can now be a more positive influence leveraging new roles and opportunities that allow me to fight for Para sport, and the coverage that it deserves.”

Lord Sebastian Coe, the president of the IAAF, who was in charge of the organising committee for the London 2012 games said: "Para sport was an enormously significant part of London 2012, and I remain extremely proud of what we were able to deliver.

"However, the issues that Dame Sarah raises upon her retirement resonate with me hugely – sport must continue to take those small but steady steps forward to ensure that what has gone before is not wasted."

It’s inconceivable that in the late 1950s, Ray Booty covered 100-mile distances on this bike in times that most modern riders, aero-optimised to the nth degree, can only dream of. The bike looks so ordinary, you could imagine commuting to work on it, which, apparently, is what Booty did – hence the tape protecting the rear stays from saddlebag rub.

On Bank Holiday Monday, 6^th August 1956, Booty broke the RTTA 100-mile time trial record with an 84” fixed gear, posting a time of 3h 58m 28s. He was the first person to ride a sub-four-hour ‘out and back’ century.

Weeks later, he surpassed the RRA 100-mile ‘straight-out’ record, switching from the fixed gear to a close ratio, three-speed Sturmey Archer AC51 hub, as pictured here. His time was 3h 28m 40s, a record that stood for incredible 34 years.

None of the components on this bike are particularly noteworthy, but the frame is. It’s a 1955 Raleigh Record Ace (RRA) built in Raleigh’s ‘special build’ workshop by either Billy Blackamore or Ted Silverstone, perhaps both.

In a Nottinghamshire factory that spanned 78 acres and employed 9,000 workers, it was just this duo of master frame-builders who crafted frames for a select few pros. Famously, these rare frames are stamped with an ‘RP’ identifier – Booty’s TT bike is RP117.

Booty, who died in 2012, won many titles and accolades in the 1950s, including gold in the 1958 Empire and Commonwealth Games, but he declined to go pro.

“He was a modest fellow who enjoyed his cycling and didn’t want to turn it into a job,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of Velo Pages. “I imagine if he were around today, he wouldn't be propagating notoriety from social media. He'd just be letting his pedals do the talking, which is why, to me, he's the ultimate amateur.”

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA rider Alex Molenaar has abandoned the Tour de France after breaking his hand in a crash he said he didn't remember.

The Dutchman came down in a small pile-up just outside 5km to go on Wednesday's fifth stage to Pau. He finished the race, second from last and seven minutes behind the winner Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM), and was tested for a concussion.

According to Spanish outlet AS, he was heard beyond the finish line saying: "I don't remember the crash."

Molenaar was taken to a nearby hospital after the stage. Caja Rural-Seguros RGA later confirmed that he had suffered a fracture in his hand.

"Alex Molenaar will not be taking the start this Thursday following his heavy crash in Pau," the team wrote on social media.

"The tests carried out have revealed that he is suffering from a fracture of the metacarpal in his right hand."

Riding on his Tour debut, Molenaar wore the polka dot jersey on stage three as leader of the King of the Mountains classification. He is the fourth rider to abandon this year's edition.

Molenaar posted on Instagram on Wednesday evening, writing that he felt “great sadness” not to be able to continue the Tour.

“Unfortunately, my Tour de France has come to an end,” he wrote. “After a hard crash, I hit my head and hand hard. Luckily all is well from the head, but I have fractured my first metacarpal and will have to go through surgery.

“I feel great sadness that I can't continue this wonderful race and fulfil my dream of coming to Paris, but that's how this sport is: sometimes it's the most beautiful in the world and sometimes the hardest.

“Now I just have to wish my colleagues the best of luck for the rest of the race.”

A firewoman, perched on the back of a slow-moving float, hoses a cloud of mist over the fans at the roadside. “Merci!” they call back. Most return a grin and a thumbs-up, too. Under the baking sun in Carcassonne, as the riders arrive to sign on for stage four of the Tour de France, even a second of coolness feels like bliss.

The float then trundles on, and the heat feels inescapable again. It blazes from above, rises up from the tarmac, and sears with each gust of wind, like a blast from a hairdryer. Visma-Lease a Bike’s bus is nowhere to be seen – its air conditioning unit has broken, and the driver has had to make an emergency trip to the garage. Their riders turn up to the start on their bikes, some in ice vests, in a hopeful bid to fend off one of the harshest heatwaves France has ever felt.

According to ProCyclingStats, Tuesday’s stage was the hottest at the race since the website’s records began in 2007: an average of 36.5°C for more than four hours. At its worst, the temperature soared to 45°C, so read the data on EF Education-EasyPost rider Alex Baudin’s GPS computer. Of course, hot weather on the Tour is expected – riders prepare for it all year round – but these numbers are extraordinary. And they’re set to continue.

“It’s hot. It’s definitely hot,” Ineos Grenadiers’ Josh Tarling tells Cycling Weekly. The 22-year-old finished fourth from last on stage four, riding with a cracked rib suffered in a crash at last month’s Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. “It hurts when I breathe anyway,” he says. “With the heat as well, obviously you’re breathing harder and the pain’s catching up. It just feels airless.”

France has been suffering from the heat for around three weeks now. Public health officials announced there were more than 2,000 additional deaths in the country in June due to the soaring temperatures – and even that, they added, was an underestimate.

It’s against this backdrop that, on the eve of the Grand Départ in Barcelona, Spain, France’s interior minister gave local authorities the power to modify and even cancel stages in the event of extreme heat. If such a scenario were to happen, it would be a first in the race’s 112-year history. But with record temperatures, come serious measures. The effects of climate change have become an undeniable reality.

Beyond stage three’s finish line in Les Angles – where fans were refused entry due to wildfires nearby – Tom Pidcock gasped to regain his breath. “I don’t think I’ve done such a hard race in such heat before; it was ridiculous,” he told the TV cameras. “It was like a war zone. I think we went through about 10,000 bidons today as a peloton.”

Drinking fluids is one of few ways riders can ward off heatstroke while exposed on the road. They also wear ice vests before the stages, rely on stockings stuffed with ice cubes during them, and drink slush to try and lower their core temperatures from within. Outside his team bus at stage four's finish in Foix, Soudal Quick-Step’s Jasper Stuyven bit into a fruit pastille lolly as if it were a chicken drumstick and he hadn't eaten in three days.

Other cooling strategies are more sophisticated; Alpecin-Premier Tech’s riders took it in turns to visit ice baths inside a blacked out van behind their team bus after stage five in Pau.

Similarly, UAE Team Emirates-XRG have been sleeping each night in ‘smart mattress cover systems’, which measure the riders’ body temperatures and cool the bed accordingly. And yet, Tadej Pogačar still complained of a “full headache” from the heat at the start of stage four.

Lewis Askey, one of NSN Pro Cycling’s key leadout men for Biniam Girmay, is one of those that tends to struggle in high temperatures. “I’m a lot better now than when I was younger, but I’ve had really, really bad days in the heat in the past. It’s like my body switches off a little bit,” he tells Cycling Weekly.

To help riders mitigate the heat, the UCI has allowed extra bottle hand-outs at the race. How many is Askey taking on during the stages? “It depends if you’re counting actually drank or chucked over my head,” he says. “I’d probably say two or three an hour, and then a couple [over my head] every hour or so, and ice socks.”

Other riders, like Decathlon CMA CGM’s Matthew Riccitello, are more used to the conditions. Standing unsheltered in 36°C heat at the start of stage five in Lannemezan, he waves off his team press officer when offered an ice vest. “It’s not fun for anybody to ride in this heat,” he says, but the American's from Tucson, Arizona, where it’s not abnormal to see temperatures tick into the forties.

“So far, I’ve coped with it quite well,” Riccitello says. “I think just being from somewhere that is quite hot, I maybe adapt better. I don’t know. There’s only so much you can do.”

And there, in that last sentence, lies the crux of the issue: the Tour de France is powerless to Mother Nature.

If temperatures continue to rise, as climate experts forecast they will, the race could become less a show of sporting brilliance, and more a test of whoever melts the slowest. Let’s just hope there are enough fire brigade floats to cool everyone down.

Stage five of the Tour de France was primed for Tim Merlier and Soudal Quick-Step. Long, straight roads with few roundabouts and sharp bends lent itself perfectly to the Belgian team’s leadout train.

But then with 5.6km to go on the 2026 edition’s first sprint stage in Pau, the peloton split in two. A crash in the middle of the bunch brought down multiple riders, including half of Merlier’s eight-man team. The two principal actors in his sprint train – Jasper Stuyven and Bert van Lerberghe – were among those affected. Stuyven tore half of his skinsuit, and grazed most of his left leg and elbow.

Tom Steels, Soudal Quick-Step’s lead sports director at the race, knew immediately it would have negative consequences for Merlier’s chances. “That last corner to the right was a bit of a disaster,” Steels sighed. “The team were together, they crashed, and we lost most of the team.”

It meant Merlier had to go it alone. He produced a valiant effort, riding to third behind stage winner Olav Kooij of Decathlon CMA CGM, but Merlier didn’t see the positives.

“I don’t like to be third – I want to win. And even more in the Tour,” the 33-year-old told Cycling Weekly after the stage. “I’m looking forward to the next opportunities but every chance that is gone, is gone. I’m disappointed.”

Merlier, to many people the best sprinter in the game right now, was honest that the absence of Stuyven and Van Lerberghe in the finale hindered him. “It was a big shame that I missed these two strong guys to bring me into a good position towards the 5km point,” he said.

“I tried to gamble a little bit but in the Tour you can’t gamble – you need to get into position. I gave it a try, tried to hang onto some other lead-out trains, but I don’t like that. I prefer to do my own thing [with my team-mates].”

Under the flamme rouge, Merlier was quite far back in what was a vastly-reduced lead group, before finding a gap on the left of the road to power through to third. Kooij finished comfortably ahead of him, though. There wasn't really a contest.

“There were three or four mistakes too many from myself and that’s definitely why I lost too much speed,” Merlier critiqued himself. “Why I didn’t win the stage is because I lost too much energy trying to get myself back into a good position.”

Steels shared Merlier’s frustration, believing that with a leadout train he would have been victorious. “For sure, I have no doubt about it,” Steels said. “He had to do that last part all alone. The way he did it was perfect but he just lost a little bit of momentum in the last 300m.

“If you have two guys in front of you, you don’t have to think – you just have to follow. He jumped from wheel to wheel which takes a lot of power away. If he goes directly to the left he probably gets more speed but that’s a split second decision he had to make.”

Nonetheless, Quick-Step can take heart from Merlier’s performance. A knee injury hampered his spring campaign, but he has shown signs of the form he had last year when he won 16 races. A stage win at the Tour of Belgium, and three at the Tour of Hungary, indicated that he will be a contender on the Tour’s sprint days. Friday in Bordeaux is his next chance.

“This was exceptional circumstances," Steels said. "If you lose your whole team that’s in front of you and you have to do the last 5km alone surfing when you’re not a windsurfer, [it’s difficult]. But he looked for solutions and he did an excellent sprint that only a few sprinters in the world can do.

“It’s a pity because he had the legs, but onto the next one. He doesn’t have to doubt his condition or speed, that’s for sure.”

Merlier was reminded that in the pre-race press conference in Barcelona last week he struck a cautious note, refusing to big up his own chances. It’s clear from stage five, however, that if Merlier can count on his teammates he will be in contention plenty more times.

“I prefer to not look so confident but then do it with my legs rather than my words,” he said. “That’s the way I like it. That’s Tim Merlier.”

Torstein Træen completed his first day in the Tour de France yellow jersey on Wednesday's fifth stage, although it wasn't without incident – and tomorrow offers its own challenges too.

The peloton tackles its first hors-catégorie mountain on stage six in the form of the Col du Tourmalet, which itself is sandwiched in-between the cat-one Col d'Aspin and the cat-two finishing climb to Gavarnie-Gèdre.

In theory, his 7:53 lead over Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), should enable Træen to hold on to the yellow jersey. But, speaking looking ahead to it on Wednesday evening, he said "Tadej is Tadej" and nothing was guaranteed.

"We have to see how fast they're going. And of course, Tadej is Tadej, and I think if he goes full gas on the Tourmalet, maybe I will be behind. You don't know how much you will be losing. We've just got to see tomorrow."

The high temperatures, which cooled mid-week to a balmy 31deg C (88F) on stage five, are due to pick up again, which made things even less predictable, he said.

"We haven't had a lot of real mountain climbing yet," he added. "So we don't know what will happen, and then with this heat everything can happen, so you just have to hope and do your best."

The 30-year-old, who is a former Tour de Suisse stage winner and wore the leader's jersey at the Vuelta a España last year, came off his bike at one point on stage five in an incident he said he didn't know much about. "Suddenly I was on the ground," he said, adding that he was quickly paced back to the bunch and suffered "only a small cut on my knee".

How did he enjoy his first ever day in yellow, he was asked. "Yeah, quite nice," came the understated reply. "All the boys said I looked really well, really well. So, yeah, it was nice to have compliments from the boys.

"When you get cancer, you don't know what will happen," he added, referencing his 2022 testicular cancer diagnosis (which was successfully treated), "and I'm obviously quite happy to be back at a good level and leading the biggest race of the world."

Olav Kooij took a dramatic win on stage five of the 2026 Tour de France, after multiple riders crashed just outside 5km to go.

The Decathlon CMA CGM rider won on his first opportunity on his debut Tour, as Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) and Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) took second and third respectively.

The first bunch sprint was always likely to be chaotic, but it was a relatively calm day for the majority of the stage, with just one rider, Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto Intermarché) escaping.

However, that changed in the final kilometres, after a crash split the bunch with 5.3km to go, with seven riders caught up in the carnage: Victor Campenaerts (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon), Michael Matthews (Team Jayco AlUla) and Stefano Oldani, Abel Balderstone and Alex Molenaar (all from Caja Rural - Seguros RGA).

Amid the mayhem that ensued after the crash, it looked for a moment like there might have been a time gap between Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), but both were recorded as coming in 14 seconds after the winner, and yellow jersey holder Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) was in the same group, so ultimately there were no major positions shuffles in the GC – in fact, the first 16 spots remain unchanged from yesterday.

Olav Kooij, 24, only joined Decathlon CMA CGM earlier this year, this is his first time at the Tour. He was injured or ill for the first half of this season, which meant he didn't race until end of May and had to really fight for selection.

"After a couple of hard days already, I had to wait to this day to get this first chance to sprint in the Tour, and to immediately win is unbelievable," said Kooij in his post-race interview.

"I think it means quite a lot, just in general, after a pretty tough spring, to get back to this level, to keep believing in yourself and just a few people who believe in you as well is all you need. To be here with the support of the team today was all I could ask for and they did a great job.

"I think it was quite an easy day until the final, so you know it will be hectic. The first sprint of the Tour, everyone is still really eager. I just managed to find my way a bit on my own in the end, but I found the right wheel, and I just wanted to have a chance to sprint today. When I saw the line I just went as hard as I could.

"We’ll enjoy this. There are many more days left in this Tour and we will just keep going and try to do our best every day, but for sure we’ll enjoy this one. We need to get there, day by day."

Riders endured another horrendously hot day in the saddle today, racing through an official extreme weather warning as the temperature in the shade pushed past 37°C, although for most part the peloton treated the undulating stage as something of a rolling rest day.  

One rider who buried himself was Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto Intermarché), who embarked on a solo breakaway very early on, and cut a lonely figure cycling along sun-blasted roads through the field-fringed rural landscape of the Hautes-Pyrénées – staying just ahead of the pack until 14km before the finish line at Pau.

In doing so Veistroffer bagged 25 points for the intermediate sprint (followed by Max Kanter from XDS Astana Team and Lidl – Trek’s Mads Pedersen, who was wearing the green jersey as the leader in the points classification). Under the new system, designed to benefit sprinters in the green jersey contest, 70 points were on offer today.

The route only featured one classified climb, Côte de Baleix, a 1km-long haul with an average gradient of 8.8% (max 10.7%), which Veistroffer was first to crest, earning himself another two points in the KOM competition and getting 3 seconds shaved off his time.

Shortly after the climb, British champion Fred Wright from Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling had a brief flurry in a small three-rider group ahead of the peloton with Kasper Asgreen (EF Education - EasyPost) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), but it came to nought.

And with 14km to go, after riding on his own for over 130km, the peloton loomed behind Veistroffer, and the tenacious Frenchman was caught, having certainly seized the title of most combative rider of the day.  

Pau has featured an incredible 96 times on the route of the Tour de France, and hosted 77 finishes, with today’s scenes being right up there with the most dramatic.  

Results

Stage 5, Lannemezan > Pau, 158.3km

1. Olav Kooij (Ned) Decathlon CMA CGM, in 3:29:07
2. Max Kanter (Ger) XDS Astana
3. Tim Merlier (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
4. Huub Artz (Ned) Lotto Intermarché
5. Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech
6. Biniam Girmay (Eri) NSN Cycling
7. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek
8. Milan Fretin (Bel) Cofidis
9. Anthony Turgis (Fra) TotalEnergies
10. Søren Wærenskjold (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, all at same time

Tour de France 2026 general classification after stage five

1. Torstein Træen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, in 16:32:07
2. Sean Quinn (USA) EF Education-EasyPost, +28s
3. Mathias Vaceck (Cze) Lidl-Trek, +3:50
4. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in +7:53
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time
6. Ramses Debruyne (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech, +8:06
7. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +8:16
8. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +8:17
9. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +8:20
10. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +8:41

The 2026 Tour de France started on Saturday 4 July, with 184 riders grouped into 23 teams setting off from Barcelona to contest the greatest bike race on the globe. Over the next three weeks, these riders will race along a route that’s 3,320km (2,063.4 miles) long, tackling almost 50,000 metres of ascent in the process.

But not everyone will make it to the streets of Paris to ride around the Montmartre circuit.

We might not have seen the almost Hunger Games-rate of attrition that was on show at the Giro d’Italia this year, but there haven’t been any massive crashes so far - beyond bingles during the team time trial, and a stack on stage three that left Visma-Lease a Bike domestique Bruno Armirail with an injured knee and affected Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Netcompany-Ineos riders Tobias Foss, Thymen Arensman, and Michał Kwiatkowski.

But as the Tour goes on, and the mercury keeps creeping north in the south of France – to the point where spectators were told to stay away from certain sections due to the strain being placed on emergency services dealing with wildfires – some riders are beginning to fail and bail, before they can be caught by the broomwagon.

Clément Berthet from Groupama-FDJ United was the first to fall, with the climber failing to start stage two, withdrawing from the race after sustaining an injury in a crash with teammate Guillaume Martin halfway through the 19.6km time trial on day one.

Lotto-Intermarché’s Arnaud De Lie was the next to throw the towel in. While young Mexican sensation Isaac del Toro nailed a near-perfect ride to take victory on stage two, De Lie visibly struggled with illness throughout the day and finished last. As the route passed from Spain into France on long-and-lumpy stage three, amid a heatwave, it was no surprise to see the 24-year-old Belgian sprinter withdrawing from the race, although he soldiered on to within 10km of the finish line.

On stage four, when Mads Pedersen from Lidl-Trek sprinted to victory and fellow Scandinavian Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) grabbed the yellow jersey, Kelland O'Brien from Jayco AlUla was unable to cope with the heat, and crossed the line a few minutes after the imposed cut-off, meaning he is out of the race.

• How to watch stage five of the 2026 Tour de France
• Who is currently leading the 2026 Tour de France?

Riders who have abandoned the 2026 Tour de France

• Clément Berthet (Groupama-FDJ United) – DNS stage 2 after crashing on stage 1
• Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) – Abandoned during stage 3 with illness
• Kelland O'Brien (Jayco AlUla) – Missed cut-off on stage 4

Peter Sagan, who for almost a decade was resplendent in green every July, has said that his record of winning seven Tour de France points jerseys will be broken at some point.

