#tour-de-france

#tour-de-france

From Montjuic in Barcelona to Montmartre in Paris, the 2026 Tour de France presents champion Tadej Pogacar and his rivals with a plethora of mountain passes and peaks, including two stages tackling the revered Alpe d'Huez. The 21-day race will start from Barcelona on July 4 and cover 3,333 kilometres before finishing beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on July 26 after three climbs of the cobbled rue Lepic in Montmartre, organisers revealed at Thursday's unveiling.

An entire stage of the 2026 Tour de France will take place in the southwest department of Dordogne. There will be a stage of the Tour de France in Dordogne next summer, the department has announced. The authorities have for several years bid to host a full stage of the race, and the southwest region will now host one from 11th July 2026.

I wanted to get everything out of every opportunity I had this year,

"I had many reasons to smile this morning. Back on the bike, and shared a bit of my ride with this beautiful humans Urška Zigart and Tadej Pogačar."

"I had it on my phone while we were here yesterday doing the team presentation, I was watching. I was super happy for Niamh, and it's a bit of inspiration for this week, too. I think it could be a good one," Fisher-Black said.

"Ben Healy: Tour de France stage winner, yellow jersey wearer, and now Super Combative. This one is for the breakaway artists. Those who emptied themselves every day out on the road and entertained us with every pedal stroke."

"The change of the stage route has had multiple side-effects, amongst them the delaying of the winner's final, full-length press conference, traditionally held the night before, until the late evening after stage 21's conclusion."

The riders begin today at the Tour's most westerly point in Brest at the start of what is officially classed as a flat stage. However, this stage includes three Cat. 4 climbs and one Cat. 3 climb, introducing technical challenges for sprinters and making a sprint finish less certain. The course favors all-rounders, evidenced by previous performances, particularly from strong competitors like Marianne Vos, who won the first stage and currently holds the yellow jersey.

In 1999, the French newspaper L'Équipe used the headline "On Another Planet" to insinuate Lance Armstrong was cheating, which foreshadowed his later doping scandal.

Stage 19 of the 2025 Tour de France has been shortened from 129.9 kilometres to just 95km and two classified climbs eliminated from the route, race organisers announced late on Thursday.