July 4, 2026
All the build-up and preparation is complete, the 113th edition of the Tour de France has arrived. For the fourth time in five years, the race starts outside of France, this time just over the Southern border in Spain. There are many head lines at the start of the race, two of the biggest being Tadej Pogačar going for his record tying fifth Tour de France title and the young French phenom Paul Seixas making his Tour debut. From KM0, the battle for the overall will be on because Stage 1 is a Team Time Trial through the great Catalan city of Barcelona, the first time since 1971 that the Tour has opened with a TTT. The course is 19.5 km in length and can be evenly split into three parts. After rolling off the start ramp, the first 4 km are quite technical with a start on the meandering Avinguda del Litoral then a series of six 90 degree turns. Once through the first time check, the second part is more straight forward. The bigger riders will be able to open up the taps and put the power down as they will fly passed the Sagrada Família and recently completed tower which made the Sagrada Família the tallest church in the world. The final third of the race is where things get tactically interesting. As with other A.S.O. run TTT's this year, times are given to each individual rider and the team gets awarded the time of the first rider across the line. In a flat TTT, that rule has little impact but today's finish is different. There is a 900 meter climb at 5.5% with 3 km to go, a fast downhill, then the last 700 meters are uphill at an average of 8% up to the Olympic Stadium. Teams will be wanting to launch their GC leader into the base of the final rise with as much momentum and speed as possible with the first Yellow Jersey awaiting the quickest rider at the finish.
Highlighted Riders
GC - Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Juan Ayuso, Mattias Skjelmose, Richard Carapaz, Julian Alaphilippe, Lenny Martinez, Tobias Johannessen, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Tom Pidcock, Jordan Jegat, José Félix Parra
Sprinters - Olav Kooij, Max Kanter, Phil Bauhaus, Mads Pedersen, Dorian Godon, Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen, Pascal Ackermann, Søren Wærenskjold, Biniam Girmay, Arnaud De Lie, Milan Fretin, Arvid De Kleijn, Pavel Bittner
Puncheurs/Baroudeurs - Quinn Simmons, Michael Valgren, Ben Healy, Kévin Vauquelin, Mathieu van der Poel, Ben O'Connor, Michael Matthews, Jonas Abrahamsen, Baptiste Veistroffer, Jenno Berckmoes, Alex Aranburu, Romain Grégoire, Anthony Turgis
Race Summary
The late afternoon sun was beating down on the coast but the light was stunning as it shone down on the marina and the glistening blue waters of the Mediterranean. Caja Rural-Seguros RGA was the first team down the ramp which would have been very special for the Spanish team being on home soil. Nerves were evident right away as one rider had forgotten to buckle his helmet strap which was dangling from his chin through the first corner. They settled in nicely and got Alex Molenaar across the line to set the first benchmark of the day.
The first quality time was set by Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ United who beat the time of TotalEnergies by 20 seconds, setting the new fastest time of 22 minutes 28 seconds. Of the GC riders, the first to experience difficulty was Cian Uijtdebroeks of Movistar. On the first rise 3 km from the finish, he was dropped by his three remaining teammates who all sat up for him and the squad looked ragged. In the last 700 meters to the finish, Uijtdebroeks completely blew and the team sent Raúl García Pierna up the road just to have some chance at a result.
Intermediate time checks were all relatively close until the power house unit of Netcompany-Ineos made their way through the second time check 14 seconds quicker than the next best teams of Alpecin-Premier Tech and Movistar, setting an average speed of nearly 57 km/hr. Everything was going perfectly until just a few kilometers from the finish when Kévin Vauquelin punctured. The team didn't wait because Vauquelin wasn't planning a GC campaign and any hesitation would ruin their chances at the stage.
The first rider to better Romain Grégoire at the finish was Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech who came in just 3 seconds quicker which demonstrated just how quickly Grégoire went in the final few kilometers. Van der Poel hardly time to wipe down and get situated in the hot seat because Filippo Ganna of Netcompany-Ineos stormed through the final uphill and walloped van der Poel's time by 31 seconds.
Next to make waves was Lidl-Trek, taking top spot from Netcompany-Ineos at the second time check by fractions of a second. Like Netcompany-Ineos, Lidl-Trek had an unfortunate puncture with Mattias Skjelmose which would put a dent in the chances of the Dane for the overall. The German team continued along and sent Juan Ayuso off solo going into the last 700 meters uphill. Ayuso looked strong but the clock went from green to red and the Spaniard crossed the line 7 seconds down on Ganna for provisional second place.
Ganna took a sigh of relief when Remco Evenepoel of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe came up to the finish in the red by by 11 seconds for provisional third but Ganna's dream of Yellow was spoiled with just two teams to finish. Visma-Lease a Bike had been floating around the top times, up at the second check by 3 seconds, but they saved the best for last. Matteo Jorgenson and Davide Piganzoli sent Jonas Vingegaard flying into the bottom of the final rise and the Dane was able to hit the line 8 seconds faster than Ganna to take the hot seat with only UAE-XRG left out on course.
UAE-XRG were consistently between 10-15 seconds behind the fastest times through all time checks. Isaac del Toro dropped Tadej Pogačar off with 500 meters to go and the Slovenian powered up the climb, finishing 12 seconds down. As a result, Visma-Lease a Bike took the stage win with an average speed of 53.950 km/hr. Netcompany-Ineos held on for second with UAE-XRG in third at 12 seconds.
The GC now reflects the stage placings with Vingegaard taking Yellow by 8 seconds to Ganna and 12 seconds to Pogačar. Other notable placings among the GC contenders were Ayuso and Evenepoel within 20 seconds, Paul Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM at 39 seconds, Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious at 50 seconds, Tobias Johannessen and Jordan Jegat around 1 minute, and Uijtdebroeks at nearly 2 minutes.