In 2019, Slovakian Sagan beat Erik Zabel’s total of six green jerseys, a figure that many thought was unlikely to ever be bettered. Staying at the top for so many years, and avoiding illnesses, crashes and other episodes of misfortune, is no mean feat.

Since Sagan claimed his seventh and final points jersey, six other riders have won the points classification. Other than Sagan and Zabel, no one has defended the jersey since Uzbek Djamolidine Abdoujaparov in 1995. That’s proof that winning more than one green jersey is a difficult task.

But speaking to Cycling Weekly and The Athletic just before the current Tour de France, Sagan, 36, said he was sure that one day a rider would come along and win eight points jerseys.

“I had my records: seven green jerseys and three World Championships in a row, but I won’t have them forever,” he said. “Even Mark Cavendish won’t [have his record].

“He was fighting a lot to win 35 stages of the Tour de France and he beat Eddy Merckx’s record [in 2024], but in the future somebody is going to beat it. That’s life.” Tadej Pogačar, counting 22 Tour stage wins, is certainly a contender to better Cavendish’s record.

Sagan was racing in the era of Cavendish, Marcel Kittel André Greipel, yet every year he went to the Tour and denied the fast men the jersey that is nominally awarded to the best sprinter.

He made it look so routine – but it wasn’t always a walk in the park. “Every green jersey was different,” Sagan said. “Some of them I won very easily because the stages were good for me and I took a lot of points with second and third places, as well as in the intermediate sprints.

“But some years I went for the green jersey and didn’t win a stage. I was second, third, fifth a lot.”

Was that frustrating? “No, because I was focusing on the green jersey. I said it was OK because I had a good advantage. I wasn’t a pure sprinter but I held my own on the climbs and breakaways.

“In my first Tour I won three stages and the green jersey and I expected that from myself every year afterwards, but it was hard to win because every Tour was difficult.

“Sometimes I won stages but crashed and it was hard to finish the race and to take the green jersey. Other times I won one stage but it was also hard because there were three different riders in the battle for green so it was hard to control the breakaway to ensure that nobody was in there for the intermediate sprints.

“It was after I won my fourth green jersey that I said I wanted to go for the record. But it was never easy.

“If somebody asks me now who will win the Tour de France this year, I say Pogačar, but who knows how the first 10 days will go. Who knows if he’ll have bad luck or get sick. Three weeks is a long time and every Tour is different.”

Where green will land in Paris at the end of this July is a matter of debate. Mads Pedersen, winner of stage four, is the current occupant.

In an attempt to reduce the prospect of Pogačar winning the points classification – he was second last year – ASO, the Tour organisers, have upped the number of points gained in a sprint stage from 50 to 70.

“They’ve done well because it means a pure sprinter can win it,” Sagan said of the rule change, “but it’s going to be harder for riders like me and Michael Matthews [winner in 2017 after Sagan was excluded].”

Sagan raced his last Tour in 2023, but didn’t retire until the following summer, when he competed for a small Continental team Pierre Baguette on the road and mountain bike.

In early 2024, he experienced arrhythmia inflammation in which his heart rate exceeded 200 beats per minute. He underwent two surgeries to correct the issue.

“It was OK because I was not dying but it was scary what was happening,” he said. “Even the doctors couldn’t see anything when I was doing efforts. It was only after they put a controller under my skin when I continued to ride my mountain bike could they see that I had this arrhythmia.

“After they found it, performed a procedure, and everything was good. It disappeared.”

Since his retirement, Sagan has focused on his various sponsorship roles – he recently launched his own non-alcoholic beer – and even appeared on Let’s Dance, Slovakia’s version of Strictly Come Dancing.

He’s still cycling regularly – albeit a mountain bike rather than a road bike – but doesn’t foresee a return to the sport

“I don’t see myself [as a sports director or manager],” he said. “For now I don’t want to do this because I like what I’m doing now.”

All but one Women's WorldTour team will be present at the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women this summer, British Cycling announced on Tuesday.

Defending champions FDJ United-Suez will be among the 19 teams, including 13 Women's WorldTour squads, to take part in the biggest women's bike race in the UK, and the only British WorldTour event.

There will also be five Women's Continental teams present, including all four British outfits, after fears that these squads would be blocked from taking part in the Tour of Britain after UCI rule changes. The Great Britain Cycling Team will also take part.

The race will take place over five stages from 19-23 August, with a route that heads south from Cockermouth to Royal Leamington Spa.

Nine out of the world’s top 10 teams will be at the race, including Movistar, the squad of Cat Ferguson, two-time overall winners Lidl-Trek, and Canyon-SRAM, home of national champion Zoe Bäckstedt.

Last year, Ferguson was pipped on the final day by FDJ United-Suez rider Ally Wollaston. SD Worx-Protime are also on the start list, the most successful team in the race's history, with 15 stage wins and three overall victories. The only WorldTour team not present will be EF Education-Oatly.

"We are thrilled to announce this year's Lloyds Tour of Britain Women team line-up, which brings together an exciting mix of elite teams and ambitious development squads," Alice Wood, the race's director and former British champion, said. "The strength of the teams announced today promises highly competitive racing from the start in Cockermouth to the finish in Royal Leamington Spa.

"The distinguished reputation of the Tour continues to attract the very best riders in the world. I have no doubt these teams will produce some iconic racing, that will undoubtedly inspire the future generations of cyclists in this country and the communities they will be battling for the crown through.

"We are looking forward to welcoming the teams to what we know will be a fantastic edition of the Tour, building upon an extremely successful edition last year and showcasing both the best of Britain and the best of cycling."

"The Lloyds Tour of Britain Women is a huge highlight for us," Bob Lyons, the manager of Handsling Alba Development RT, said. "It is our only WorldTour race on home soil and a unique chance for our sponsors, supporters and anyone taking an interest in the team to see us race in person.

"With a route running from Cumbria down to Warwickshire and a proper climb on the Great Orme, it's a great test for the riders in a talented field. The five stages will provide exactly the kind of experience and exposure our team needs to continue to pioneer athlete development to elevate riders to the Women’s WorldTour."

Tour of Britain Women 2026 Teams

• AG Insurance-Soudal (Belgium)
• Canyon-SRAM (Germany)
• DAS-Hutchinson (Great Britain)
• FDJ United-Suez (France)
• Fenix-Premier Tech (Belgium)
• Handsling Alba Development Road Team (Great Britain)
• Hitec Products – Fluid Control (Norway)
• Human Powered Health (USA)
• Lidl-Trek (Germany)
• Liv AlUla Jayco (Australia)
• Movistar (Spain)
• O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes (Great Britain)
• Picnic PostNL (Netherlands)
• SD Worx-Protime (Netherlands)
• Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team (Great Britain)
• Visma-Lease a Bike (Netherlands)
• UAE Team ADQ (UAE)
• Uno-X Mobility (Norway)

As new Tour de France GC leader Torstein Træen is already finding out, being the wearer of the yellow jersey in the Tour de France is at once the most privileged and the most onerous job in cycling. But when your name is Tadej Pogačar that pressure is doubled.

No wonder he seemed perfectly happy to have handed it over on stage four. He'll pass the next few days, maybe more, in comparative anonymity – or as close to that as Tadej Pogačar wearing the rainbow bands can ever come in the Tour de France – while Træen fields the various podium and press conference duties required of the yellow jersey.

Also ahead of Pogačar are Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) and Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), who are at 28sec and 3:50 to Træn, while Pogačar is languishing at full 7:53 in arrears. The stage, from Carcassonne to Foix, was won by Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).

That isn't to say the maillot jaune will be forgotten about by Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG, far from it. Following stage four, he spoke to journalists as he warmed-down on a trainer in the still-broiling shade behind the UAE bus in Foix.

"I mean, obviously the goal is to take back the yellow jersey," he said. "But yeah, you never know. They are really good, and it's quite a big gap, so we will see. Now we will fight, but yeah, I think they can keep the yellow jersey for a long time."

With the mercury soaring to 39deg C (102F) along the course, according to Cycling Weekly's overworked car, cooling protocols in the peloton were at the forefront of every team's strategies. Race regulations were also amended to allow more water bottles to be handed up at feed zones.

Pogačar was affected just as much as anyone else, saying: "When we started, I had a full headache, and I was thinking this is gonna be one long day," he said. "But then we kept showering each other with the water, and all was good."

Exactly how much performance benefit there was in being able to skip duties such as press conferences and podium duties was hard to measure, Pogačar said, adding: "But some days there is probably a lot of stress with media, and some days it's easy to do. It just depends on the day, and it's hard to tell.

"Today will be one-and-a-half hours less obligations, so it definitely helps with recovery," he added. "But I think now I'm pretty used to doing all the podium stuff, and we've got good protocol, and I have good help around me, good people that help me to stay cool and calm, and yeah, to recover as best as possible, even when we have to do the podium."

Pogačar also had a word of praise for the Lidl-Trek team, saying that if a team of their calibre went in the breakaway, then it would likely succeed.

They did a "super-good job", he said, but praised the efforts of his own team too. "We kept it cool, calm, and we arrived at the finish, I think, not spending a crazy amount of energy, obviously. I think Nils [Politt], Florian [Vermeersch] and Tim [Wellens] were super good today, dividing the work," he said.

The next week or so looks like friendly territory for a rider looking to hang on to yellow for a while. Assuming Træen survives the big mountains of stage six, which crosses the cols d'Aspin and Tourmalet, with an uphill finish at Gavarnie-Gèdre, and the hard and mountainous stage 10 to Le Lorian, he could certainly keep it till stage 14 – a 10-day tenure. That's when the big mountains of the final week kick in, starting with a finish at Le Markstein.

And at the end of that, Træen may well feel more than happy to hand back those media and podium duties – perhaps to Pogačar, but not necessarily – and with it the yellow jersey.

When Uno-X Mobility were awarded a Tour de France wildcard for the 2023 edition, the news was greeted with shock and joy. Jens Haugland, the team’s then manager, said he “just started screaming” when he found out. He then made a vow: “We’re not going to be defensive – we’re going to be very positive and attacking in our racing.”

Four years on, the Norwegian team (with a few Danish riders along for the ride) have not only come good on Haugland's words, but fully established themselves as Tour de France regulars, and winners.

The first year was all about being seen, and the team did that, recording 11 top-10s. Invited back again in 2024, Jonas Abrahamsen went in more breakaways than gruppettos, before the same man returned 12 months later and pulled off a gutsy stage win just four weeks after breaking his collarbone.

Now the team in red has swapped its colours for yellow.

On stage four of the 2026 Tour, Torstein Træen, cancer survivor and leader of last year’s Vuelta a España for four days, was one of 34 riders to go up the road in the first big breakaway of the race. The group was whittled down to 11 towards the finale and with Lidl-Trek counting three riders in it, it was inevitable that Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen would win the sprint finish.

Træen and American Sean Quinn of EF Education-EasyPost were the only riders in with a chance of taking the race lead off Tadej Pogačar, who was happy to hand it over. Træen was five minutes and six seconds adrift of the defending champion, and Quinn was 28 seconds further back. The gap between them and the peloton was around three minutes for most of the stage, but then in the final 80km it stretched further and further out. Træen had time to prepare for the biggest moment of his life: he would be in yellow, the leader of the Tour de France.

“What can I say? I’m always happy to perform at the Tour, the biggest race in the world, and most of all I’m grateful that the team selected me,” he said, resplendent in the world’s most coveted cycling jersey.

In the previous two seasons, Træen raced for Bahrain-Victorious, leaving the team that had developed him. He did well at Bahrain – that Vuelta lead, of course, plus a stage win at the Tour de Suisse – but the grass isn’t always greener. Træen feels at home at Uno-X and recognised that they are now deserved Tour de France regulars.

They received wildcards for the past three years, but now they’re automatically invited as one of the 18 WorldTour teams after being promoted from the second division. Far more established teams like Groupama-FDJ United, Movistar and Picnic PostNL have done less than Uno-X in the Tour since 2023. Often much less. Their participation is no fluke.

“To be honest, it’s the same team as before – the people are the same, and how everyone is working is the same,” Træen said.

“I knew how they were working, and with Thor Hushovd coming in [as team manager in 2024] it was really exciting. They are all still my friends and I still spoke to them even when I wasn’t on the team. It was always a dream to come back and be with them, and, [after] seeing how they were performing last Tour, it’s just a pleasure to be here.”

Hushovd, who was the first Norwegian to lead the Tour de France all the way back in 2004, summarised the scale of the achievement for a team that imposes its own self-limitations all in the name of developing homegrown talent.

“It’s a big moment for us,” said Hushovd, the 2010 world champion. “We have a different project to others. We are a Scandinavian team with a Scandinavian identity, with riders only from Norway and Denmark.

“It makes the road more complicated because we cannot pick and choose riders from different countries, and we also have less budget, but if you do a good job and do things properly, then we stand here today and lead the Tour de France.”

Given the parcours in the forthcoming week, coupled with Træen’s 7:53 advantage to Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, it’s very feasible that the Norwegian will be in yellow for quite a while – possibly until the final week, when the Vosges mountains are followed by a lumpy time trial and then the Alps. Træen could lead the race for more days than anyone else in this Tour.

Meanwhile his teammate Tobias Halland Johannessen will likely be accompanying him in the GC top-10, as the Uno-X aim for another high placing. “He was sixth last year and we will try to do better this year,” Hushovd said. “We think we’re in a good position and leading the Tour de France gives more motivation to the group.”

A lot of teams handed wildcard entries to the world’s biggest bike race don’t do much beyond appearing in breakaways. There’s nothing wrong with that – they have smaller squads and smaller budgets compared to the heavyweights, and a doomed day out front is often the best way of ensuring visibility.

But just like they have done in a number of areas, Uno-X have done things differently. They used their debut Tour in 2023 as a stepping stone to greater things. Træen gaining yellow in 40-degree heat in Foix further cemented their reputation as Tour mainstays.

“Leading the Tour de France is already a success,” Hushovd added, “but we know we want much more.”

Twenty eight seconds. That’s all that separated Sean Quinn from taking the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on stage three. It’s the time it might take him to put on a pair of cycling shoes, do a few pre-race stretches, or make a recovery shake. On Tuesday in Foix, it felt like an eternity.

The former US national road champion was part of a 34-man breakaway that formed out of Carcassonne. The second best placed in GC among the escapees, he began the day more than five and a half minutes behind the race leader Tadej Pogačar, and gained almost 13 minutes at the line with seventh place.

The result catapulted him up the standings. But only to second overall. The yellow jersey went instead to Uno-X’s Torstein Traæn, the breakaway’s highest GC contender by 28 seconds, who Quinn couldn’t shake off in the blazing heat of the Pyrenees. Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen took stage honours.

“I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get yellow, didn’t win the stage,” Quinn told Cycling Weekly, a resigned tone in his voice, as he stood in the shade of his EF Education-EasyPost bus. “But [Lidl-]Trek was super-strong today, and so was Torstein [Træen]. Maybe in a few days’ time we’ll see how the race develops.”

Not since Greg Lemond in 1991 has an American worn the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. (Yes, Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, David Zabriskie and George Hincapie have led the race since, but their results were later scratched off for using performance-enhancing drugs).

In the years since, Neilson Powless has come the closest – within four seconds after stage six in 2022. However, the wait for a star-spangled Tour leader now extends to three and a half decades.

Tom Southam, one of EF Education-EasyPost’s sports directors, hatched a plan to try and change that on Monday evening. “We thought it was possible today,” he said. “Andreas [Klier, sports director] and I spoke about it last night, and then we spoke about it all together with Charly [Wegelius, sports director] this morning.

“It wasn’t like we all sat on the bus and said, ‘Right, we’re going to go and take the yellow jersey.’ But we knew in the back of our minds that only a certain group of riders can be strong enough to go into the break, and [Quinn] was one of the best placed of that group who could manage to do it.

“We had in mind that the yellow jersey is always special – to take it is almost rarer than winning a stage.”

Over the last few editions of the race, EF have proved themselves capable of masterminding a stint in the race lead. They're one of only a handful of teams that have pierced through the dominance of UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike, who seem to swap the yellow jersey like twins sharing clothes.

Still, EF's Ben Healy snatched it for two days last year, Richard Carapaz for one in 2024. Might Quinn be the team's next Tour star? In the former American champion, the sports directors saw a rider brave enough to take it on.

“He gave it a good crack,” Southam said. “Especially with the heat, it was more about trying to find a way to crack Torstein Traæen, which isn’t easy; he is where he is on GC because he’s already ridden faster than Sean so far. He’s a good cyclist, he can climb well.”

And so, following Quinn closely across the line, the yellow jersey dream went to Traæn.

The reality was disheartening for the American. “I think, as a pro athlete, you’re usually going to have the mindset of what you could have done differently,” he said.

“Being second feels pretty much the same as being 56th, or whatever I was yesterday [26th – ed]. It doesn't change your life. I'm still the same guy.”

It might not have been what Quinn came for, but being second at the Tour is still something very few cyclists will ever get to say. “He’s a great kid,” said Southam, “a nice guy to have around. I hope for some big success for him.”

In the end, it looked quite easy for Mads Pedersen as he sprinted clear to victory on stage four of the 2026 Tour de France in Foix. However, it was anything but easy, on a day where temperatures headed towards 40°C.

The Lidl-Trek rider was multiple bike lengths clear at the end on Tuesday, but it came after a brutal day of racing in the south of France, with the win coming from a gigantic breakaway.

Pedersen's team controlled the escape perfectly, with Quinn Simmons and Mathias Vacek putting their all in to deliver their Dane to victory. There was also delight for another Nordic rider in the break, as Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) took enough time to step into the yellow jersey, as the peloton rolled in minutes behind.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is now in fourth overall, 7:53 behind Træen, just ahead of Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), another rider who spent the day in the break.

There were repeated attacks in the final two hours of racing, as those in the day's escape sought to shake things up and prevent Pedersen from being there at the finish, knowing the Dane's speed. However, Lidl-Trek were attentive to all moves, shutting down attempted attacks, particularly from the Movistar pair of Pablo Castrillo and Raul García Pierna, which led Pedersen to the perfect position to power to the win.

Notably, this was the Dane's first win of the season, coming months after he crashed and broke his collarbone and left wrist.

"I would say this was a masterpiece in teamwork," he said post-race on TV. "Maybe not climbing, I was suffering a lot on the last climb, but with Quinn and Vacek there it was a great day. They did incredible on the climbs to pace it well for me, and make sure we didn't lose too much time over the top. They were machines from there to the finish line. What a team effort and what a team win today.

"I had a good talk with Luca our team manager [the outgoing Luca Guercilena] before the race, and he said please win me a stage, please do it early in the race, and he said this would be a good one for me. I would say this stage is for Luca and all the good years we had together. I'm really thankful for everything he has done for me. And also to point out that he gave me a lot of pressure to win today."

"At one point you have to live with it and do what you can today," he added on the weather. "And honestly, to be in a breakaway with a car that's there all the time it makes it easier to cool down and again when we're talking about team efforts, it's not just about those on the bike. We have so many on the road with water and ice as well to cool down. We went through a few bottles today to cool down, but it helps to have a good team."

Asked about his green jersey chances, Pedersen said: "It would have been lovely to beat Girmay and Jasper in the intermediate sprint, but at least I'm picking up 50 points on the finish line here. It's a really good day for us."

After Monday's stage three saw the break's dream's ended by UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Pogačar, there was an enormous fight to get into the day's big move, which went almost from the gun.

