The 113th edition of the Tour de France kicks off on Saturday with Spain’s third Grand Départ, as Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard join battle once more. Covering 3325 kilometres from Barcelona to Paris, the race launches with the first opening team time trial since 1971. There are also back-to-back summit finishes of Alpe d’Huez on Stages 19 and 20, although the latter climb is a half portion served at the end of a grueling day. Except for the Paris finale, northern France is ignored.
Week 1, Spain and the Pyrenees
The Barcelona team time trial sees the format return for the first time since 2019. In the 2026 TTT, each rider will be given an individual time, rather than all riders who finish together receiving the same time. A traditional climb of the Volta a Catalunya, Montjuïc, is doubled up to conclude Stage 1. Spain’s remaining days are hilly, and Stage 3’s short summit finish on Les Angles marks our entrance into France.
The big climbs of Week 1 are in the Pyrenees. Stage 6 on July includes familiar Pyrenean beasts Aspin and the Tourmalet leading to a twenty-kilometres-long summit finish on Gavarnie-Gèdre. The rest of the first week is lumpy, good ground for ambushes.
Week 2, The Massif Central and the Vosges
The middle week begins in the Massif Central. Vingegaard nipped Pogačar for the sprint win in 2024 on the Le Lioran climb, and it returns as a near summit finish. The Vosges mountains in the east of the country are back for the first time in three years, including famous climb Ballon d’Alsace. Distinguished as the Tour de France’s first ever mountain climbed in 1903, it crests 30 kilometres from Stage 13’s finish line on the only 200-plus kilometre day of the 113th edition.
Like Le Lioran, Stage 14’s sharp slopes of Col du Haag are close to being a summit finish, but six kilometres of flat follow its peak. Stage 15’s conclusion on 11.6-kilometre, 8.9-percent Plateau de Solaison, the last of eight climbs, wraps up Week 2.
Week 3, The time trial and the Alps
The final week brings the hurt. First comes the 26-kilometre individual time trial between Évian Les-Bains and Thonon Les-Bains, organizers placing a 9.6-kilometre, 4.2 percent hill in its first half.
Cue the hefty climbing. Stage 17 ratchets up the tension in a moderately hilly transition stage. The next day the Alps come heavy with the summit finish on Orcières-Merlette, where Luis Ocaña seized the 1971 yellow jersey after defeating Eddy Merckx. July 24’s Stage 19 stars the legendary 21 hairpin turns of Alpe d’Huez at the end of a 128-kilometre but tricky day starting in Gap. The final GC day summit finish is on a shorter, less-known Col de Sarenne-side version of the Alpe. “Mini-Alpe d’Huez” tops off a brutal day that includes brutal climbs Croix de Fer and the Galibier, this year’s Souvenir Henri Desgrange for highest peak.
Because of the Montmartre climb, Paris’ final day is no longer a simple champagne procession concluding with scenic Champs-Élysées laps and a bunch sprint.