2026 Tour de France Route, Sportives Revealed

Race organisers unveiled the 2026 Tour de France route: 21 stages from July 4–26 covering roughly 3,333 km, starting in Barcelona with a 19 km team time trial and concluding in Paris on Montmartre near the Sacré‑Cœur. The course visits France’s five mountain ranges and features eight mountain stages with five summit finishes, including two consecutive Alpe d'Huez finales (one reached via the Col de Sarenne); the only individual time trial is Stage 16, a 26 km test near Lake Geneva. Organisers also announced closed‑road sportives that will mirror the pro queen stages: L'Étape du Tour (July 19, men, about 170 km/5,400 m climbing) finishing on Alpe d'Huez, and L'Étape du Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (Aug 6, women, about 120 km/3,000 m) finishing on Mont Ventoux. Analysts say the route’s early hard days, selective mountain sequences and the lone ITT will force favourites such as Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel to balance aggressive racing, team strength and mountain support, with small errors or bad days likely to decide the race. The Tour de France Femmes will run nine stages in August, opening around Lausanne and including a Mont Ventoux summit stage, making it the longest edition since the race’s 2022 revival.