34 riders made it in the end, which was pegged at around three minutes for a while, before their advantage ballooned out. There were only five teams who didn't make it in the selection: UAE, Visma-Lease a Bike, Decathlon CMA CGM, XDS Astana, and Tudor Pro Cycling.

The lucky 34 were: Nico Denz and Jan Tratnik (both Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe); Mads Pedersen, Mathias Vacek, Quinn Simmons (all Lidl-Trek), Sean Quinn, Michael Valgren and Georg Steinhauser (all EF Education-EasyPost); Robert Stannard and Vlad Van Mechelen (both Bahrain Victorious); Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany-Ineos); Pascal Eenkhorn and Jasper Stuyven (both Soudal Quick-Step); Ramses Debruyne, Edward Planckaert and Jasper Philipsen (all Alpecin-Premier Tech); Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla); Torsten Træen (Uno-X Mobility); Biniam Girmay and Marco Frigo (both NSN Cycling); Pablo Castrillo, Raul García Pierna and Nelson Oliveira (all Movistar); Georg Zimmerman (Lotto-Intermarché); Ion Izagirre and Alex Kirsch (both Cofidis); Quentin Hermans and Brent Van Moer (both Q36.5 Pinarello); Romain Grégoire and Ewan Costiou (both Groupama-FDJ United); Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies); Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL); and Alex Molenaar and Joel Nicolau (both Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

After the intermediate sprint, which was won by Girmay, he and Philipsen dropped back. It then took until 83km for the breakaway to properly split up, with Tratnik heading up the road with Vacek, and they were joined later by Kirsch. Their efforts lasted around 40km until they were finally collected by what remained of the break on the Col de Motségur.

Further on the climb, around 11 or 12 riders were left in the group at the front, as Simmons pushed on. Attacks kept coming, particularly from the Movistar duo of Castrillo and García Pierna. They were trying to break the bunch, in order to distance Pedersen.

Over the top, Debruyne, Træen, Frigo and the Movistar duo escaped, but they were closely followed by the Lidl-Trek trio, Quinn, and Vauquelin. The yellow jersey at this point looked like it would be heading the way of USA’s Quinn.

10 riders were together with 24km to go: Pedersen, Simmons, Vacek, Quinn, Vauquelin, Debruyne, Træen, Frigo, Castrillo and García Pierna. At this point, the peloton were over 10 minutes in arrears, while those dropped from the front were at around 48 seconds.

There were late nerves for Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) after a puncture, but the British rider was able to make it back into the peloton.

The attacks started coming again with 9km to go, as García Pierna made a dig, with Simmons in hot pursuit. However, nothing stuck, and Lidl-Trek were able to deliver Pedersen to victory.

Results

Tour de France 2026 stage four: Carcassonne > Foix (181.9km)

1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, in 4:10:45
2. Quinn Simmons (USA) Lidl-Trek
3. Raúl García Pierna (Esp) Movistar
4. Marco Frigo (Ita) NSN Cycling
5. Ramses Debruyne (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech
6. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Netcompany-Ineos
7. Sean Quinn (USA) EF Education-EasyPost
8. Torstein Træen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
9. Pablo Castrillo (Esp) Movistar
10. Mathias Vaceck (Cze) Lidl-Trek, all at same time

General classification after stage four

1. Torstein Træen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, in 13:02:46
2. Sean Quinn (USA) EF Education-EasyPost, +28s
3. Mathias Vaceck (Cze) Lidl-Trek, +3:50
4. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in +7:53
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time
6. Ramses Debruyne (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech, +8:06
7. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +8:16
8. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +8:17
9. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +8:20
10. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +8:41

How many Tour de France stages do you think Tadej Pogačar will win this edition? Before this year, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had won 21 times across six races, so an average of 3.5 stages per race, or a win every six days, if you prefer that metric. For context, Marcel Kittel won 14 stages in six Tours, 2.3 a race, or a win every seven days, in total. Kittel was a dominant sprinter, while Pogačar is a general classification rider.

After three stages of the 2026 Tour de France, Pogačar has already won a 22nd stage, putting him just 13 behind the record held by Mark Cavendish. Feasibly, the Slovenian could win another five stages; even when he finished second at the 2023 race, he won two. That doesn’t leave many opportunities for other teams.

Stage two was won by his teammate, Isaac del Toro, while stage one’s team time trial was won by Visma-Lease a Bike. There are now 18 more days for teams to make an impact; if we imagine that at least a few of the days in the big mountains are destined for GC riders, and there will be a handful of days which end in bunch sprints, then it doesn’t leave a lot for everyone else.

Spare a thought for the 18 riders who fought hard to make the breakaway on stage three. Given their size, how early it was in the race, and how there were unlikely to be huge gaps at the finish line, they would have all been hoping that they would have some leeway to compete for the stage win. Getting in a break is not something that happens by accident, but after a lot of effort, positioning, and skill, so for it all to be for nothing must have been dispiriting.

UAE did not need to pull them back on Monday; the race was not on the line, there is lots of road to win the yellow jersey on. As soon as Tuesday morning, there was speculation that Pogačar might be looking to give the jersey back away, so they don’t have to control the race for basically three weeks. Therefore, stage three was just a show of strength, a point proven, the Slovenian and his team showing that they can do what they want.

The Tour’s organisers, ASO, probably loved the opening stages, the big names in the distinctive jerseys, a GC battle which, for now, has the illusion of being close, due to there not being incredibly selective climbs. For the casual fan, I suppose it’s nice to see the big names doing it all.

However, I long for some novelty, for not complete domination, for teams not called UAE, or Visma to a lesser extent, to dictate the race, and to allow other story lines to grow. Perhaps this will happen on stage four, and there are still a lot of stages left, I just fear another Tour de Pog. At least wait until the Vosges, please. By the way, I think Pogačar has four more stages in him this year; any advance?

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

The UCI has changed its rules on feeding in races due to the extreme heat at the Tour de France.

In a press release on Tuesday morning ahead of stage four, cycling's governing body said that feeding bags or musettes will now be allowed in feed zones initially designated just for bottles.

More bottles will be allowed to be handed out in musettes, essentially, due to the ruling.

Earlier this week, fans were told not to attend the final 44km of stage three due to a wildfire that is raging in the eastern Pyrenees – and the race organisers have not ruled out a stage cancellation or additional amendments to the route.

On Tuesday, stage three's finish in Les Angles was notably empty, and temperatures are expected to reach 37°C in Foix for stage four's finish. The French government has given out permissions to local areas to cancel Tour stages if a Code Red weather alert is raised.

The Tour has given advice to fans on how they can protect themselves in the extreme weather: "Before the riders pass by, during the stage, and after the finish: seek shade as soon as possible, wear a cap or hat, and drink water regularly, even if you don’t feel thirsty."

The UCI press release reads: "The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in agreement with the President of the Commissaires' Panel, who holds sporting authority over the event, and the organiser, who bears organisational responsibility for its running, has decided to soften the provisions governing rider feeding in light of the extreme heat forecast over the coming stages of the Tour de France.

"In this regard, it has been decided to exceptionally authorise the use of feeding bags in zones initially defined for the provision of bottles only (‘water bottle zones) located within listed climbs. This measure is intended to facilitate the simultaneous distribution of multiple bottles to each rider, so as to ensure optimal hydration in the forecast weather conditions.

"This measure is being implemented on a trial basis and will be reviewed in light of weather conditions, its effectiveness, and its impact on the smooth running of the event."

After romping into the yellow jersey and taking the stage victory with it on day three of the Tour de France at Les Angles, Tadej Pogačar put up the unlikely theory that he might never win again.

While not a mathematical impossibility, the likelihood of that scenario looks vanishingly small, given the form that the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider has shown over the past three days. While rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) may have swiped a popular yellow jersey on stage one, Pogačar was still fastest up the final climb. Yesterday he gifted the stage win to teammate Isaac Del Toro, before finally opting, as if at will, to take one for himself.

Plus ça change.

Pogacar's 'never win again' suggestion was mostly an attempt to fend off the question of whether he was eyeing up Mark Cavendish's 35-stage Tour de France win record – which would require 14 more to beat for the Slovenian.

"That's still quite far away," Pogačar said. "Maybe today was my last victory ever, so I prefer to stay in the moment… enjoy this victory. Every victory feels very special, and if we can have more moments like yesterday, I'll also be grateful.

"So far my career is already beyond my wildest imagination, so yeah, I don't want to think about Mark's record. Just go with the flow and see what we can do in the future, but yeah, if today is my last victory, I'm happy enough."

As if to underline the improbability of his 'last win' postulation, when asked whether he planned to build his form throughout the race, he said there was no form left to build.

"I think maybe this was in the past, like 20 years ago, when they were aiming that the shape will grow to the last week," he said. "But I think now these days you need to come with the best shape possible at the start of the Tour, and you go with it. You try every day to recover as much as possible, eat food like a robot, and just go with the flow with what you bring here."

Last win or not, Pogačar had planned for stage three to be a family affair, with his mother at the finish. However, due to wildfires in the region, a decree issued by the Pyrenees-Orientales department forbade fans from attending the race under threat of prosecution, so she opted to stay away.

"My mum messaged me in the morning, saying, 'Ah, we cannot come to see the stage today, because of the rules," he said.

But not everyone was keen on the restrictions, prosecution or not: "We came to 20km to go, and the top of the climb was full of people, which was, for me, nice," he added. "But yeah, a lot of people decided not to come but still many, many did. Only here in the final, I think, it was a bit less."

With the heat set to soar to 40 degrees plus for Tuesday's fourth stage from Carcassonne to Foix, and continued high heat lasting well into the race, today's ruling may not be the last of the Tour. But as they proved today that won't necessarily deter the fans. And if Pogačar's form remains as hot as the fry-an-egg tarmac of southern France, they're likely to see him win another stage too.

The white minibus is decked out in advertising signs for a window company. There are 16 seats inside, but only one of them is occupied: the driver’s. The bus trundles its way around France every July, bringing up the rear of the Tour de France peloton, repurposed from an otherwise nondescript van into the broomwagon – the vehicle that swoops up the riders who fall too far back and miss the time cut.

Arnaud De Lie of Lotto-Intermarché loitered in front of it throughout Sunday's third stage. More on him later. Arvid de Kleijn of Tudor Pro Cycling was also hanging out just front.

This year's race is meant to be a joyous occasion for De Kleijn. Aged 32, he’s making his Tour debut. It’s also his maiden Grand Tour. A late-bloomer, he didn’t turn pro until 2020 and didn't start winning sprints regularly until 2023. A win at Milano-Torino in 2023 and a stage victory at Paris-Nice in 2024 was an indication that in an increasingly youthful sport, older riders could still emerge. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could win a stage of this July's Tour.

His year so far, however, has been marked by tragedy and sadness – as well as euphoria. In February, his father, Cees, died of cancer. De Kleijn, understandably, took a break from racing. “Towards the end [of my dad’s life] things became very difficult for him and for all of us as a family,” De Kleijn said in May.

A few weeks after his dad’s passing, a group of young adults attacked him while out training and broke his nose. “There was no way to reason with them, so I tried to leave,” he said. “One of them punched me in the face several times… I still don’t understand why it happened.”

At the same time, De Kleijn was welcoming his first child into the world with his partner. “It was beautiful news, of course, but becoming a father while preparing to lose my own dad… that was emotionally overwhelming. I was living between two extremes: joy and heartbreak at the exact same time.”

As the Tour left Spain and headed into France on stage three, the Dutchman struggled in the repressive heat and felt physically hamstrung.

“My body didn’t want to do it today,” he said at the finish. “After the team time trial I’m just blocked. My body doesn’t want to push that much.”

De Kleijn, supported by two Tudor teammates, endured rather than enjoyed the third stage. Every pedal stroke was an effort. He could have given in, abandoned, but the memory of his father was at the forefront of his thoughts.

“I’m completely exhausted but I just told [my teammates] that I was riding with my dad in mind,” he said, hunched over in Les Angles, cold bottles of water being poured over him by his team’s staff.

He had made it, 41 minutes behind stage winner Tadej Pogačar, but crucially seven minutes within the time limit. De Kleijn continued talking about his father: "I saw him suffer so much and I had him in mind. This suffering is nothing compared to what I saw. I just needed to keep on going, keep the pressure on the pedals.”

De Lie did not see the finish.

The 24-year-old Belgian fell ill two days before the race got underway in Barcelona with a stomach infection, and there were doubts if he would even start stage one’s team time trial, after he stepped off his bike during the TTT’s recon. In the end he did, and he finished stage two as well – but in dead last place.

He wouldn’t even be that fortunate on stage three. De Lie was at the back of the stage throughout, the broomwagon in his rearview mirror the whole way, the spectre of going home early casting a long shadow over him. The TV graphics showed how far behind De Lie was – in essence a countdown to his exit.

Yet it was not inevitable, even if it looked that way. “I had the feeling he was getting better,” his Lotto-Intermarché teammate Liam Slock told Cycling Weekly. “On the bus he was actually quite happy. This morning he was confident he was going to make it.”

Two other teammates shared the same opinion. “We decided before the stage that Bauptiste [Veistroffer] would stay with him,” explained Huub Artz. “And if we thought that he was making a strong impression and needed help, I would drop back. But there was the possibility that he would not have the legs.”

De Lie did not have the legs. His condition had regressed and he was in survival mode all day. The stifling heat could have been to blame. “That was one of the hottest days on the bike I’ve ever had,” Slock said. “At the beginning it was always between 38 and 40 degrees until the penultimate climb when it went down a bit.”

Late on, the decision was made that Veistroffer would leave De Lie behind to make sure he made the time cut himself. With just kilometres remaining, De Lie waved the white flag. He hopped into a team car and withdrew from the race. “To protect his health, the Belgian eventually stepped off his bike on the final climb of the day,” his team said.

It was agony and ecstasy in the Pyrenees. De Kleijn, riding in the memory of his father, just about found a way through the suffering. De Lie, however, barely rode a few dozen kilometres in France. The broomwagon has claimed its first victim of the 2026 race.

In a rare, almost unprecedented first at the Tour de France, the bar at the summit of the race’s first mountain finish counted empty seats. Beers in hand, around 20 punters dashed to the edge of the terrace to watch Tadej Pogačar win the stage. Perhaps only a few hundred more had made the hike up to the ski resort, on a day the fans were told to stay at home.

The announcement came less than 24 hours before the stage start. On Sunday evening, Tour organisers ASO urged people not to go to the finish of stage three, due to wildfires tearing through the Pyrénées-Orientales region. The town of Les Angles had prepared to welcome 25,000 people. On its first time hosting the Tour, maybe only a quarter of that number turned up.

“My mum messaged me in the evening yesterday: ‘Ah, we cannot come to see the stage today because of the rules’,” Pogačar said post-race. “Being here on the podium was a little bit sad, just seeing photographers and a few people, not the usual big crowd around the finish area. But if that is what is good for safety, I understand it’s better.”

To discourage people from coming to the roadside, Tour organiser ASO stopped its publicity caravan – a carnival of sponsor-led floats handing out freebies – 44km from the finish line. Fans still lined the course in drips and drabs, but far from masses the biggest bike race in the world is used to.

At the crêperie in Les Angles, the chefs had prepared extra batter for the Tour’s arrival. “We were expecting to be full all day, but the fire killed our dreams,” said waiter Éloi, who served a handful of polka-dot-clad punters on the terrace.

“It’s a shame for the businesses who have been waiting for this day for more than a year. I know some that bought many kilos of meat, and not all of it will be sold.”

This was supposed to be Les Angles’s big day. Yellow jersey bunting hung from street lamps all along the town’s parade. Restaurants owners wheeled mobile bars out onto the pavement, but none of them had queues longer than a couple of people. With two hours to go until the peloton came through, the 300 or so sheep in the field by the cable car outnumbered the fans in the street.

Antoine, owner of the restaurant Chez Antoine, was non-plussed by the scarce footfall. He’s used to Les Angles, a town of barely 600 people, having a sleepy feel. For him, it was just another Monday.

“Yes, we were penalised because the prefect decided to intervene and stop people from coming,” Antoine said, “but it doesn’t bother me.”

“All the police and firefighters are dealing with the fires. Can you imagine if a tourist went up the mountain and had a medical emergency? What would they do? I completely understand [the measures].”

By the time the peloton arrived at around 5pm, the town had fleshed out a little. Fans rang cowbells, applauded the riders and shouted their names as normal. TV viewers at home might have seen a route lined with fans, but the reality is the crowds were only one person deep. The circus had come to town, and only a few had managed to get in.

“Of course, I’m sad,” Les Angles’s mayor, Michel Poudade, told Le Parisien. After all, Tour finish towns in France pay upwards of €100,000 for the honour of welcoming the race.

“The decision from the authorities has left us with a strange feeling: why did we go so far to prepare for this? There are businesses with full fridges who are going to lose a lot of money," the mayor continued.

“I’m going to plead the case to the Tour organisers for another Tour finish in Les Angles in the future.”

Perhaps then the town will get the Tour party it planned for.

A penny for Arnaud De Lie's thoughts. The Lotto Intermarché rider was forced out of the Tour de France on stage three due to illness, months after he had quit the Giro d'Italia in similar circumstances.

The 24-year-old battled back to fitness after leaving the Giro early, winning a stage of the Tour de Wallonie last month, but a stomach bug has cut short his time in France.

Stage three was brutal, with De Lie suffering in the heat, coming after he finished last on Sunday's stage two. The pace was high all day, first for the fight to get into the breakaway, and then peloton pulling back that break, led by UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

As Tadej Pogačar of UAE celebrated his stage victory, and going into yellow, De Lie was stepping off the bike.

A press release from the team read: "Having suffered from an abdominal infection in the days leading up to the Grand Départ, and despite making steady progress in his recovery, the demands of today's stage, raced in scorching temperatures approaching 40°C, ultimately proved too much.

"After being dropped, De Lie did everything he could to stay in the race, supported for many kilometres by teammate Baptiste Veistroffer. The three Pyrenean climbs in the final part of the stage, combined with the extreme heat, made the challenge even tougher. To protect his health, the Belgian eventually stepped off his bike on the final climb of the day."

"It's obviously a huge disappointment. I had worked for months to be ready for this Tour de France and I was dreaming of fighting for the sprint finishes," De Lie said. "Unfortunately, this stomach infection weakened me a lot. I gave everything I had over the first two stages, but today I simply didn't have the legs to continue, especially in such extreme heat.

"I hung on in a small group behind Baptiste, but the succession of climbs in the final was just too demanding. I told Baptiste to go on so that he could make it back within the time limit. The only thing I can do now is focus on making a full recovery and come back stronger for the rest of the season."

There was no change at the top of the general classification at the 2026 Tour de France on Wednesday, as Torstein Træen remained in control of the yellow jersey.

Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) won the stage, the first bunch sprint of the race, after a crash just outside the 5km to go banner split the bunch. It meant the finish was contested by just a 20-man group, although there were no significant time losses, with the win coming from a bunch of fast men and their lead outs.

Træen stays in yellow, then, 7:53 of the first rider considered a serious general classification challenger, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) added to his points tally but saw his lead cut in the green points jersey competition, while his teammate Mathias Vacek is still leading the young rider's classification.

Frenchman Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) continues leads the mountains classification, extending his lead over Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) by another point.

