5 breakaway specialists to watch at the 2026 Tour de France
The battle between Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and the other general classification contenders will dominate the 2026 Tour de France. Beyond the fight for yellow, however, the three week race should provide plenty of opportunities for attacking riders.
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From rolling transition stages to demanding days in the mountains, these five riders have the qualities to turn a breakaway into a Tour stage victory this July.
Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility)
Jonas Abrahamsen produced one of the defining breakaway performances of the 2025 Tour de France, winning stage 11 in Toulouse after spending 155 kilometres at the front of the race.
His victory was made even more remarkable by the fractured collarbone he had suffered at the Baloise Belgium Tour only three weeks earlier. It was Uno-X Mobility’s first Grand Tour stage victory and the culmination of a long term project that transformed Abrahamsen from a lightweight climber into a powerful rouleur.
The 30-year-old Norwegian had already demonstrated his appetite for attacking at the 2024 Tour, where he wore the polka dot jersey after repeatedly joining the breakaway.
Uno-X Mobility will return in 2026 with a squad focused on stage victories. Magnus Cort, Søren Wærenskjold and Tobias Halland Johannessen provide several attacking options, but Abrahamsen is likely to be one of the team’s most regular breakaway representatives, particularly on rolling terrain and in the middle mountains.
Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek)
Quinn Simmons underlined his breakaway credentials with victory on stage four of the 2026 Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, beating his companions from a ten rider move in Montrond-les-Bains.
It was his first victory since stage three of the 2025 Tour de Suisse, where he attacked alone to win in Heiden. The 25-year-old American national champion was also one of the most active riders in the breakaways at the 2025 Tour de France.
Lidl-Trek’s 2026 Tour squad will balance several ambitions. Juan Ayuso will target the general classification, while Mads Pedersen will lead the team in the sprints. That should leave Simmons free to pursue stage victories from the breakaway.
The transition stages between the major general classification battles appear best suited to his aggressive racing style.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost)
Ben Healy was one of the outstanding attackers of the 2025 Tour de France.
The Irishman won stage six in Vire Normandie following a 42 kilometre solo attack, before spending two days in the yellow jersey from stage ten. He became the first Irish rider to lead the Tour since Stephen Roche in 1987.
Healy’s relentless racing also earned him the Super Combativity award. Later that season, he finished third at the World Championships in Kigali, behind Tadej Pogačar.
His preparations for the 2026 Tour were complicated by a fractured sacrum suffered at Itzulia Basque Country in April. The injury kept him out of competition for almost two months, but he returned at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in June and was regularly involved in the breakaways.
EF Education-EasyPost will once again give Healy the freedom to attack. The rolling stages through Burgundy and Franche-Comté look particularly well suited to his ability to turn a long range move into a solo victory.
Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto - Intermarche)
Baptiste Veistroffer lives for the breakaway. The Frenchman in 2026 has been a part of 12 breakaways and has taken stage success in the Tour of Oman due to it. It is an almost forgone conclusion that Veistroffer will be a part of major breakaways of the 2026 Tour, and who knows what he could achieve from them, spurred on by the adoring French fans in his home country.
Veistroffer can be a part of a breakaway, which could cause a shock to the sprinter teams, with his huge engine a key asset for the breakaway to potentially even stand a chance at stage success, and we see this scenario playing out during the closing of the second week, where teams' resources start to thin out.
Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step)
Valentin Paret-Peintre delivered one of France’s biggest moments of the 2025 Tour when he won stage 16 on Mont Ventoux.
The victory made him the first French rider in 23 years to win on the Giant of Provence and confirmed his reputation as one of the peloton’s strongest breakaway climbers.
The 25-year-old continued that progress in 2026. He finished second to Jonas Vingegaard on stage five of Paris-Nice, placed second overall at the Volta a Catalunya and recorded two top five stage finishes at the Tour de Romandie.
The 2026 Tour will be Soudal Quick-Step’s first without Remco Evenepoel following his move to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. That change should give Paret-Peintre greater freedom to pursue his own opportunities.
With eight mountain stages and two stages featuring Alpe d’Huez, the route offers several chances for him to target victory from a long distance mountain breakaway.
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