Visma-Lease a Bike wins team time trial on Tour de France stage one as Jonas Vingegaard roars into the yellow jersey
Dane lands first blow in the battle for yellow as Tadej Pogačar has to settle for third place
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