Tour de France stage five report

Everything you need to know about the 2026 Tour de France

Tour de France 2026 route analysis

Tour de France 2026 start list

Tour de France 2026 team guide

Tour de France 2026 stage five: Lannemezan > Pau (158.3km)

1. Olav Kooij (Ned) Decathlon CMA CGM, in 3:29:07
2. Max Kanter (Ger) XDS Astana
3. Tim Merlier (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
4. Huub Artz (Ned) Lotto Intermarché
5. Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech
6. Biniam Girmay (Eri) NSN Cycling
7. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek
8. Milan Fretin (Bel) Cofidis
9. Anthony Turgis (Fra) TotalEnergies
10. Søren Wærenskjold (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, all at same time

Tour de France 2026 general classification after stage five

1. Torstein Træen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, in 16:32:07
2. Sean Quinn (USA) EF Education-EasyPost, +28s
3. Mathias Vaceck (Cze) Lidl-Trek, +3:50
4. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in +7:53
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time
6. Ramses Debruyne (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech, +8:06
7. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +8:16
8. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +8:17
9. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +8:20
10. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +8:41

Tour de France 2026 points classification after stage five

1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, 143pts
2. Biniam Girmay (Eri) NSN Cycling, 79pts
3. Max Kanter (Ger) XDS Astana, 77pts
4. Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech, 72pts
5. Olav Kooij (Ned) Decathlon CMA CGM, 70pts

Tour de France 2026 mountains classification after stage five

1. Alex Baudin (Fra) EF Education-EasyPost, 13pts
2. Alex Molenaar (Ned) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, 10 points
3. Nicolas Prodhomme (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, 9pts
4. Raúl García Pierna (Esp) Movistar, 7pts
5. Jan Tratnik (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, 5pts

Tour de France 2026 youth classification after stage five

1. Mathias Vaceck (Cze) Lidl-Trek, in 16:35:57
2. Ramses Debruyne (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech, +4:16
3. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +4:27
4. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +4:30
5. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-CMA CGM, +4:51

Tour de France 2026 teams classification after stage five

1. Lidl-Trek, in 49:32:02
2. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +19:26
3. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +32:47

Tadej Pogačar sprang to victory on stage three of the Tour de France on Monday, taking the yellow jersey in the process.

Launched across the finish line by his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate, and yesterday’s stage winner Isaac del Toro, Pogačar took an impressive win on the ascent to Les Angles, securing a two-second gap over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) The two GC rivals are now level, but as a result of count back, Pogačar now has the race lead and the maillot jaune.

Richard Carapaz took third place on a day when his EF Education–EasyPost teammate Alex Baudin led a spirited breakaway and took the KOM jersey.

During his post-ride interview, Pogačar was effusively complimentary about Del Toro, who put another massively impressive ride on a tough, long, hot and hilly stage.

"It’s because of him, it’s because of Isaac today, I got some extra power I think in the final," said the Slovenia. "He committed more than 100% in the final climb, all the team actually. In the middle of the stage we decided that it’s possible to go for the stage win, and I’m really happy that we start the Tour like this. An incredible finish today.

"If we can win like we won today, and the team feels super good, then we have to take the opportunity. We tried, we gave it all, and we won.

"To take the yellow jersey is a dream for any cyclist, of any age. For me, I don’t know which time already, but every time I can get it is really special. I don’t know for how long this will last, but we try to enjoy every moment."

On a day when most people expected a breakaway to prevail, it came down instead to a battle between the GC contenders during the final 10km, with very few spectators as the stage finished in France, but in an 'exceptional format', due to soaring heat and the heightened risk of wildfires.

The second-longest stage of this year's Tour had a tough and challenging parkour – not a mountain stage, but relentlessly lumpy, with lots of long climbs and a total of 3940 metres of altitude gain across the day, including an uphill finish.

The first third of the stage was ridden at a frenetic pace, with average speeds of 43km per hour despite the lumpy terrain and temperatures in the mid to late 30 degrees celsius. An early crash on the first climb took down multiple riders and left Bruno Armirail (Visma-Lease-a-bike) with a visibly injured right knee and a broken shoe.

With 125km to go, after one-and-a-half hours of relentless riding, the race seemed to settle and then 19 riders made a move. Of this group, Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) was best placed, with decent position in the GC and a vaguely realistic chance of moving into yellow if he could get the right support from riders around him.

Visma-Lease a Bike appeared almost content to let go of the yellow jersey for a stage and sat back, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG soon capitalised, significantly stepping up the pace and chasing the advance group down. The breakaway failed to establish enough of a gap and it was soon whittled down to six riders, with Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM), Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain Victorious), George Bennett (NSN Cycling), Raúl García Pierna (Movistar) and Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) hanging in with Baudin.

Baudin mounted an attack during the second-last climb of day – the relatively gentle, but long, ascent of the Col du Calvaire, and fellow Frenchman Nicolas Prodhomme stuck with him. Baudin took the points at the top of the climb, and with it the KOM jersey, and stayed doggedly ahead of the peloton until 11.5km to go, but the UAE-led peloton was always going to reel him in.

This set the scene for an exciting finish, with all the GC contenders in the mix as the pack entered the final kilometre. Having seized control of the race, UAE Team Emirates-XRG were in a commanding position, and Del Toro launched Pogačar into the pole spot with 500 metres to go.

Results

Tour de France stage three: Granollers › Les Angles (195.9km)

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 4:45:11
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2s
3. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost
4. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, both at same time
5. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +4s
6. Lennert Van Eeetvelt (Bel) Lotto Intermarché
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
8. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
9. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG
10. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, all at same time

General classification after stage three

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 8:46:55
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +23s
4. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +24s
5. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +27s
6. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +48s
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +53s
8. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +1:09
9. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +1:11
10. Ilan Van Wilder (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:17

Visma-Lease a Bike domestique Bruno Armirail looked in pain on stage three of the Tour de France after he was involved in a mass crash with around 182km to go.

The Frenchman appeared to go down first and hit his knee hard as the peloton moved through a small town. While he remounted, he was shown clutching his knee and with a broken shoe.

The crash happened at the front of the peloton, and also took out Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Netcompany-Ineos riders Tobias Foss, Thymen Arensman, and Michał Kwiatkowski. Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM) was affected by the incident too.

Armirail was shown getting treatment from the doctor's car in the aftermath. The crash briefly blocked the road, as the race headed onto the Côte de Saint Feliu de Codines, with gaps opening up in the peloton with most of the day still to come. After almost 10km with a broken shoe, the 32-year-old replaced this.

All the riders involved finished the day, with Armirail finishing 36:30 behind the stage winner, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

More to follow...

At 07:00 (CET) last Saturday morning, Mark Kowalski cycled across the border from Bulgaria into Greece, came to a stop, pulled out his phone and dialled his fianceé. He had news. With that final border crossing, the London-based Canadian ultracyclist and bikepacker had just broken a bike-riding world record.

Kowalski’s tracker showed that he had just cycled exactly 2798.59km, averaging 404.25km per day for the last week. But the record he’d just stamped his name on had nothing directly to do with distance. Since setting off at 09:00 (CET) on the previous Saturday, from a border town in The Netherlands, Kowalski had pedalled through 21 different countries in seven days, beating the previous tally of 20 nations.

In the end, the 40-year-old finished his race against the clock with two hours to spare. But for the entirety of the previous seven days he had been living on his nerves. “The whole trip was super stressful,” Kowalski tells me. “Before starting, I was 65% sure I could do it. But I had enough doubt that I didn’t tell anyone about it until just before I left. Even towards the end, I was never completely confident. Never at any point did I think it was a shoo-in.”

“My strength isn’t speed,” he admits. “I’m slow and steady. The first day I rode for 12 hours, and the last day I had no sleep at all and rode for 24 hours. But my usual pattern was to get up at 2am and ride for 19 hours, with about 1 hours pause time built into that.”

A three-time veteran of the 4000km Transcontinental Race, Kowalski is no newcomer to enormous self-supported cycling challenges, but this was a bit different to anything he’d done before. Chasing the erstwhile record, he had a dot on his tracker, showing where he need to be.

“That red dot never slept,” he tells me on the phone from Greece, with fatigue still evident in his voice. “I’d go to sleep ahead of it and then wake up and have to chase it. At the beginning it was very stressful. I was riding through a heatwave. I called my partner on the second day, really doubting myself. It wasn’t until around day four that I came out of the doldrums and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

From Vaal – which is conveniently positioned on the border with the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, enabling him to tick three countries quickly off the list – Kowalski went south, passing through Luxembourg, France and Switzerland. Tracing Lake Constance, he crossed into Austria, collected Liechtenstein then went east through the Tirol.

After darting south from Innsbruck into northern Italy, he steered northeast to visit the Czech Republic, then dropped south through Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro – doing a quick out-and-back to touch his tyres on Albanian soil – and then continuing east to North Macedonia, Bulgaria and finally into Greece.

“My partner asked me to give the Transcontinental a break, and so I came up with this idea instead,” he tells me. “But when I first started researching it, I thought the record was 19 countries. I’d had worked out that I could do 20, or 21 at a real push. Then I discovered that the record was actually 20, set by Craig Nilsson in 2025. That was a blow!”

“I was designing my own route, and then I looked at Craig’s, and it was so obviously the best one. I did try and vary it, but when I did I mostly went wrong. Like when I ran into a fence trying to reach a bike trail along the Danube, and had to backtrack. I hit a stretch of gravel and it felt wrong. I was riding alongside this fence thinking ‘I’m just going further and further in the wrong direction here’. In the end I only lost about 20 minutes.”

A Green Party councillor in London, Kowalski used his ride to raise money for Action for Refugees in Lewisham. Confined to the capital, for the most part, he prepared for his expedition by doing endless 6-hour indoor training sessions, and working on a nutrition plan that meant he could stomach taking on 100g of carbs per hour. “Wine gums and mints are great,” he confides. “Mentos are basically 100% carbs!”

During his odyssey, he was riding a Reilly Titanium Reflex gravel bike. “It’s got aero bars and a massive dish on the back for the hills,” he says. “But really it was built for comfort, and I had Redshift suspension seatpost, which really helps with back pain. I put a whole new drive chain on it, but it kept slipping. I just kept going – I wasn’t going to take it to a repair shop to wait hours, only to be told they couldn’t fix it.”

Fully loaded, he estimates the bike weighed about 20kg. “I carried some spare clothing, an emergency sleeping system – a bivvy and blow-up mattress, which I used once. I carried tools – I was probably over prepared in that sense.”

Slippage aside, he got away likely with technical issues, and only suffered two punctures during the entire trip, while running Continental GP5000 32mm tyres.

Does he worry about Nilsson coming back to reclaim his record – something he’s already done once? “Not really,” he tells me. “To reach another country, you’d have to ride another 300km. To do that you’d need to be Victor Bosoni [the young French rider currently winning events like the Traka].”

A little boy, at most five years old, is sitting on his father’s shoulders next to the media zone in Barcelona. Ten minutes have passed since Isaac del Toro stood on stage in the Tour de France team presentation, dressed in the Mexican champion’s jersey, beneath the spires of the Sagrada Família. The moment is historic: Del Toro is the first man from his country this century to compete at the race. For the little boy, that makes him a hero.

“Torito!” he cries. The sound is piercing. No sooner have the ears of the people nearby recovered that another cry comes, and another, and another. “Torito!” the boy’s voice tires and quivers, as he waves a UAE Team Emirates-XRG cap. “Una firma!” – a signature.

The frenzy at this year’s Tour was supposed to surround France’s 19-year-old debutant Paul Seixas. And it surely will once the race enters France on Monday. But it’s Del Toro, Mexico’s sweetheart, who has had the most admirers across the opening weekend.

Now, not only is he the first Mexican to start the race since Miguel Arroyo in 1997 – and only the third ever along with Raúl Alcalá – he’s also a stage winner. It took him just two days, and came in a swell of affection on Montjuïc in Barcelona.

“It’s a dream come true,” Del Toro said in his post-race press conference. “It’s super special, especially because [the fans] make me feel like it’s a home race. You cannot believe how special it is to see the flags. I’m a very privileged guy.”

Over the hill by the UAE Team Emirates-XRG team bus, Tadej Pogačar waded through 50 or so Mexican fans, who greeted him with a hero’s welcome. "Pogi, hermano, ya eres mexicano," – Pogi, brother, now you are Mexican – they sang. He wrapped his body in a Mexican flag, and danced to the serenade.

The world champion, second on the day, gifted the stage win to Del Toro. But it was the latter who crafted the perfect finale; charging down a descent, Del Toro whipped around Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose and blasted up the 500m hill to the line. Fans Nayeli and Rene watched on in matching Mexico hats halfway up.

Impelled by Del Toro fever, the pair flew in specially from Mexico four days ago to support their national champion on his debut. “Yesterday we were at the start of the team time trial for more than five hours with all the Mexicans,” says Nayeli, 36. “We liked cycling before, but Isaac del Toro awoke the passion in us to follow the Tour.”

Like Del Toro, this edition of the race is the pair’s first. It’s also their first time visiting Europe. “We spent €2,500 to get here,” Rene, 39, says. The victory certainly made it worth it. Does he think Del Toro could win the Tour in the future? “Yes, I’m sure of it,” he smiles, “and we’ll be back here to see it.”

Some 100m further up the road, that same view was shared by Adrián, dressed in a Mexico football shirt. He was born in Mexico City, but has called Barcelona home for three years, one of the around 4,500 Mexicans that live in the wider autonomous community of Catalonia.

“My dad was a cycling fan in the era of Arroyo and Alcalá,” the 42-year-old says. “For a while, we didn’t really follow it, but now with Isaac we’re back following it again. As a national champion, he’s inspiring so many people to take the same path.”

An hour later, Del Toro tore along the barrier beside Adrián, and under the flag he had hung from a long plastic tube. It was exactly the scene Adrián had wished for. “This year I think he’s going to win at least one stage,” he had said, a call born more out of optimism than clairvoyance. “I’d love him to win here in Barcelona, but, well, we’ll see… I’m sure he’s going to win the Tour one day.”

That day may now feel a little closer. But for the moment, Del Toro is a lieutenant in Pogačar's mission to win a fifth Tour, a team-mate buoyed by the joy of victory.

Sunday’s stage win, though stamped with his name, was for all the fans that have come to support him: those wearing football shirts with Del Toro on the back, Nayeli, Rene and Adrián on the finishing straight, and the little boy at the team presentation, whose adoration for his hero just grew even stronger.

Sitting in his press conference, Del Toro looked down at his Mexican champion's jersey, and stretched out the material, pulling it towards the journalists. “I’m the only guy in the bunch that, if you see this flag, [you recognise] it’s me,” he said.

“Someone else might feel pressure, but I feel really privileged... This is a gift from the greatest [rider] of all time. I will take this with me for the rest of my life."

When Jonas Vingegaard took the first yellow jersey of the 2026 Tour de France yesterday, he swore he would cherish every moment in it. But on stage two's uphill finish to Montjuic, as Tadej Pogačar and Isaac Del Toro unleashed a double-fronted charge to the line, prising open a small gap to the maillot jaune as they did so, it was hard to wonder if this was it. Was the Dane's tenure in cycling's most revered garment already at an end?

But Vingegaard held the gap to less than a second and, despite the UAE Team Emirates-XRG pair taking a one-two that seemed to delight Pogačar as much as it did his young teammate, the jersey remained the property of Visma-Lease a Bike for another day. With bonus seconds factored in though, Vingegaard's 12 second lead to Pogačar was cut to six.

Speaking after the race, Vingegaard reiterated the pledge he made yesterday – one made in mind of the apparent epiphany that followed his serious crash at Itzulia Basque Country two years ago.

"It ended up being a GC stage, a hard stage, and it's not my favourite kind of climb, so to keep the yellow jersey is something that I'm actually happy with," he said. "So, yeah, I get another day in the jersey, and it's something that I can definitely be happy with.

"As I said yesterday, I'll enjoy every day, because you never know what happens in life – as I said, it's not a given."

When asked whether he expected to be able to follow Pogačar more closely, he defended his performance, saying: "I followed him on the climb, and on the last sprint. It's very anaerobic, and that's not my strength, so, to be honest, I can be happy with how it played out."

Visma-Lease a Bike sports director Marc Reef echoed those particular remarks, insisting that Pogačar outsprinting Vingegaard was not unexpected.

"It was just a sprint from the corner, and everybody was on the limit, I think," he said. "It was just a small gap in the sprint. [Vingegaard] is less explosive than the others are, so yeah, there's not much more than that."

With Pogačar gathering a six-second time bonus courtesy of his second place, he cut his deficit to the Dane to a scant six – a tenuous advantage that was acknowledged by Vingegaard: "It's not a big lead, it's still more or less the same, so I don't think it changes our approach much," he said.

Reef expanded on that "approach", saying there was no plan to hang on too tightly to yellow, at least for the moment.

"It's just getting Jonas through the stages in a good way," he said. "Also, tomorrow it's a finish of 1.5 kilometres where it is also around 7%. I think that is also something where we'll see contenders battle, and we will see if [he keeps it] or not, but that's actually not really the goal. It's just important to stay in contention, and that is something that we did today."

Fans have been told not to attend the final 44km of stage three of the Tour de France due to a wildfire that is raging in the eastern Pyrenees – and the race organisers have not ruled out a stage cancellation or additional amendments to the parcours.

The third stage of the 2026 race is slated to begin in Granollers, a town on the outskirts of Barcelona, before heading north, climbing to the La Molina ski station, and then crossing into France late in the day before a finish at Les Angles.

But a wildfire approximately 70 kilometres from Les Angles has forced the closure of a long section of the D66 road which forms part of the race’s hors course – the route that non-race vehicles are recommended to use. Around 700 firefighters are currently tackling the blaze.

Shortly after the end of stage two in Barcelona, which was won by Isaac Del Toro, ASO, the Tour organisers, released a statement in which they announced that the stage will "take place in an exceptional format, based on autonomous organisation and a significantly scaled-back operation, consistent with the operational constraints imposed by the situation."

That means that the "public is asked not to gather along the route or at the finish line"; that the publicity caravan will terminate on the Spanish border; and only "riders and vehicles essential" to the race will be permitted at the finish.

An ASO source told CW that the situation remains fluid, while other stakeholders in the sport suggested that the decision to prohibit fans in France wouldn't necessarily be the end of the story.

In the same statement, ASO admitted that "the situation remains highly changeable [and] further adjustments may be made."

Christian Prudhomme, the Tour race director, said after stage three: “The teams of the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales and the Tour de France were in contact this afternoon.

"I also spoke to the prefect on the phone in the afternoon and we agreed, given the exceptional and frightening conditions of the fire that reigns in the Pyrénées-Orientales, not to allow the publicity caravan to pass through the last 40km, the final part of the stage in France, to limit the road to only the riders and the organisation vehicles that are essential. And we ask the public not to come to roadside or to the finish.

"Adapting is daily life of organisers of cycling courses like the Tour de France. All of this is done in agreement with the state authorities. Again, we were in constant contact. The teams of the Pyrénées-Orientales prefecture and the teams of the Tour de France. And we will adapt again tomorrow, the next day. Next year if we need to, or in three years."

All teams who Cycling Weekly spoke to said that it was a mystery what would happen, confirming that ASO, the Tour de France organisers, had not informed them of any developments during stage three.

But all expected that rather than cancel the stage, the final part of the route would be adapted. Some speculated that it might finish after the descent of the Collada de Toses, thus keeping the race within the Spanish borders.

This would avoid the race having to enter France where the local government has said it has the ultimate authority over whether or not the stage can go ahead.

Zak Dempster, chief of sports at Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, admitted that the confusion will cause unrest and unease among the Tour participants, even if it's not the first time that a Grand Tour stage has been in doubt; the Giro d'Italia often has a stage shortened due to snow.

"We don’t really have a choice, just have to do what you have to do," Dempster said. "I’ve been involved in a few cancellations, one in particular [at the Giro d'Italia] on the Stelvio that really ran up to the last minute.

"There was a lot of angst, and I personally as a sports director that day I learned a lot about how to protect the group of riders from entering in too much. It’s complicated, mainly mentally."

