Tour de France 2026

The Tour de France 2026 is the 113th edition of the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tours. The peloton sets off from a seaside platform in Barcelona, and after three weeks it races to the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, preceded by a cobbled climb up Parisian Montmartre. This is only the third time the Grande Boucle has started on Spanish soil, following San Sebastián in 1992 and Bilbao in 2023. The first three stages take place entirely in Catalonia, after which the race crosses the Pyrenees and returns to French roads.

The route has been designed to keep the tension going right to the very end. The race opens with a team time trial in which (unusually) each rider's individual time counts, rather than the time of the team's fifth rider. The programme features five summit finishes, the debut of the climb to the Plateau de Solaison, and a historic touch in the form of two finishes on Alpe d'Huez on consecutive days. The mountains appear as early as the first week in the Pyrenees, before leading through the Massif Central, the Vosges and the Alps. For fans, this means a route full of opportunities for breakaways and a thrilling battle for the yellow jersey.

Key information

Edition: 113th Tour de France
Dates: from Saturday 4 July to Sunday 26 July 2026
Start: Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain)
Finish: Paris, the Champs-Élysées, with a finale on Montmartre
Number of stages: 21 stages held over 23 days, with two rest days
Route character: very mountainous, with the Pyrenees, the Massif Central, the Vosges and the Alps; five summit finishes and two finishes on Alpe d'Huez
Stage types: flat, hilly and mountain stages, a team time trial to open the race and one individual time trial in the Alps
Rest days: Monday 13 July and Monday 20 July
Favourites: Tadej Pogačar (defending champion), Jonas Vingegaard, Paul Seixas

History of the Grande Boucle

The race was born out of a commercial rivalry between sports newspapers. In 1903, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper L'Auto (the forerunner of today's L'Équipe), Henri Desgrange, together with the young journalist Géo Lefèvre, came up with a multi-stage race around France intended to boost the paper's sales in its clash with the rival Le Vélo. The first Tour de France set off on 1 July 1903 from the outskirts of Paris. Sixty riders lined up at the start, and the route consisted of just six enormous stages, each exceeding 400 kilometres. Frenchman Maurice Garin won, and the special edition of L'Auto with the report from the finish sold out in a flash.

Over time the race gained further symbols and classifications. The distinctive yellow leader's jersey appeared in 1919, its colour referencing the paper on which L'Auto was printed. The first rider to wear it was Eugène Christophe. The mountains classification was established in 1933, although the famous polka dot jersey was not awarded until 1975. The green jersey for the best rider in the points classification was introduced in 1953. The race was interrupted only during the two World Wars, in 1915-1918 and 1940-1946.

The record of five overall victories is held by four riders: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

Stage schedule

Below is the full plan of all 21 stages along with dates and links to the official pages for each section. Detailed descriptions of every stage can be found further on.

Stage 1 ** (Saturday, 4 July):** Barcelona - Barcelona, team time trial.
Stage 2 ** (Sunday, 5 July):** Tarragona - Barcelona, hilly stage.
Stage 3 ** (Monday, 6 July):** Granollers - Les Angles, mountain stage.
Stage 4 ** (Tuesday, 7 July):** Carcassonne - Foix, hilly stage.
Stage 5 ** (Wednesday, 8 July):** Lannemezan - Pau, flat stage.
Stage 6 ** (Thursday, 9 July):** Pau - Gavarnie-Gèdre, mountain stage.
Stage 7 ** (Friday, 10 July):** Hagetmau - Bordeaux, flat stage.
Stage 8 ** (Saturday, 11 July):** Périgueux - Bergerac, flat stage.
Stage 9 ** (Sunday, 12 July):** Malemort - Ussel, hilly stage.
Rest day (Monday, 13 July)
Stage 10 ** (Tuesday, 14 July):** Aurillac - Le Lioran, hilly stage.
Stage 11 ** (Wednesday, 15 July):** Vichy - Nevers, flat stage.
Stage 12 ** (Thursday, 16 July):** Magny-Cours - Chalon-sur-Saône, flat stage.
Stage 13 ** (Friday, 17 July):** Dole - Belfort, hilly stage.
Stage 14 ** (Saturday, 18 July):** Mulhouse - Le Markstein, mountain stage.
Stage 15 ** (Sunday, 19 July):** Champagnole - Plateau de Solaison, mountain stage.
Rest day (Monday, 20 July)
Stage 16 ** (Tuesday, 21 July):** Evian-les-Bains - Thonon-les-Bains, individual time trial.
Stage 17 ** (Wednesday, 22 July):** Chambéry - Voiron, flat stage.
Stage 18 ** (Thursday, 23 July):** Voiron - Orcières-Merlette, mountain stage.
Stage 19 ** (Friday, 24 July):** Gap - Alpe d'Huez, mountain stage.
Stage 20 ** (Saturday, 25 July):** Bourg d'Oisans - Alpe d'Huez, mountain stage (queen stage).
Stage 21 ** (Sunday, 26 July):** Thoiry - Paris, flat stage with a finale on Montmartre.

The full, official presentation of the route can be found on the organiser's website: letour.fr - the entire route.

Practical considerations

The routes in this collection recreate the course of the race, but not all sections are suitable for riding on your own once the event is over. A significant part of the stages runs along roads that are closed only for the duration of the peloton's passage, including busy arteries, city ring roads and sections accessible only to organisers. Some finishes fall on the roads of ski resorts or on private land, while sections in city centres (such as Parisian Montmartre or the loop around Montjuïc) are subject to normal traffic rules on a day-to-day basis. Before setting off along a specific stage, check local regulations, current traffic conditions and any diversions, and when planning your own version of the route, consider safer variants on roads open to cyclists.