2026 Tour de France Preview

The battle for yellow

Once again, the general classification looks set to come down to a straight fight between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, the two riders who have defined the Tour for several editions running. Pogačar arrives as the rider to beat on paper, with João Almeida as a genuine podium threat riding alongside him at UAE. Vingegaard has built his entire season around peaking in July, backed by a Visma | Lease a Bike squad built around Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss. The race won't wait to start asking questions: the opening team time trial in Barcelona is a deceptively important test, capable of opening gaps between the GC teams before the race has even reached the mountains. Remco Evenepoel adds a third name to the podium conversation, with Florian Lipowitz coming in as the form rider behind him capable of springing a surprise of his own.

The sprinters

Away from the GC fight, the flat stages promise a stacked sprint field. Jasper Philipsen returns as the rider to beat in a bunch finish, with Tim Merlier, Biniam Girmay and Mads Pedersen all capable of taking stage wins and pushing for the green jersey across three weeks of racing. Mathieu van der Poel adds another layer entirely — capable of winning from a sprint, a breakaway, or a hilly finish on any given day. Expect the points classification to stay open until Paris.

The outsiders and the rising stars

Behind the headline names, a handful of riders could shape how the race actually unfolds. Ben Healy is capable of a stage win and a top-ten finish, Mattias Skjelmose has the puncher's edge for the medium-mountain stages, and Tom Pidcock remains a wildcard anywhere the road tilts uphill. Keep an eye on Isaac del Toro, UAE's young climber already mixing it with the best, and especially on Paul Seixas — the teenager whose results this season have made him one of the most talked-about names in the entire peloton. Carlos Rodríguez, by contrast, arrives well short of the form that once had him compared to Pogačar and Vingegaard, and few expect him to be a factor for the top of the general classification this time. None of these riders are favourites — but any of them could be the difference between predicting the podium and just predicting the winner.

Think you've got it figured out? Pick a winner for every stage and see how your predictions stack up against everyone else's.