Isaac del Toro made a daring late move in the final kilometre to take the second stage of the 2026 Tour de France on an uphill finish in Barcelona.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider chased down late-attacker Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), cornering at high speed with 500 metres to go and unleashing his acceleration.

His team-mate Tadej Pogačar attacked from behind and had the beating of yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), but appeared to all his young colleague to take an historic victory in a UAE Team Emirates-XRG 1-2. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) topped an impressive opening weekend by finishing third.

Vingegaard remains in the yellow jersey of race leader, but Pogačar has closed the gap from twelve to six seconds, moving into second overall. Evenepoel now sits third, 15 seconds down.

General Classification contenders Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) took on minimal losses on the stage, conceding three seconds to Pogačar and Vingegaard.

Del Toro claimed his first Tour de France stage win on his debut, and what's more, took Mexico's first win at the race in 36 years, since Raúl Alcala claimed stage 7 in 1990.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG controlled the finale as the riders took on the famous Côte du Château de Montjuïc three times. American Brandon McNulty took charge of the race, discouraging any rivals from making an early attack.

On the final time up the climb Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) lit up the race with a late move, which was countered first by Richard Carapaz (EF Education First-EasyPost) and then Skjelmose, who moved on the descent into the final rise to the line.

Del Toro pulled on the front of the bunch in pursuit of the Dane before launching his own move. Vingegaard chased the Mexican champion, but looked more interested in Pogačar who swerved to the opposite side of the road, allowing Del Toro to create a gap and make more history for Mexico.

"You cannot believe how it feels now for me, especially for my country. Everything that's going on is just insane, really," an elated Del Toro told the TV interviewer after the finish.

"We were going super fast. We predicted this can happen. In the top of the climb, I was not able to be in the top position, but then I was able to bring back Skjelmose. We made a plan for Tadej and I did it. But at the end, the gap was bigger, so I just went with the flow to the finish line."

Since winning the Tour de l'Avenir in 2023, Del Toro's rise has been rapid. He has become a major star back home in Mexico, winning the Mexican Sportsperson of the Year award in 2025 after coming within a day of claiming the Giro d'Italia.

On the 2026 Tour's second stage, Del Toro ascends to even greater heights.

"These kind of opportunities don't come almost ever," Del Toro added. "I'm super proud to be able to have the level to manage this kind of situation."

Stage 3 of the Tour de France is in doubt, as local officials are set to make a decision on whether wildfires in the region should bring about the cancellation of the stage into Les Angles.

How it Happened

The second state of the 2026 Tour was billed as a one-day Classic within a Grand Tour, with a punchy finish akin to something one might see in the Ardennes.

Several teams were interested in the early breakaway. In the end, three riders broke clear, building up a maximum lead close to four minutes. The three out front were German champion Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla), Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL).

The opening 80 kilometres contained little action before the first intermediate sprint of this year’s Tour de France. Out front, Molenaar took the full 25 points, but the real battle was from the peloton, as Biniam Girmay (NSN) out-sprinted Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) in a first showing of his intentions to reclaim the green jersey he won in 2024.

Shortly after came the first categorised climb, the 6km long second category ascent of the Côte de Begues. As the breakaway’s lead melted away, UAE Team Emirates-XRG took control of the bunch through Belgian Classics rider Florian Vermeersch. Molenaar took full points over the top, but the breakaway’s advantage had fallen to under half a minute with Van den Broek dropped.

With 60km to go, Pogačar’s chief lieutenant Isaac del Toro was off the back of the bunch due to a mechanical issue. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had to wait for some time by the side of the road and was two-and-a-half minutes in arrears, forcing the Mexican champion into a ferocious chase. The long train of team cars helped Del Toro to put out the potential fire, allowing him to return to the bunch without issues.

There was bad luck for Paul Seixas too, as the Decathlon-CMA CGM rider had a puncture as the peloton hit the final circuit. He, too, was able to come back to the group before the three laps of the Montjuic circuit. Just ahead of the laps, Engelhardt and Molenaar were caught.

On the first ascent of the Montjuic, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike moved to the front, with Brandon McNulty leading the way with reigning champion Pogačar on his wheel and Vingegaard and Evenepoel behind. The peloton was stretched out over the top, with dozens of riders ripped off the back with two more laps of the climb still to go.

Things settled ahead of the penultimate climb, and groups of riders managed to reattach themselves. McNulty took charge once more as the favourites crowded around the American’s rear wheel. The rider making his first Tour appearance since 2022 was metronomic, not requiring any collaboration as he towed the 40-strong group into the final five kilometres.

As the final time up the Montjuic began, Decathlon’s Tiesj Benoot took up the pace in support of Seixas. Pogačar moved onto his wheel, supported by Adam Yates as the favourites waited for their moment and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) was dropped.

Around 20 riders approached the top with the Yates-led front group as Johannesen made the first attack with Carapaz going over the top of him. It was all neutralised, however, as Pogačar followed every move. Skjelmose was the next to go with just under 2km left, chased by Del Toro with the group behind him ahead of the final climb to the finish.

Del Toro rounded Skjelmose with 500 metres to go with Vingegaard and Pogačar just behind. The yellow jersey initially pursued the Mexican before switching to Pogačar's wheel, who allowed Del Toro to create a gap large enough to claim a famous victory.

Results

Tour de France stage two: Taragonna > Barcelona, 182km

1. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG in 03:40:01
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, all same time
5. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek
6. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
7. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United
8. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious
9. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-CMA CGM
10. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Pinarello-Q36.5, all +3 seconds

General Classification after stage two

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike in 04:01:48
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +6s
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +15s
4. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +16s
5. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +19s
6. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-CMA CGM, +42s
7. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, +44s
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +45s
9. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +53s
10. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Pinarello-Q36.5, +1:00

With extreme temperatures gripping the south of France, the third stage of the 2026 Tour de France is in danger of cancellation due to wildfires ripping through the Easter Pyrenees region.

Speaking to AFP on Sunday, Pierre Regnault de la Mothe, a senior official within the Pyrénées-Orientales department in which the third stage is set to finish, said that a decision will be taken by the end of the day concerning the running of stage 3.

Forest fires are currently raging around 70 kilometres from the stage 3 finish in Les Angles. Approximately 1,500 hectares have been affected and 700 firefighters mobilised to tackle the blaze. Several roads around the route of stage 3 are also closed.

"The fire has flared up again. All resources are being mobilised to contain it," added Regnault de la Mothe.

Stage 3 is scheduled to begin in Granollers taking riders over the Pyrenees mountain range on a 196km stage to Les Angles.

With the heat already impacting on the race during the opening team time trial, riders were seen taking measures to control their core body temperature as the race began in Barcelona.

Temperatures in the region are set to top 40 degrees celsius on Monday, and with the region experiencing extreme heat throughout May and June, race organisers have been conscious of possible changes in line with the UCI's extreme weather protocols.

The organisers have been on standby to adjust the route day-by-day depending on how things unfold.

According to a French Interior Ministry document viewed by Reuters, regional officials will hold sway over the cancellation of stages in the coming weeks.

The document stated: "In exceptional circumstances, and in consultation with ​the organiser and all relevant parties, you may ​decide to cancel a stage if health or ⁠operational conditions no longer allow for the simultaneous safeguarding ​of spectators and staff, and the continued provision of emergency ​services to the public.”

As the temperatures rose into the mid-30s in Barcelona for the stage one team time trial of the 2026 Tour de France, it was imperative for riders to keep their body temperatures down in order the put in the optimum performance.

Body heat management looks set to be a running theme during this edition of the Tour de France, with temperatures set to rise above 40 degrees in the coming days.

Teams utilised a multitude of methods as Jonas Vingegaard led Visma-Lease Bike to victory, but one of the more common has been targeted by the UCI in a clamp-down on teams seeking to gain an extra aerodynamic advantage.

It has become customary to see riders stuff ice socks down the back of their necks during time trials and road stages. A pair of tights is filled with ice cubes and tied together, providing a long period of protection against the heat as the ice melts and soaks into the riders’ clothing.

Several teams were asked to remove their ice socks ahead of rolling down the start ramp in Barcelona on the opening day of the race.

"It changes the morphology of the riders' shape," a UCI commissaire told Cyclingnews, moments after Visma-Lease a Bike were instructed to remove their ice socks.

Article 1.3.032 of the UCI's technical regulations says that ‘clothing and other items or accessories worn by a rider (including but not limited to helmets, glasses, shoes or in-race communication devices) may not modify the morphology of the rider’.

The enforcement of this rule was explained during team equipment meetings ahead of the Tour.

While riders were unable to wear ice socks during the TTT on stage one, the rule does not appear to be in place for the Tour’s road stages, with riders spotted using the cooling device during the second stage between Tarragona and Barcelona.

Keeping the body's core temperature down has become a new frontier of innovation over the last few seasons, with more research being put forward supporting its importance for elite performance.

Ice vests are now used by almost every team before racing and riders are regularly seen pouring a full bottle of water over their heads on multiple occasions throughout a warm stage. The Alpecin-Premier Tech riders were given homemade ice pops as they sat in the waiting area before making their opening team time trial.

Before stage one, Netcompany-Ineos riders were spotted with both forearms in a plastic box of cool water as they prepared to begin their team time trial; on their way to finishing narrowly in second place behind Visma-Lease a Bike.

Speaking to gathered media after the stage, Director of Racing Geraint Thomas confirmed that it was the first time the team had used this method during competition.

“Just a bit of a pre-cooling strategy really to keep the core temperature down,” Thomas explained. “It's obviously hot with the warm-up and everything, it was just to try to keep cool, before starting.”

“[It was the] first time in a race here, but we did it on the track previously and also they did it at the circuit on Wednesday when they had a training session there,” Thomas added.

Temperatures are expected to soar during this year’s Tour de France, and race organisers are bracing for possible disruptions in keeping with the UCI’s extreme weather protocols, which could see stages modified or cancelled altogether.

There are fears in parts of the south of France that wildfires could break out due to the searing conditions not only expected for the rest of July, but also experienced in the weeks prior to the race.

"It is a major concern for us," A.S.O route designer Thierry Gouvenou told HLN before the start of the race. "We have had heatwaves before in the past, but the situation is much worse now because the soil is already bone-dry due to the extreme temperatures in May and June."

The organisers are said to be on standby to adjust the route day-by-day depending on how things unfold.

According to a French Interior Ministry document viewed by Reuters, regional officials will also hold sway over the cancellation of stages in the coming weeks, with temperatures estimated to hit as high as 44 degrees celsius.

The document stated: "In exceptional circumstances, and in consultation with ​the organiser and all relevant parties, you may ​decide to cancel a stage if health or ⁠operational conditions no longer allow for the simultaneous safeguarding ​of spectators and staff, and the continued provision of emergency ​services to the public.”

One thousand and seventy seven days. That's how much time has passed since Jonas Vingegaard last wore the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. But when he finally tried it on for size again in Barcelona on Saturday evening, after leading Visma-Lease a Bike to victory in the stage one team time trial, he found it still fitted him just fine.

Vingegaard stormed through the finish with eight seconds in hand over second-placed Filippo Ganna of Netcompany-Ineos, after his team pulled off a near-flawless TTT masterclass. Above all, though, he triumphed over Tadej Pogačar, his Tour de France nemesis and the defending champion that many consider near-unbeatable.

Vingegaard has worn yellow before – he is a double Tour winner, don't forget – but it was clear that this jersey meant as much to him as it has ever done, and maybe more.

Describing it as a "dream come true", he said: "Being back in the yellow jersey is for me the most important. I'm just extremely happy, it's something I dreamt of for the last three years.

"It's a dream for everyone in cycling, I think, and just to be wearing this jersey is something special, and I will enjoy every moment in it."

Much has happened in Vingegaard's career during those 1,077 days since he last wore it in Paris at the end of the 2023 Tour de France. Perhaps most significantly, a massive crash at Itzulia Basque Country in early 2024, which left him badly injured and, in the immediate aftermath, believing he might die. Being able to wear the maillot jaune once again, he said, provided a certain level of closure.

"I've struggled at times in the last few years," he told journalists, "[but] now I feel like I can close this chapter in the book, if you can say it. Of course, it will always be a part of my book, laying there on the ground, believing that I'm going to die. And then coming from that to this point is also for me a bit emotional."

Much as wearing yellow once more was a huge moment for Vingegaard, it wasn't won in a straight fight between himself and Pogačar. Both riders were beholden to their team's abilities against the clock, and while Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad were 13 seconds behind come the third and final time check, when both riders were unleashed up the final climb of Montjuïc, it was the Slovenian who prevailed. He was three seconds quicker than Vingegaard's 1:26 and hence will wear the polka dots on stage two.

Vingegaard was acutely aware, he said, that his stage one victory was only the very beginning of a long three weeks. He is now a expecting a hard fight that will begin almost straight away.

"I think the next stage will already be very hard," he said. "I think it's just gonna be, from now on, fighting every single day to do the best possible, to be honest."

Visma-Lease a Bike sports director Marc Reef emphasised that the team's underlying goal was yellow in Paris, and that Vingegaard would not necessarily attempt to keep it in the immediate future.

"[Paris] is the goal; it's not the goal to directly keep it, but of course when the chance is there it's OK," he said. "And of course tomorrow we have immediately another explosive stage; stage three is another explosive stage with an uphill finish… We'll see day by day – we're happy with the situation we're in. We have a small gap over our opponents but in the first place we're happy with this win."

A team time trial – especially one that essentially acts as one long leadout train for the protected rider – always creates notable differences among the general classification riders, and stage one of the 2026 Tour de France has left a number of key riders already playing catch-up.

The 19.6km TTT in Barcelona ended with a climb up to Montjuïc, the fortress that overlooks the Mediterranean port city. Jonas Vingegaard, twice a Tour winner, proved victorious, with defending champion Tadej Pogačar finishing 12 seconds in arrears to his rival.

That’s a time gap that could be closed as early as stage two, but there are others with a lot more work on their hands.

Paul Seixas, the great French hope, finished 39 seconds back from Vingegaard, while Britain’s Tom Pidcock was 57 seconds slower than the stage winner. In fact, Seixas and Pidcock lost time to all of their expected rivals in the battle for a top-three finish.

Uno-X Mobility's Tobias Halland Johannessen, viewed by some as an outsider for a top-five spot, was one minute behind, and Netcompany-Ineos are already facing an uphill battle – Thymen Arensman was 1:01 adrift, and Kévin Vauquelin was 1:14 shy of Vingegaard.

Nineteen-year-old Seixas, however, was in an optimistic mood, having made his Tour debut. “Really good,” was his assessment of the day. “It was special because it was a TTT and we were really focused on it.

"I took it as a normal TTT and we did a great job today. We did the best we could do today and that’s the most important thing for me.”

Like Pogačar, Seixas is aiming to claw back time as soon as stage two, which finishes on the same Montjuïc circuit. “It’s a good stage for me I think,” he said. “I did different work for this race so we will see how it goes and how I feel. I hope it will be a good stage tomorrow.

“They [Vingegaard and Pogačar] are the best in the world so we will see how it goes during the coming weeks. I hope to really perform and see what I can do.”

Pidcock, who hasn’t publicly stated his ambitions in the race, is also needing to fight back if indeed he is targeting the GC as is assumed. He had known he would have had to, but he also would have hoped to have lost less time than he did.

“It’s a hard final and you want to keep Tom’s best skills intact – he’s very explosive and powerful on that kind of finish and our strategy was to save as much energy as possible. I don’t think it was a bad strategy,” Pinarello-Q36.5’s coach Kurt Bogaerts said afterwards.

Pidcock’s punchiness makes him one of the top contenders to win stage two, but claiming yellow seems out of the question now. “I think there are many stages that are good for Tom on paper, but it all depends on how the ball falls on the day,” Bogaerts said.

“That kind of finish is all about momentum, legs and having a little bit of luck. We will definitely go for tomorrow.”

On the flip side, the TTT confirmed the positive condition of some of the other podium contenders: Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek was only 16 seconds slower than the winner, and just four seconds back from Pogačar.

Time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel, meanwhile, was 19 seconds down but crucially finished 16 seconds faster than his Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe teammate Florian Lipowitz.

“The difference was limited,” Red Bull sports director Klaas Lodewyck told the Belgian press, who like most are intrigued who will come out on top in the Evenepoel-Lipowitz battle for team leadership. “Does this immediately clarify the hierarchy between our leaders? I don’t think so – the final reckoning will only be made in Paris.”

Evenepoel uttered the same thing. “Whether I am now leader number one? I’m not concerned with that. I just did my thing,” the Belgian said.

“This is more or less the result we expected. It was quite OK. I don’t think we could have ridden any faster. It was a successful first day.”

One day down, and the GC is already taking shape.

Second on the stage, Egan Bernal in the green jersey, and still there was a feeling that Netcompany-Ineos had started the Tour de France with a dash of bad luck.

In the race’s opening team time trial in Barcelona, Filippo Ganna steered the team to within eight seconds of the stage win, and the race’s first yellow jersey, won instead by Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike.

It seemed like a plan almost perfectly executed. Except Ganna was never meant to lead the charge to the line, Netcompany-Ineos director of racing Geraint Thomas said. It was supposed to be Kévin Vauquelin, who punctured with 7km remaining of the 19.6km course, and finished a minute back.

“It was a tough one, really, with Kévin puncturing,” Thomas told Cycling Weekly. “He was our guy to finish it off. He was the one that was going to, well, he was sitting on to sort of save the legs really for that last effort.”

Due to the new timing system, whereby riders received individual times across the line for the general classification, a stage win would have put the Frenchman in the yellow jersey.

That dream quickly fell away, but in the face of potential disaster, the team improvised, and Ganna took on the baton himself.

“Everyone stepped up and did their bit,” Thomas said. “The way the boys responded to [the puncture] and adapted to the plan was really good to see. Pippo, fair play to him, we wanted him to empty the tank by the top of the first climb and he had to finish it off [on the second].

“As I said earlier today, you have your plan and it'll never go to plan. It's how you adapt to it. It's just a shame to lose Kévin with that puncture. I feel for him, because he hasn't had much luck this year, but it's the way it is, and I think everyone did what they could in the moment.”

Netcompany-Ineos have two riders in the top 10 after stage one: Ganna in second at eight seconds, and Tobias Foss in ninth at 38.

Vauquelin, who placed seventh overall last year with Arkéa-B&B Hotels, is 26th, one minute and 14 seconds behind the leader Vingegaard.

Thomas assured the Frenchman's time loss is not a catastrophe: “[Vauquelin] was coming here to not worry about the GC and just go after the stages,” he said, adding that the team plans to treat the race like “21 one-day races”.

As a final, unexpected treat after the stage, Egan Bernal was called to the podium, where he was presented with the green jersey, as leader of the points classification. The 2019 race winner earned the honour by being the fastest to the first time check 5km into the stage.

Asked by Cycling Weekly if it was the plan to go for green, Bernal said: “No, for sure not. The objective was to ride as fast as we can for the stage.”

Like Thomas, the Colombian's take on the day struck a bittersweet tone. “I think it was good. We came second,” he said. “Of course, you always want to win, but this is cycling, we’re in the highest level in the world, and I think the others deserve the victory.”

Not since the final stage of the 2023 race has Tadej Pogačar been chasing Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France. He is now though.

Stage one of the 2026 edition, a 19.6km team time trial in the centre of Barcelona, ended with Vingegaard in the yellow jersey, his Visma-Lease a Bike team having produced a flawless performance. UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Pogačar finished 12 seconds adrift.

The race is long – it’s just the start of what will be three punishing weeks – but the first blow has been landed by Vingegaard.

Not that Pogačar is too concerned. The 27-year-old, who is targeting a record-equalling fifth title, knows that his rival’s advantage is minimal. But psychologically it matters that Vingegaard is on top and he is in the unfamiliar position of being the hunter and not the hunted.

“No,” he said when asked if he was disappointed. “I’m really happy – we did a super good performance. Of course you always aim for the victory but I think we did a really good team time trial. We went all in and we got third place so it was really good. We can be proud of that.” Netcompany-Ineos's Filippo Ganna was sandwiched between the two favourites for yellow.

A positive for Pogačar was that he climbed the finishing 860m ascent three seconds quicker than Vingegaard, meaning he leads the mountains classification and will be dressed in the polka dot jersey on stage two.

It’s also a sign that his third place on the opening stage was more a reflection of the performance differences between his and Vingegaard’s team.

“Good news: I have climbing legs!” Pogačar laughed. “But it was quite short, the climb. The legs are good, the sensations are really good, so the shape should be here. I hope I can continue like this. We can be happy with today and be really motivated for the next few days.”

Stage two, which starts in Tarragona – the furthest south the Tour has ever visited – before arriving back in Barcelona and finishing on the same Montjuïc circuit, offers Pogačar an immediate chance to cut his deficit to Vingegaard.

“We will fight for the yellow in the coming days, maybe tomorrow, but tomorrow is a super hard, tricky stage so you never know,” Pogačar said.

“Tomorrow we will need to be as calm as possible because already before the final I think there will be a lot of stress so we have to be ready for that.”

There’s always a temptation to read too much into the results of a single stage out of 21, and the reality is Pogačar’s losses to Vingegaard are small enough that they can be recovered in one climb alone.

But Vingegaard being in yellow for the first time since he won the last of his two maillot jaunes is significant. For a change, it’s the Dane in the driving seat, and the Slovenian on the (relative) backfoot.

He’s already shown signs of frustration, too. “I’m also super happy the day is over,” he said. “It’s super hard to do this day because it’s long, you prepare just for these 20 minutes with the team and it’s really stressful. But I enjoyed it today. It's been a long time since I’ve done a team time trial.”

Advantage Vingegaard, albeit a minor one.

Jonas Vingegaard will wear the first yellow jersey of the 2026 Tour de France after a superlative team time trial performance by his Visma-Lease a Bike squad in Barcelona.

Filippo Ganna led Netcompany-Ineos to the line as the British team finished second on the day ahead of Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

Vingegaard goes into the maillot jaune after setting a time of 21:47, leading Ganna by eight seconds, with Pogačar a further four seconds down as the 2022 and 2023 Tour de France winner lands the first blow in the 2026 race.

Netcompany-Ineos came into the stage as the main favourite, thanks to the team's phalanx of time-trialling stars. The British squad put in the time to beat, covering the course in 21:55 ahead of the start of the main General Classification teams.

However, Visma-Lease a Bike roared through the middle section of the course to take the lead heading into the climbs. Davide Piganzoli and Matteo Jorgensen led Vingegaard into the final section before the Dane put his Dutch team into first place.

Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG were the final team to finish and looked to struggle in the early stages, losing Adam Yates and Nils Politt early on. The team were 13 seconds behind Visma-Lease a Bike on the final time-check and Pogačar was able to pull back just a single second on the run to the line.

The opening test of the race sets up the early general classification, with Lidl-Trek's Juan Ayuso into 4th, 16 seconds back, Remco Evenepoel of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in 5th at 19 seconds and young star Paul Seixas riding for Decathlon-CMA CGM the biggest loser of the favourites in 10th, ceding 39 seconds.

It's the first time that Vingegaard has held the maillot jaune since he last won the race in 2023. The Dane was understandably overjoyed to finish of the strong work by his team on the final climb to the line.

"I would say it's the perfect start," Vingegaard told the TV cameras after the race. "It's still a long tour, obviously, but it's the perfect start."

"My teammates did an amazing job today, they were so strong. I didn't have to do much to be honest, they just drove me all the way to the finish."

"To take the stage win for us and to take the yellow jersey, also for me personally after a few years without it, a few hard years. It's nice for me to experience it again."

"It's the biggest race of the world. It's an amazing victory for us," Vingegaard added.

The Tour is 21 stages long, with many more decisive days to come, so Vingegaard hept his usual air of tranquility when asked about how this opening day impacts the GC fight to come.

"Of course I'm here to do the best possible GC and to try to win, but it's only stage one, there's a long way left, a long way still of the Tour de France. We have a small gap now, but of course this is the perfect start for us. I couldn't dream of a better start, to be honest."

How it Happened

The much-anticipated opening team time-trial of the 2026 Tour de France began in Barcelona’s warm afternoon sunshine, with Spanish debutants Caja Rural-Seguros RGA kicking things off, followed by Picnic-PostNL and TotalEnergies, as the Tour’s protagonists were made to wait for their first opportunity to push the pedals in anger with individual times counting towards the overall.

Caja Rural set the first time of the day, covering the 19.6km course in a hair under 24 minutes. They were narrowly beaten a few minutes later by TotalEnergies, who held the lead in the early stages before being overhauled by Groupama-FDJ United.

The opening day wasn’t without problems for several teams. Before the stage began, Belgian sprinter Arnaud de Lie failed to complete the morning recon with his Lotto-Intermarché team due to illness, but made it through the opening stage. Groupama-FDJ United also suffered due to a crash involving climbers Guillaume Martin and Clement Berthet, who looked particularly battered and bruised as he crossed the line.

Overall contender Cian Uijtdebroeks was unexpectedly distanced by his Movistar team-mates in the final climb to the line. He would go on to lose 1:53 to Vingegaard.

The first team to get past Groupama-FDJ United was Alpecin-Premier Tech, who put in an impressive ride led home by Mathieu van der Poel. He will be targeting an early stint in the yellow jersey over the coming days.

Netcompany-Ineos were major favourites coming into the day, with a raft of time-trialling heavy-hitters at their disposal. The British team went fastest at the first and second time-checks at that time, before a puncture for French leader Kévin Vauquelin ahead of the two closing climbs.

The team elected to leave Vauquelin behind as they zoned-in on their goal to win the stage. Shortly after, Egan Bernal was dropped, meaning that it fell to Filippo Ganna to finish off the job. Netcompany-Ineos became the first team to complete the course in less than 22 minutes.

The GC favourites were saved for the finale, with Paul Seixas’ Decathlon-CMA CGM heading off first of the yellow jersey-chasing teams. The French team faded in the early stages, and the youngster eventually ceded 39 seconds to Vingegaard and sits 10th overall.

Lidl-Trek, with Barcelona-born Juan Ayuso, put in a strong time, finishing 4th, 16 seconds down. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set off third-from-last, with Remco Evenepoel finishing ahead of Florian Lipowitz, the pair losing 19 and 35 seconds respectively.

The penultimate team to finish was Visma-Lease a Bike who blasted through the middle section of the course to take the lead heading into the climbs. Davide Piganzoli and Matteo Jorgensen led Vingegaard into the final section before the Dane put his Dutch team into first place with just one team left to go.

Finally, as the sun dipped over Catalunya, Tadej Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG began their Tour de France assault. Adam Yates and Nils Politt appeared to drop off the pace early, and the team were a touch off the pace in the intermediate points. Pogačar had a 13-second deficit to Vingegaard at the last check, with just Isaac del Toro for company on the lead in to the last climb. The four time winner pulled back just a single second at the line and sits in third place heading into tomorrow's punchy stage, which will also finish in Barcelona.

Results

Tour de France stage one: Barcelona > Barcelona, 19.6km

1. Visma-Lease a Bike in 21:47
2. Netcompany Ineos, +8s
3. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +12s
4. Lidl-Trek, 16s
5. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +19s
6. Decathlon-CMA CGM, +39s
7. Alpecin-Premier-Tech, +39s
8. Groupama-FDJ United, +41s
9. Bahrian Victorious, +47s
10. Jayco-AlUla, +51

General Classification after stage one

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike in 21:47
2. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Netcompany-Ineos, +8s
3. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +12s
4. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +16s
5. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +19s
6. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +26s
7. Davide Piganzoli (Ita) Visma-Lease a Bike, +28s
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +35s
9. Tobias Foss (Nor) Netcompany-Ineos, +38s
10 Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-CMA CGM, +39s

After announcing his resignation in January, Jon Dutton’s tenure as British Cycling CEO has now come to an end, with an interim CEO put in place until a permanent replacement can be appointed.

Dutton joined British Cycling in 2023 after a five-year period as chief executive of the Rugby League World Cup. He has been appointed to one of the most prominent roles in British sport as the new CEO of the British Olympic Association.

British Cycling board member Lee Gibbons has been drafted in as interim CEO, beginning the role on the 13th of July.

“Gibbons brings a wealth of experience from the sports agency sector, other sports rights holders and commercial brands, including nine years at adidas where he ran the sports marketing division,” read a British Cycling statement.

British Cycling say that recruitment for a new CEO is now in its final stages and Gibbons will remain in post until a new CEO is able to join the organisation.

These changes come at a time when the organisation’s board is without a chair, following Frank Slevin’s decision to step down from the position in March due to a bowel cancer diagnosis. Slevin held the role for eight years.

Andy Cook and James Davies have shared the role of acting chair in Slevin’s absence. British Cycling say that a new chair of the board will be announced soon.

Dutton came on board with British Cycling at a turbulent point in its history, during which the organisation lost around 200,000 members shortly after petrochemical company Shell made an agreement to become a major sponsor - a deal which was struck before Dutton’s stint in charge.

British Cycling has also faced recent criticism for its policy that stopped transgender women from competing in female racing categories.

Dutton led a period of strategic change within British Cycling, seeking to boost its social impact and instilling a new mission statement to ‘bring the joy of cycling to everyone’, while working to grow the sport as one that is more accessible and inclusive.

He told Cycling Weekly last year that he hopes to see Great Britain & Northern Ireland's Olympic selection over the coming cycles “to be truly representative of society.”

“We want cycling across Great Britain to represent society, and it is clear in some areas that is not the case,” he added.

Under his tenure, British Cycling played a key role in bringing the 2027 Tour de France grand départes to British soil and also stepped in as the organisers of the Tours of Britain.

“The finish line has arrived far sooner than I had anticipated,” Dutton wrote in a post on LinkedIn signalling the end of his time with BC.

“This journey has been a rollercoaster of challenge, joy, and everything in-between. I’m eternally grateful for the humbling opportunity to lead such a magnificent organisation.”

“It’s been a privilege, an honour and a pleasure,” he added. “I’ve made mistakes, some will cheer my time on while others will jeer, but I leave knowing I’ve given it my all.”

The Tour de France is a colorful kaleidoscope of jerseys and team kits, emblazoned with names like CMA CGM and Visma. But have you ever wondered what half of these companies actually do?

Me too, so here’s a breakdown of every major team sponsor on every jersey in the 2026 men's Tour de France peloton. Some of them might even surprise you.

Alpecin-Premier Tech

Alpecin is a German-based, caffeine-infused shampoo, marketed as helping reduce hair loss. Does it work? Perhaps the focus of a different article. Premier Tech is a Canadian industrial and agricultural technology company that manufactures industrial automation equipment, agricultural and horticultural products. They joined as a new co-title sponsor for 2026. Former co-sponsor Deceuninck (a window and door manufacturer) has stayed on but dropped from the team name.

Bahrain Victorious

Bahrain Victorious is sponsored by the Government of Bahrain. The team was founded in 2016 with support from the royal family, and has faced criticism in the past over Bahrain's human rights record. If you’re wondering where this place is, Bahrain is an island country in the Middle East, situated in the Persian Gulf between the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia and the Qatari peninsula.

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA

This team snagged one of the wild card invitations to this year’s Tour (TotalEnergies got the other). This Spanish-based team is officially called Grupo Caja Rural. It is a conglomerate of 29 Spanish credit cooperatives.

Their focus is on serving retail customers, agricultural workers, and small- to medium-sized enterprises across Spain. Seguros RGA, which means Insurance RGA, is the insurance subsidiary of Caja Rural. The team is making its Tour debut in 2026, fittingly for a Spanish-sponsored team, with the Grand Départ in Barcelona.

Cofidis

This team is one of the longest-running sponsorships in cycling, dating back to 1997, when it was founded, and it’s backed by a French consumer credit company owned by Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale. Their main focus is personal loans, revolving credit, and business financing. Unfortunately, in 2026, the team was relegated, losing its former WorldTour status.

Decathlon CMA CGM

Decathlon is a go-to sporting goods chain in France, with shops in over 80 countries worldwide. They also own the team outright and supply the squad with bikes, kit, helmet, sunglasses, nearly everything a rider needs through their in-house brand Van Rysel. CMA CGM is a French shipping and logistics giant. In fact, they are one of the largest container shipping companies in the world.

EF Education-EasyPost

EF Education First is an education and experiential travel company, focused on language learning, study abroad programs, and cultural exchange. EasyPost is the team's other namesake, a software company that helps businesses streamline their shipping and logistics. Together, they’re funding one of the most distinctive-looking teams in the peloton.

Groupama-FDJ United

Groupama is a French insurance company. It stands for Groupe des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles. FDJ, an acronym for Français des Jeux. It’s now rebranded as FDJ United and is France's national lottery operator. They also sponsor FDJ United-Suez on the UCI Women’s WorldTour.

Lidl-Trek

Most folks in Europe are already familiar with Lidl. If not, it’s a German discount supermarket chain, a big rival to Aldi. This year, Lidl moved beyond title sponsorship to take majority ownership of the team, shifting its registration from the USA to Germany. Trek is probably familiar to most. It’s an American bike manufacturer and remains a co-owner of the team.

Intermarché-Lotto

Lotto is Belgium's state-owned national lottery and has been a long-time supporter of professional cycling since its first sponsorship in 1985. Intermarché is a French-based supermarket and convenience store chain, owned by the larger Les Mousquetaires retail group. The team was formed in 2026 through a merger of Lotto's previous squad with Intermarché- Wanty. For the Tour, they've swapped their name around.

Jayco AlUla

Jayco is an American manufacturer of recreational vehicles and campers, headquartered in Middlebury, Indiana. However, the team’s financial backing comes from the Australian businessman Gerry Ryan, who owns Jayco Australia.

The co-sponsor is AlUla (the correct spelling), an ancient oasis city in Saudi Arabia. Their sponsorship goal is to help promote the location as a tourism destination — an initiative driven by the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), a Saudi Arabian government agency chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Movistar

Movistar is a telecommunications giant offering telecom services such as mobile and landline services. Plus, movie and entertainment streaming through their Movistar Plus+ — the largest subscription TV provider in Spain. All of this falls under Telefónica, the Spanish telecoms giant, which operates across Spain and Latin America. Founded in 1980, Movistar is considered the oldest continuously operated pro team in the WorldTour.

Netcompany-Ineos

Ineos is a massive multinational company based in London. Most consumers will know the name from the Ineos Grenadier off-road SUV, but the conglomerate is the world's ninth-largest chemical company. Netcompany is new to the peloton; it’s their first year of sponsorship. They are a Danish IT consultancy focused on developing and maintaining IT operations for companies throughout Europe.

NSN Cycling

NSN stands for "Never Say Never." The team is funded by two backers: Andrés Iniesta, a retired Spanish footballer, and the Swiss investment firm Stoneweg (which is part of an even larger investment firm called SWI Group). Despite its blended DNA, the team races under a Swiss flag and is based in Spain.

Picnic PostNL

Picnic is an online Dutch grocery delivery company. There are no physical stores, just an app and a fleet of delivery vehicles across the Netherlands, Germany, and France. PostNL is the Dutch national mail and parcel delivery service. A grocery app and a postal service, both in the business of getting things to your door.

Pinarello Q36.5

Pinarello is the legendary Italian bike manufacturer, and this year they’re stepping up as title sponsor and bike supplier for the squad. Co-sponsors are Q36.5 — a Swiss-based, high-end, performance cycling kit brand. The team is owned by Ivan Glasenberg, a South African-Swiss billionaire and former CEO of Glencore, one of the world’s largest natural resources companies.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

If you’ve seen any professional sports, you’ve seen Red Bull. Considered to be the third-largest soft drink brand in the world (just behind Coke and Pepsi). Bora Hansgrohe is actually two different companies. Bora is a German kitchen appliance company known for making cooktops, ovens, and refrigerators. Hansgrohe is a German manufacturer of showerheads, taps, kitchen faucets, and bathroom fittings.

Soudal Quick-Step

Soudal is a Belgian manufacturer of silicone, caulk, polyurethane foam, and adhesives. Essentially, if you take on any construction or DIY, chances are you’ve used Soudal products. Quick-Step is a global flooring manufacturer known for producing high-quality laminate, vinyl, and hardwood flooring — owned by the global company Unilin. Between the two of them, you could renovate an entire house.

TotalEnergies

If you’ve driven a car around France, chances are you’ve seen a Total Energies petrol station. However, they’re much more than just gas. This multinational, France-based company produces and markets oil, gas, biofuels, and renewable energy. In fact, they’re one of the largest energy companies in the world. Sadly, 2026 is the last year TotalEnergies will be sponsoring the team.

Tudor Pro Cycling

Tudor is a Swiss luxury watch brand and a sister company of Rolex. But the team is really owned by former cycling pro, and double Olympic Champion, Fabian Cancellara. He won two Olympic gold medals in the Men's Individual Time Trial (Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016). The team is now in its second year and already at the start of numerous WorldTour races, so definitely more to come from this young squad.

Visma-Lease a Bike

If you need some HR help, Visma is the answer. This company makes cloud ERP systems, HR management platforms, and financial reporting software. Based in Oslo, Norway, they serve over 2.5 million customers worldwide. Lease a Bike, the other sponsor, is a Dutch-based bike-leasing operation focused on offering bike leases to employees as a company perk.

The team is currently looking for a new title sponsor, trying to keep up with the deep pockets of some of the other world tour teams.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

One of the juggernauts of the peloton. The team has been backed by the government of the United Arab Emirates since 2017. XRG is an international energy investment company, owned by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Emirates is the world’s largest long-haul airline and the largest airline in the Middle East. It’s also owned by the government of Dubai.

Finally, XRG is an international energy investment company wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Essentially, state money is funding the team behind Tadej Pogačar, which has faced criticism from human rights groups.

Uno-X Mobility

Uno-X runs a network of self-service petrol stations across Norway and Denmark. They also offer EV charging stations — operated as the low-cost arm of YX Energi. The team is fully owned by Reitan AS, a Norwegian retail conglomerate that also owns the Rema 1000 supermarket chain and 7-Eleven franchises in the region — both of which also appear on the team kit.

XDS Astana

XDS is making big moves in the cycling world. Fans might know them better as X-LAB — the consumer-facing, Chinese-based bike brand and the team's new title sponsor. Astana remains in the team name as it’s the capital city of Kazakhstan. The team has been backed by the Kazakh state and sponsored by Samruk-Kazyna, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan, since 2008.

The 2026 Tour de France begins on Saturday with a team time trial in Barcelona, Spain.

The course, 19.6km long, opens on the city's seafront, before heading past the Sagrada Família and south to Montjuïc, finishing on a double-header of climbs: first, the Côte de Montjuïc, 1.1km at 5.1%, before the Côte du Stade Olympique, 800m at 7%, at the top of which the finish line is drawn.

Tour debutants and wild-card invitees Caja Rural-Seguros RGA will be the first team down the ramp at 17:05 CET (16:05 BST).

The remaining 22 teams will then set off at five-minute intervals, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the team of defending champion Tadej Pogačar, the last to begin their effort at 18:55 CET (17:55 BST).

The stage is expected to finish around 19:15 ET (18:15 BST).

It is the first time since since 1971 that the Tour has started with a team time trial.

This year, the race organiser, ASO, has introduced a new timing system at the race: times will be recorded individually, not as a team.

ASO has been trialling this system at Paris-Nice since 2023, and did so again at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes last month.

The winner of the stage is the entire team, rather than the fastest individual. However, individual times will count towards the general classification, and the race's first yellow jersey will go to the fastest rider across the line on the day.

Any riders who finish outside an extra 30% of the winner's time will be eliminated from the race.

Below are the start times for all 23 competing teams. For information on how to watch the race, visit our streaming guide.

Stage 1 team time trial start times

For the 24th year in succession, I head to the Tour de France. This year, however, things will be very different. There will be no big TV truck, nor accreditation hanging around my neck. No Gary Imlach and his polo shirts, nor Chris Boardman, with his easy-dry non-iron performance leisurewear. No Matt Rendell, nor Daniel Friebe, none of my many friends and colleagues whose names you cannot be expected to know, but whose work you might have been watching if you happened upon the ITV coverage of the last quarter century.

There will, however, be David Millar. David, along with Pete Kennaugh, Lizzie Deignan and myself have got together with Crowd Network, the team behind Watts Occurring and many other huge sports podcasts, and launched For The Love of Cycling. It is, for those of you who may have been listeners, a natural evolution of the much-loved Never Strays Far podcast, which often strayed so far from the subject as to not mention cycling at all! But “FTLoC” will have the Tour de France (Hommes and Femmes) at its very heart. And not just the Tour, but all cycling , all year round. Like ITV, it will of course be free to listen to, and to watch on YouTube.

We had initially hoped to be able this year to live stream a form of watch-along commentary. But, at least for now, the commercial, technical and legal hurdles were too high a bar in the first year. Instead, David and I, plus Lizzie and Pete when they can, will be at the roadsides of the Tour every day, catching the race as the fans that we are, watching it on French TV from cafés and bars, before producing a daily podcast as quickly as we can after the end of each stage.

This way, we will reflect on the race, as well as bring you a flavour of our own journeys of discovery around the country we all love so dearly. I do hope you sign up and subscribe for free in your thousands!

It will be strange for both David and for me not to be commentating. I have no doubt that, from time to time, we’ll fall back into old habits and start getting excitable in bunch sprints, drawing puzzled looks from our fellow afternoon Tour watchers in whichever little French village we have turned up in. But, equally, we are both thrilled by the sudden freedoms we can enjoy now we are fully in charge of our own content, free from the constraints of a mainstream broadcaster, and able to express ourselves more fully and naturally.

The same will be true for both races, as well. Lizzie will join us briefly during the men’s race, but will accompany me all the way around the women’s race. Pete will pop up from time to time, when his Astana commitments allow, and already we are building a list of other exciting potential guests.

Last year I was involved in some early conversations about continuing to work for TV, but honestly my heart was no longer in it. This feels to me like a whole new adventure and I actually cannot wait to get going. Vive le Tour!

SPECIAL CW x Road Book offer. Snap up a copy of The Road Book cycling almanack - Ned’s annual love letter to road cycling - for just £35 (up to 40% off) using the code CW2026 at www.theroadbook.co.uk

It won't have escaped your attention, I'm sure, but the Tour de France begins today. The real thing is here. Forget about the FIFA World Cup for a second, because the world's biggest bike race is here to take over your lives for the next three weeks.

In April every year, I'm convinced that the Classics, the crescendo of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, are the best races of the year. In May, you find some hipsters suggesting that the Giro d'Italia is where it's at. The truth is, however, that nothing beats the Tour de France. July starts, and something changes. It's all I will care about until August, and then it's the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. My friends might not get much of me until after that.

It's 10 years since I first saw the Tour in person; my Mum and I went on a trip to Cherbourg after I'd finished university to get a glimpse of the famous race. We only fitted in one stage, but we were blown away by the whole spectacle, after not really knowing what to expect – I envy anyone who is going for the first time this year, and gets to see the madness. The caravan, the speed of the riders, the cavalcade, and just the sheer enormity of it all. I had to check, Peter Sagan won, but I think I was just as excited to see Mark Cavendish in yellow that day.

This Tour will be my seventh as a cycling journalist, and the fifth consecutive race I've been to in person. Sometimes, sitting far from the action, cynicism about how exciting something is easily found, but up close, when you're there, there's nothing like it. Saying the Tour is the world's biggest bike race is an almost self-fulfilling prophecy, but it really is.

This year's race is tantalising. Sure, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is the favourite for the race, and it would be a surprise were he not to win the race, but it's not at all implausible that Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) could mount a stern challenge. He's the only rider to ever beat Pogačar at the Tour, after all, and won the Giro d'Italia this year; his and Visma's contention is that he's better in the second Grand Tour of the year, and we will see if that's true, and enough to win.

That's exciting enough, but the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe duo of Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz is intriguing, and might well provide some moments of entertainment, if nothing else. Then there's Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), the 19-year-old who is aiming to become the first Frenchman in 40 years to claim the yellow jersey. There's a lot in the GC race, and there's more that I haven't mentioned, but there's more to the Tour than that.

This Tour route is back-loaded, but that doesn't make it any easier. There will be day-after-day of start-to-finish gripping action. This might well be the Tour of breakaways, with teams like Soudal Quick-Step, Netcompany-Ineos and EF Education-EasyPost seemingly fully built around maximising the most of those hard days. With Pogačar so far above most other riders, there will be such a fight to make the most of punchy days, those stages where things are up in the air. There's going to be racing from the gun that you won't want to miss. Even if things to end in a bunch sprint, it won't have been easy.

All of this makes it even more heartbreaking, and frustrating, that this is the first Tour de France that won't be shown live on free-to-air television in the UK, after the demise of ITV's coverage, and live coverage now exclusively being on TNT Sports, after ITV chose not to renew its rights. People have found workarounds, whether that's through using VPNs, or watching it in Welsh for certain stages. There will also be highlights on 5, so all is not lost. However, I fear for the casual fan, the person who would switch on the Tour for hours every July, who is now lost. We can try and convey the action through words, but in 2026, it's not quite the same.

I wish I could change this. Cycling on television is beautiful. A bike race like the Tour shows a whole country, in a way that no other sport – barely any other thing – can.

That's enough moping, though. This Tour will be thrilling, I can feel it. Watch what you can, and follow along with Cycling Weekly for everything else. It's time.

The extravaganza of cycling that is the Tour de France is upon us, and that means many teams will be sporting special kits for the next month, to help us spot them in the peloton and give their sponsors some eye-catching real estate as star riders are broadcast around the world, pedalling across majestic mountain passes, huffing a puffing up hors catégorie climbs and sprinting for coveted stage wins.

In Grand Tours, certain coloured jerseys have huge significance, so some teams have to change their kits in order to avoid creating confusion. So, let’s have a look what some of the best-known names in cycling will be wearing when you next see them, as they prepare to tackle the 3320.7km route.

Visma-Lease a Bike

In the case of Visma-Lease a Bike, a wardrobe change is always required – since they usually race in a yellow kit that would look rather presumptuous during La Grande Boucle. The Dutch team decided on a design featuring iconic buildings and a honeycomb motif that signifies strength, all inspired by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who shaped the skyline of Barcelona where the Tour begins with a team time trial on Saturday.

However, someone then came up with the bright idea of letting fans decide which colour their riders should be sweating in, and given a choice between a cool white and a heat-conducting black kit, the sagacious supporters went with… the latter. However, team Head of Performance, Mathieu Heijboer, insists that the fabric is far more important than the colour, and says they’ve tested the clobber on “mannequins that can sweat”, and got no complaints from the crash test dummies. Whether Jonas Vingegaard will be so understanding, we shall soon find out.

Movistar

Movistar have chosen bust out some new threads for the Tour, as their standard white kits could cause confusion with the best young rider jersey. The Spanish team, which will be led by Belgian Cian Uijtdebroeks, have gone with a brilliant blue kit, with graphics also inspired by the signature architecture that surrounds the Grande Depart. The subtle design features some of the "shapes, textures and geometries of the Sagrada Família" – although you’d need to be a Gaudí expert to spot them.

Jayco AlUla

In an unforced change, Australian team Jayco AlUla have pimped their purple Maap kit, with the prominent addition of some go-faster green flames rising from the waist and the sleeves. Impressively, the hot design – which will help multiple stage-winner and veteran puncheur Michael Matthews, plus Luke Plapp, Ben O'Connor and co stand out in the peloton – was first unveiled during Paris Fashion Week.

Pinarello Q36.5

For their debut appearance at the Tour, Tom Pidcock and his Pinarello-Q36.5 squadmates will be trading the team’s typical navy gear for a special light-blue and faint grey-coloured kit that promises to keep them cool.

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA

Another wild card entry taking part in this year’s race, for the first time Spanish outfit Caja Rural-Seguros RGA are celebrating their debut appearance at the world’s biggest bike race with a classic kit coloured green and white (a nod to an earlier incarnation of the team, way back in the 1980s), which poignantly features the inscription ‘#ForçaJaume’, a touching reference to team rider Jaume Guardeño, who was seriously injured in a crash in April and remains in neurological rehab.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

German team Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have gone with a redesign rather than a complete palette change for the Tour, and the squad – led by Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz – will be rolling out in a kit that remains blue and red on white, but with some extra design flourishes and patterns.

National Champions

The other distinctive kits you might spot at the Tour are the jerseys worn by national champions, including the one very newly minted for freshly crowned British champion Fred Wright (Pinarello Q36.5).

When you think of Chris Froome, what do you picture?

Is it that victory on La Planche des Belles Filles at the Tour de France in 2012, ahead of Bradley Wiggins, as he announced himself on the world stage? Is it his dominant performances in 2013 and 2015, as he became the first British rider to win the Tour twice? Is it any of the madness of his third Tour crown in 2016, the running up Mont Ventoux, the attack off the Peyresourde to victory, or getting in a breakaway with Peter Sagan? Is it his surge to victory at the 2018 Giro d'Italia, the epic on the Colle delle Finestre? There's so much to choose from.

Or is it anything after the horror crash he suffered at the Dauphiné in 2019? The five years at Israel-Premier Tech, which saw only eight top-20 finishes, and two individual top-10s? Is the Chris Froome you think of the one who finished 97th at the Tour de Suisse last year, or 113th at the Vuelta a España in 2022, the rider who won the whole race twice? Is it even his use of asthma drug salbutamol in 2017, which he received an adverse analytical finding for, over which he was exonerated?

There's Froome the influencer, the brand ambassador, the figurehead, as opposed to Froome the great racer. It feels almost a shame that the memories of the two have become blurred.

Three years ago, when asked if Froome has been value for money, Israel-Premier Tech's owner, Sylvan Adams, told Cycling Weekly: “Absolutely not. How could we say we had value for money? We signed Chris to be the leader of our Tour de France team and he’s not even here so that cannot be considered value for money.

“This is not a PR exercise. Chris isn’t a symbol, he isn’t a PR tool, he’s supposed to be our leader at the Tour de France and he’s not even here, so no I couldn’t say he’s value for money, no.”

Looking back, it's easy to suggest that Froome should have retired while he was at the top, and not had this public battle with form and relevance. It's true, we might have a very different view of Froome if he had left the sport in 2019. However, who are we to deny Froome the opportunity to keep on racing, which he clearly loved, given he was offered a five-year contract to keep doing his job. He suffered from serious injuries, and bounced back, wanting to return to the top – his commitment should be respected.

Froome's retirement, long-expected, long-trailed, long-awaited, was finally confirmed this week. The truth is, in time, we will remember Froome the rider, the dominant stage racer of his generation, the man who made the Tour de France predictable before Tadej Pogačar was even an adult.

A short list of British riders who have won more than one Grand Tour: Chris Froome, Simon Yates. An even shorter list of British riders who have won more than two Grand Tours: Chris Froome. That's his legacy.

Fans in the UK wanting to watch the Tour de France live for free have a lifeline in Welsh-language channel S4C.

Also available on BBC iPlayer, S4C will show live coverage of stages 1, 2, 3, 18, 19, 20 and 21. This means fans will be able to watch the key Grand Départ stages in Catalonia, and the denoument on Alpe d'Huez and in Paris, although coverage will obviously be in Welsh.

This season will be the first season in decades that the Tour will not be shown live, in full, on television for free in the UK. In 2025, it was revealed that ITV would no longer televise the Tour, the exclusive UK rights having been sold to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the parent company of TNT Sports.

Live English coverage in the UK will remain on TNT Sports and HBO Max, with contracts costing £30.99 a month, although it can be purchased for £25.99 a month on a 12-month contract.

However, free-to-air highlights will be shown on 5 for the first time this summer. The terrestrial channel, formerly Channel 5, has signed a deal until 2028 to show daily coverage of Tour, as well as highlights of the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, presented by Rebecca Charlton.

The station will also show live coverage of the UK Grands Départs of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2027. Highlights will be on 5 at 7pm every evening, starting Saturday 4 July in Barcelona. Daily highlights of the 2027 Tour de France Femmes will also be available on 5.

S4C is also in negotiations to cover the Tour de France in 2027 when it begins in the UK and passes through Wales for the first time in its history.

This year, the presenting team includes Rhodri Gomer, Peredur ap Gwynedd, also known as a guitarist for Pendulum, Gruff Lewis and Manon Lloyd.

Ap Gwynedd said: "I am very happy that S4C is broadcasting the Tour de France once again, for the 13th year in a row. It's pretty bonkers that we've broadcast the race since 2014. And of course, with a stage of the Tour taking place in Wales next year, the word 'exciting' doesn't even come close to how I feel about the future!"

Stages 1, 2, 3, 19, 20 and 21 will be shown on S4C, S4C Clic, BBC iPlayer and S4C Chwaraeon’s YouTube channel, while stage 18 will be on just S4C Clic, BBC iPlayer.

Read our full guide on how to watch the 2026 Tour de France here.

Watch Tour de France 2026 live streams from anywhere in the world as Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard once again fight it out for the yellow jersey.

Today, we have Stage 5 and the first real chance for the sprinters to stamp their authority on this year's race. Heading from Lannemezan to Pau, the likes of Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen, and Tim Merlier will likely lead the way.

For many riders and fans alike, the Tour is the season's peak – the biggest stage where the greatest stars challenge each other over some of cycling's most legendary battlefields.

The race entered the Pyrenees as early as stage three. Following that mountain range the race heads north to Bordeaux before cutting diagonally across the country, through the Massif Central, onto the Vosges, before heading down into the Alps and two stage finishes up Alpe d'Huez.

Alongside Pogačar and Vingegaard, Tom Pidcock, Paul Seixas, Remco Evenepoel and Mathieu van der Poel are among the stars to watch over the three weeks of the French Grand Tour.

Below, Cycling Weekly has gathered all the key information on broadcasters and live streams so you can watch the Tour de France wherever you are.

Quick guide to watching the Tour de France

• UK: TNT Sports / HBO Max (£30.99/mon)
• US: Peacock ($10.99/mon)
• Canada: Flobikes ($49.99/mon)
• Australia: SBS (Free)
• Free live streams: SBS (Australia), France TV (France), RAI (Italy) RTBF (Belgium), RTVE (Spain), NOS (Netherlands)
• Anywhere: Watch your local stream from anywhere with NordVPN

Can I watch the Tour de France for free?

Fans in Australia, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands can watch the Tour de France for free.

In Australia, the race is being shown on TV and online by SBS, the country's public service broadcaster. Streaming is available at SBS On Demand, with linear viewing available on SBS Viceland.

In France itself, the Tour de France will also be shown live via host broadcaster France Télévisions, with the action on France 2 or France 3 and online via France.TV.

In Italy through RAI Play online, in Belgium on RTL and VRT, in Spain on RTVE, and in the Netherlands on NOS are also all free.

Coverage is geo-restricted, so if you're not in any of these countries right now, and these channels are your usual port of call, you'll need a VPN to get your usual coverage while abroad – more on that below.

How to watch the Tour de France while abroad

Most streaming platforms have geo-restrictions these days, which means they only work in certain countries. But being locked out of the races is a thing of the past thanks to a VPN.

A Virtual Private Network is a piece of internet security software that can alter your device's location, so you can unblock your usual streaming services, even when you're abroad.

► Should I use a VPN to watch cycling? Explaining the benefits, costs, considerations, and best VPNs for streaming the races

How to watch the Tour de France in the UK

In the UK, the race will be shown live across TNT Sports and HBO Max.

Live streaming is available on HBO Max, with linear viewing on TNT Sports. Plans start at £25.99 per month, with rolling subscriptions available at £30.99.

However, if you just want to watch highlights, these will be on free-to-air channel 5 every evening, as part of a new deal.

Also, if you don't mind watching in Welsh, stages 1, 2, 3, 18, 19, 20 and 21 will be shown on Welsh-language channel S4C.

How to watch the Tour de France in the US and Canada

For US viewers, this year's coverage of the Tour de France is going to be on NBC and Peacock

Both outlets come from the same NBCUniversal stable, with NBC available on many cable packages and Peacock – which is set to show all 21 stages live – on a pay per month basis. It'll cost you $10.99/month.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Flobikes is in charge of broadcasting the Tour de France in Canada. Subscriptions cost CA$49.99 a month, with big savings for long-term plans. The Flobikes TV app is available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast and Apple TV, as well as on iOS and Android.

How to watch Tour de France in Australia

In Australia, you can watch every stage of the Tour de France for free via SBS On Demand.

All you will need is an account with a valid Australian postcode (e.g. 2002).

What to expect at the Tour de France

The Tour de France 2026 will be the 113th edition of what most bike racing fans view as the greatest bike race in the world. It will cover 3,333km over the course of three weeks and 21 stages – with two rest days along the way.

Starting on Saturday 4 July, the French Grand Tour begins in Barcelona with a team time trial, and then another lumpy stage in Spain, before it heads north to France to finish stage three in the Pyrenees.

From there, the race deals with the Pyrenees early, then cuts through the Massif Central up to the Vosges, then through the Jura to the Alps, where there is a showdown on Alpe d'Huez with two stages back-to-back on the antepenultimate and penultimate days.

The race ends on Sunday 26 July in Paris with a repeat of the Montmartre circuit which was such a success last year.

There are multiple contenders for the famous yellow jersey, but Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) stands above them all. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) will attempt to the do the double after he won the Giro d'Italia in May.

Remco Evenepoel is back, but with a new team in Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, where he will share leadership with last year's third-place, Florian Lipowitz, while the hopes of France hinge on the success of 19-year-old Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM).

In between all those, there's a hatful of sprinters, puncheurs, and climbers who will be hoping to make their mark with a stage win.

2026 Tour de France stage start and finish times

Tour de France 2026 - General Classification

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Jonas Vingegaard has played down suggestions of fatigue after winning the Giro d’Italia, declaring himself fitter, stronger and happier as he attempts to win a third Tour de France.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider cruised to the Giro title in May without serious opposition, in doing so becoming only the eighth man in history – and first since the now-retired Chris Froome in 2018 – to win all three Grand Tours.

Now the Dane, 29, is aiming to deny his eternal rival Tadej Pogačar a fifth and third successive Tour de France title in what is set to be the duo’s latest ding-dong battle.

Speaking to press in Barcelona before the start of the 113th Tour, Vingegaard was asked about the physical and mental toll of riding the Giro before the Tour. “Without taking anything away from anyone at the Giro, it is true that I did not have to completely kill myself [to win the race]. I didn’t come out of the Giro completely on my knees,” he said.

Vingegaard won all five mountain-top stages at the Italian race and his closest challenger, Felix Gall, finished more than five minutes adrift of him in the general classification. It was, in reality, a procession for the rider who also won the Vuelta a España last September.

“That means you can recover faster afterwards and start your training and get into a good rhythm quicker. If you are on your knees after the Giro, you need two weeks, maybe even more, to recover," Vingegaard added.

“Then it is hard to start building towards the Tour because then the Tour is already coming. For me at least, I came out of the Giro in a good way and pretty quickly I could start building towards the Tour de France.”

Pogačar, in 2024, was the last rider to win the Giro and Tour in the same year, the Slovenian becoming the first rider to do so since Marco Pantani in 1998.

The 26-year stretch without a double winner led many commentators and riders to dub it the near-impossible task. Vingegaard is hoping to add his name to the short roll call of successors.

“We tried something new [in going for the Giro-Tour double], which was also the plan, because I think we realised after last year that it was not really so enjoyable to do what we did every year,” Vingegaard said.

“So now we tried to mix it up with the preparation for the Tour, and it has been going really well this year.

“I think I’m ready for this race and I am really looking forward to it. It has been an amazing year for me so far and I am looking forward to it hopefully continuing,”

Vingegaard and his Visma team have repeatedly said in the past few months that he is in better shape than ever before, and it was a message that the rider himself repeated.

“I’m both better and stronger,” he said. “I would even say I’m happier in a mental state also; I’m in a very good place. I’ve had a very good year so far. I’ve enjoyed riding a bit more this year than I did last year.

“I’ve had a very good season so far already with the three races I’ve done” – he also won Paris-Nice and Volta a Catalunya – “and of course it takes some pressure off me and off the team.

“But the Tour de France is still the biggest race. It is still the race you really want to win. I’m not saying that I’m not happy with what I’ve already won this year because I am extremely happy, especially also winning the Giro d’Italia title and now having won all three Grand Tours.

“But again, the Tour de France is just the biggest race of the year and I’m here to go for the victory.”

Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome has confirmed his retirement from professional cycling.

The 41-year-old, who has not raced since last August, confirmed the news on Thursday at an event in Barcelona for Škoda, the car brand for whom he is an ambassador.

According to a report in Sporza, Froome was asked directly if he had retired, to which he responded: “Yes.”

“Unfortunately, there was that fall last summer. That wasn't the way I wanted it to end. But even then, I knew it was over,” he said.

Froome was airlifted to hospital in August last year after a training crash in which he suffered five broken ribs, a spine fracture, a collapsed lung, and a pericardial rupture, a life-threatening tear to the sac that surrounds the heart.

His last race came two weeks before the crash, at the Tour de Pologne, where he finished 68th overall.

Froome's contract at Israel-Premier Tech was not renewed at the end of 2026. He has been without a team for the past six months.

The announcement of his retirement comes days before the start of the 113th edition of the Tour de France in Barcelona, Spain.

Froome’s legacy will last as the greatest Grand Tour racer of his generation. During his 19-year-career, he won four Tours de France, two Vueltas a España, and a Giro d’Italia, making him one of only eight men in history to win all three races, even holding all the titles at the same time in 2018.

He is best known for being the leader of Team Sky, for whom he rode for 11 seasons between 2010 and 2020. It was during this time that he claimed all of his 46 professional victories, including his remarkable Giro d'Italia comeback in 2018, when he overhauled a more than three-minute gap with a solo attack over the Colle delle Finestre.

His Giro title that year remains his last victory. The following year, 2019, he crashed into a wall in a time trial recon at the Critérium du Dauphiné, suffering fractures to his sternum, neck, femur, elbow and ribs, and losing four pints of blood.

He joined Israel-Premier Tech on a five-year deal in 2021, but struggled to regain his form. The last Grand Tour he rode was the 2022 Vuelta a España, where he finished 113th overall, and scored a stage best of 71st.

Since leaving Israel-Premier Tech at the start of this year, he has taken on new roles as chief innovation officer of AI training platform Vekta and a cycling ambassador for Škoda.

Brimming with energy and sporting a blonde-dyed buzzcut that will put paid to any ideas of tufty hair protruding from helmet vents, Tadej Pogačar addressed a packed Tour de France press room in Barcelona for a look ahead to the race.

Last in a series of big GC players to subject themselves to media questioning in the sumptuous surrounds of the city's Recinto Modernista, with the Sagrada Familia looking on just a block away, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had his 'Pogačar' dialled up to 11 as he began by offering his smiley thanks to the media for turning up, flanked by team-mate Isaac Del Toro.

The questions went this way and that, with those asking them perhaps aware that the usual 'what are your hopes for the race?' and 'how's your form?' were somewhat redundant ('winning' and 'pretty amazing, thanks', presumably being the answers).

Asked about his rivals and in particular Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pogačar took the first of more than one opportunity to big up the young team-mate sitting beside him.

"I don't think [Vingegaard] is the only one that can come close. I think there's quite a few guys here that could push for the victory – this guy next to me…" he said, nodding towards a slightly embarrassed looking Del Toro.

"But competition between me and Jonas the last four years was spectacular, I would say. I think we push further to new heights every year," he said.

A certain amount was also made of his scant 2026 racing calendar – he has only raced 16 days up to now, but he said he was feeling, "pretty good. Only 16 days of racing, but the training kilometres also count, and there's been a lot."

Was racing fewer days helping him to enjoy it more, he was asked.

"I've enjoyed racing all my lifetime," he responded, batting the question away, "but I must say that maybe I even enjoy it more every year because I've stayed in the same team with the same riders and people around me, so every race I feel like I look forward to coming back with the teammates and staff. The race is also there, but mainly I enjoy just seeing the team and being around the guys."

The 27-year-old, who is gunning for a landmark fifth Tour de France win this year, was asked, too, about his pro cyclist girlfriend Urška Žigart, who broke her jaw in a crash in the recent Tour de Suisse. "Thank you for the thought," he offered, before explaining that she was healing fast and already riding outside, even if the doctors had advised against it. And he addressed, too, the €100,000 he donated to his home village of Komenda, which was hit by a storm last month, with roofs ripped off houses. "I think it's quite important to have a roof over your head," he said. "While I was growing up in Komenda, for me everything was perfect, all the neighbours, all the people there… It's my time to give back."

The Tour de France begins on Saturday with a team time trial, around a city that is already thrumming to the beat of the race, dripping in Tour de France Yellow. Pogačar will hope to be sporting that yellow too come Saturday night, and he left no doubt as to how much he was looking forward to it, giving local journalists the top line they had perhaps turned up for.

"I really like Barcelona. It's one of the coolest cities ever," he gushed, before quipping, "It would be better to be here for vacation. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to the Grand Départ here, and really excited to race around here and similar roads as in [the Volta a] Catalunya. I think we are in the same hotel as we were on stage one in Catalunya, so it's quite familiar."

And Pogačar in the race lead on Saturday? That might be more familiar still.

23 teams line up in Barcelona for the team time trial around the Catalonian capital that opens the 2026 Tour de France this weekend. Once again the race pits the big budget super teams against the minnows of the sport, getting by on a budget that's a fraction of the size.

Tadej Pogačar is not only the strongest rider in the peloton, he is supported by the strongest team. But only three teams are starting the race with a realistic goal of taking home the yellow jersey at the end, the rest will be battling for stages, classification jerseys or just some TV time.

Below is our guide to all the teams, what their goals are, and how they might go about achieving them.

Read more: Tour de France 2026 | Tour de France 2026 start list | Tour de France 2026 route

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

Visma - Lease a Bike

Red Bull - Bora hansgrohe

Netcompany-Ineos

Alpecin-Premier Tech

Bahrain Victorious

Decathlon CMA CGM

EF Education-EasyPost

Groupama-FDJ United

Jayco-AlUla

Lidl-Trek

NSN Cycling

Pinarello Q36.5

Soudal Quick-Step

Uno-X Mobility

Movistar

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA

Picnic PostNL

XDS Astana

TotalEnergies

Intermarché Lotto

Tudor Pro Cycling

Cofidis

Paul Seixas is three minutes late for his press conference. Inside a side room of Barcelona’s former Sant Pau hospital, a grand auditorium with yellow tiles on the ceiling and stained glass windows, the suspense is building. The 90 or so chairs are not enough for the more than 150 journalists that have turned up. Those that came last are standing along the wings, waiting cross-armed for the rider of the moment: France’s teenage darling, the youngest Tour de France debutant in 89 years.

Hushed whispers announce Seixas’s arrival. Fresh-faced and dressed in a white shirt and cream chinos, he could be mistaken for a teenager on work experience as he files through the crowds. He steps up onto the small stage, drops into a chair, and relaxes his body against the armrest. Alone, he then looks out to the back of the room, where 10 television cameras point back at him.

It’s unheard of for the Tour to host a pre-race press conference for a 19-year-old debutant. These events are usually only reserved for the reigning yellow jersey, world champions, and multiple stage winners – in two hours, Tadej Pogačar will sit in the same seat. But the furore around Seixas demanded this occasion.

How does he feel, then, at the centre of it all? “It’s a bit particular,” Seixas says, rushing his words slightly. “It’s true that the Tour brings a new dimension, and this is the proof of that. It’s a new experience for me.”

Such is the excitement in Barcelona around the Decathlon CMA CGM rider that the French media couldn’t contain their questions until he arrived; in Mathieu van der Poel’s press conference, held just before, one reporter asked the Dutchman what he expected of the race’s youngest rider, purely because the two share French ancestry. “He’s capable of doing great things,” Van der Poel said. “He has shown he has the level to compete with the best.”

That same belief is shared in the room. This spring, the world watched Seixas finish runner-up to Pogačar at Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. People were in awe when he won Flèche Wallonne in April, soaring up the final climb as if shot out of a canon.

One journalist begins his question by comparing Seixas to Lamine Yamal, the FC Barcelona footballer, who at 18 years old is already among the best in the world. The rest of the room laughs, but the parallel isn’t so far-fetched.

Does the hype faze Seixas at all? It appears not. “The priority is the general classification,” he says, focused, two days before the Grand Départ. He may be the youngest rider on the start list, but he’s here to win; he’s been saying the same ever since his Tour participation was announced in May.

“What position [I can finish], I don’t know yet,” he says. “But I won’t take any risks for anything else other than the general classification.”

The risks, perhaps, are a nod to his crash at last month's Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Seixas left his final tune-up race early, his arms bandaged in gauze after crashing into a ravine. “It was a mistake on my part… It happens,” he says of the crash, but there’s no worry about any lingering pains.

Instead, stepping into the unknown of a three-week Grand Tour, he’s approaching the race as he would any other: with the will to learn, and a desire to win.

“Of course there are different ways to win on a course like this,” Seixas says. “I will see how it goes, how I can perform, at which level, and in which place, and we'll see if we can call it a win or not.”

The cycling world will watch closely, too.

If you've ever opened up Duolingo and searched for 'Tour de France', you have our sympathy. Picking up the dialect of bike racing is not unlike going back to school and is no overnight thing. Not only are there an abundance of words and phrases that you've probably never come across previously, at least in this context, many of them are also in French, especially at the Tour de France. If you're new to it, it can all be rather baffling.

We've put together this glossary of terms that you can save in your bookmarks to help you out while you're following the Tour de France, and next time a commentator tells you there's an echelon in the peloton you can nod sagely rather than going down the google route (again), or ploughing on in ignorance.

Arrivée
The end point of the race, or the finish line. The literal translation for the latter is ligne d'arrivée

Bidon
A water bottle, held on the riders's bikes by bottle cages on the down and seat tubes. You'll often see domestiques going back to the team car to load up with multiple bidons which they take up to their team leaders who get to sit in the bunch and not waste energy. Riders used to stuff them in their pockets and down their jerseys, some now have vests that hold the bottles. A bidon is also a prized possession of a road-side fan. As the riders discard their empty ones, spectators will do their best to grab them.

Breakaway
A rider or group of riders who have managed to jump away from the peloton (see below). Often this is a speculative move and unlikely to last all the way to the finish line, but for small teams in particular it's a way of achieving precious airtime for their sponsors. On occasions the breakaway does succeed, with lumpy days that fall between 'mountainous' and 'flat' often yielding the most success.

Bonk
When a rider comes to a virtual standstill because they have run out of energy. Also know as hitting the wall, or crashing, it's when a rider has depleted their glycogen stores and have no fuel left in the body to maintain anything more than a very, very slow, painful cadence. You'll rarely see it at the Tour de France as riders have chefs and nutritionists looking after their every need, and DS's in the car behind reminding them to eat and drink every 30 minutes, but it remains the scourge of the amateur cyclist who doesn't take enough food and drink with them on a ride.

Col
The word that usually appears in front of the name of a mountain, eg, the Col du Tourmalet, often shorted to Col. It actually means pass, as in the road that goes over the top of a mountain climb. Côte is used for smaller climbs, at the Tour, that's typically a category 4 or 3 climb

Commissaire
The official overseeing the racing and ensuring the UCI's rules are being adhered to by the riders and their DS's in the team car behind. There will also be technical commissaires whose job it is to ensure the UCI's technical rules and regulations are adhered to. Their work is done before a stage when bikes are weighed and or measured.

Coureur
Technically the French word for a runner. Coureur cycliste is the correct term for a racing cyclist that often gets shortened to just Coureur.

Directeur Sportif (DS)
The person behind the wheel of the team car behind the peloton. The DS is the manager on the road, providing support to their riders. This is both via the team radio (riders have earpieces in to talk to each other and the DS in the car behind) and in person when a rider drops back behind the peloton, or, when a rider in a break calls his team car up. To do this they go to the back of their group, put one arm in the air to alert the race referee who will call up their team car. Most DS's are former riders who are experienced at moving up through the line of cars behind a peloton, or passing a peloton to get to their rider in the break. There are strict rules about doing this, and DS's can be fined or kicked off a race if they break them.

Echelon
Not to be confused with peloton but not unrelated, this is when the bunch is forced to ride in a diagonal line across the road because crosswinds mean riders cannot find shelter directly behind each other like they usually would. Instead they shelter from the crosswinds to the side of each other, creating a line across the road.

However, this line inevitably has to end when it reaches the far side of the road, forcing riders out of the line – this is where an echelon becomes a key tactical device. The gaps created on windy days often mean the weaker teams can lose significant amounts of time.

Etape
French word for 'stage'. There are 21 stages in the Grand Tours

Equipe
Team. there are 23 teams taking part in the Tour de France. L'Equipe is a daily french sports newspaper launched in 1946. It is the successor to L'Auto, the paper whose editor first came up with the idea of a race around France to promote the paper. L'Auto was printed on yellow pages, hence the yellow jersey being worn by the leader of the Tour de France

Flamme rouge
Given that the finish line is usually called (perhaps disappointingly) 'the finish line' and requires no explanation, the flamme rouge, or red kite as it's known in English, feels like an appropriate place to sign off. Suspended from a gantry spanning the road, this is a key marker in the race which signifies one kilometre to go to the finish. On a long, arduous day most riders will be extremely happy to see it, but when it comes to sprint days, it's where the action really begins and the fast finishers prepare to earn their crust.

General classification (GC)
Often referred to simply as the 'GC', the general classification is the leaderboard showing which riders are leading the race overall. The leader will be the rider who has amassed the least time on aggregate across each of the stages, and they wear the coveted yellow jersey. The aim is to be at the top of the General Classification in Paris – the rider who achieves that wins the Tour de France.

Grand Départ
We might as well start here. A French phrase that translates as 'big start', it refers to the beginning of a Grand Tour and, in cases where it takes place in a country that isn't the usual host nation (such as Spain in this year's Tour), often refers to the entire three days spent in that country.

Grupetto
This Italian word refers to the group of non-climbers (or simply those having a bad day) that amasses on mountain days to pace each other up the climbs and ensure they finish the stage within the designated time cut. It's sometimes referred to as the laughing group, but while they're riding more slowly than the leaders, mountain stages are never easy for anyone, and you won't see that much laughing going on.

Hors-cat
The toughest category of climb in bike racing, and short for the French 'hors-catégorie', which essentially means 'beyond classification'. It usually refers to the biggest mountains with a challenging combination of length, gradient and altitude. Climb categories begin at 4 for the easiest, moving up through 3, 2, and 1 before reaching HC. Not all climbs on a stage will be categorised, but the big mountain ascents always are.

Leadout
When sprinters thank their teams after winning a sprint finish, they're often effusive in their praise; this is because they've enjoyed a good leadout – one of the most challenging, fraught and risky aspects of bike racing. Each team hoping to deliver a sprinter to victory will provide them with their own leadout – a line of riders charging ahead of them to the finish line, offering shelter from the wind and keeping the speed high.

Each rider will have their own job to do, with the first ones kicking in with perhaps 5km to go, and then pulling out of the line once their time is up and their legs exhausted. The final rider is the most important – called the 'leadout man' in men's racing, and delivers their charge to the 250m to go mark, hopefully in a good position to sprint for the win.

Mechanical
Short-hand for 'mechanical issue', this term is a catch-all for just about any bike-based issue that may befall a rider during the race. Usually signified by a rider standing at the roadside looking at their machine in dismay, these can range from slipped chains and broken gears (among the most common) to a broken frame (unusual) and anything in-between. There is also the good old puncture, although this would usually be referred to as such. Whatever the problem, a mechanical can often be attended to by the neutral service (see below).

Musette
Small bag handed up by team helpers in designated feed zones containing food and gels.

Neutral service
Provided by components manufacturer Shimano, the distinctive blue neutral service cars and motorbikes at the Tour de France provide spare wheels and bikes to riders who have been stranded by mechanical issues and are a long way from their team cars. As the name suggests, the neutral service is not affiliated to any particular team. It carries replacement wheels and bikes for many sizes and fitments but not all, and sometimes riders must simply endure a frustrating wait for their team car to appear.

Parcours
Another French word meaning the route of a bike race

Peloton
This one you'll hear a lot and, once again, it's French. It refers to the main body of riders in a race, which is often also called the 'bunch'. When all the riders are together, it's often simply used casually to refer to the race, but if there is a breakaway up the road it's also a useful way of denoting the main body of riders that are chasing behind, and if you're watching on TV you may well see a small 'P' for peloton in the top left corner, where the time gaps are shown.

Puncheur
A word mixing French and English to create a label for a rider that does pretty much what it says on the tin. These are the riders that pack a punch, usually denoting the ability to launch powerful attacks and even win on the smaller, steeper climbs – useful on the in-between stages that don't involve major mountains or flat finishes.

Rouleur
Another rider label, denoting a powerful rider with the ability to ride hard for long periods, typically on flat to rolling terrain. Mountains are usually hostile territory for them, where they'll often be found in the grupetto. But once things flatten out, they can put the lightweight climbers to the sword, and will often be found at or near the front putting in sterling work for their teams in chasing breakaways.

Sprint day / sprint finish
Theoretically, all days finish in a sprint, unless a rider wins alone. But if you see or hear a particular stage referred to as a sprint day, or that it's expected to be a sprint finish, it usually means that the riders are predicted to be all together at the end, with the very fastest power sprinters contesting the victory. This usually applies on the flatter stages; a hill or two mid-way won't usually change this, but one that comes near the end can really upset the sprinters' plans.

Sticky bottle
When a rider goes back to a team car to get bidons for themselves or a team mate, someone from the car will hand them a bidon. The rider will grip it, and for a moment neither will let go. This allows the rider to stop pedalling and not lose any speed. They will often pull themselves forward from the bottle too. If they hold on for too long though, they risk getting fined. One infamous example of a rider using a sticky bottle to cheat was Vincenzo Nibali at the Vuelta a Espana (below).

Souplesse
Another French word, the literal translation of which is 'flexibility'. In a cycling context it refers to an effortless, yet powerful pedalling action. It suggests a rider in form, or one that had a particularly stylish and effective style of riding.