Tour de France 2026 route - Stage-by-stage guide

The route of the 2026 Tour de France covers 3,333 kilometres and features a total elevation gain of 54,450 metres. Over the course of 21 stages, riders will face the following:

• 7 flat stages for the sprinters
• 4 hilly stages suited to puncheurs and breakaway specialists
• 8 mountain stages with 5 mountain finishes at Gavarnie-Gèdre, Plateau de Solaison, Orcières-Merlette, and Alpe d’Huez on two occasions
• 1 team time trial and 1 individual time trial.
• There are two rest days during the 2026 Tour de France, on July 13 and July 20. 

The Tour de France starts with a team time trial for the first time since 1971, but this 19.7km test sees the riders take on a familiar discipline in a novel format. First trialled by ASO at Paris-Nice in 2023, the times are taken individually at the end of the stage rather than on the fourth or fifth rider across the line.

Chris Boardman used to say that a team was only as strong as its weakest man in a TTT, but that dynamic shifts slightly here. Teamwork will be essential, of course, but ultimately, teams will be looking to provide high-speed lead-outs into the two-part haul up to the Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc Park.

The 19.7km test takes in some rolling terrain early on before the Côte de Montjuïc (1.1km at 5.1%) and the Côte du Stade Olympique (1.1km at 5.1%) in the final 4km. Collective strategy will be important early on, but individual strength will come to the fore in the finale, where Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel will have a very early showdown.

In keeping with the Christian Prudhomme era, the organisation has opted for an explosive start to the Tour, helped, of course, by the tough terrain in the hinterland of Barcelona. Like the Tour’s Basque Grand Départ in 2023, this Catalan start looks certain to see some significant blows exchanged between the GC contenders.

The first road stage starts in Tarragona and takes in the Côte de Begues midway through the day, but the real frissons should arrive in the streets of Barcelona, where the peloton will tackle two laps of a dramatic finishing circuit around Montjuïc hill.

This time, the climbing is tougher than in the team time trial, with the sharp Côte du Château de Montjuïc (1.6km at 9.3%) proceeding a shorter but steeper (600m at 7%) climb to the Olympic Stadium. Pogacar, Vingegaard and Mathieu van der Poel ignited Tour apart on less demanding terrain in the opening days in 2025. Expect more fireworks here.

On the third day, the Tour crosses from Spain into France, which means hitting the Pyrenees. Sagely, the organisation has opted against a full-blown mountain stage this early in the race, but the terrain is still demanding. Anybody who hasn’t arrived at this Tour ready to race could find themselves paying a price on a day with nearly 4,000m of climbing.

The gentle Sant Feliu de Codines is the first ascent before the stiffer Collada de Toses (9.3km at 6.5%). From there, the race descends into France, but the climbing still continues across the border, with the evocatively named Col du Calvaire (14.9km at 4.1%) bringing the race to 1,836m above sea level.

There are still 24km of rolling terrain after the summit, with a sting in the tail in the very finale of the stage, where the riders take on the short climb to Les Angles (1.7km at 6.5%). 

After an opening phase aimed at the general classification contenders, stage 4 seems to offer a chance for the break to go the distance on an undulating day through Cathar country from Carcassonne to Foix.

The heavy roads and rolling hills look well suited to men like Ben Healy and Quinn Simmons, and there will be an almighty battle to get in the break as the race heads into the Ariège. The Col de Villerouge (8.6km at 3%), Col de Bedos (3.4km at 4.3%), Col du Paradis (6.4km at 4.1%) feature early on, but the real meat of the stage comes with the Col de Coudins (10.5km at 5.5%.) and the Col de Montségur (6.9km at 6.6%).

The final climb comes just over 35km to go. A sprinter who can withstand that kind of terrain notionally has a shot at victory in Foix, but it will be a tall order for a team to organise itself and hunt down a break of strongmen in the finale of a day like this.

There are shades of 1992 about this Tour. Back then, a San Sebastian start and the early passage over the Pyrenees meant the fast men had to wait until day five for their first opportunity, and it’s a similar situation here.

With that in mind, the sprinters’ teams won’t let stage 5 from Lannemezan to Pau escape their grasp. And, after such a tough start, there might be a shortage of willing attackers on a stage seemingly destined to finish in a bunch sprint.

There is some rolling terrain midway through the stage, but the flat and fast run-in to Pau is a familiar one on the Tour, and we can expect a familiar script. Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan will all be vying to get off the mark in their joust for sprint supremacy.

The Tour was never going to limit itself simply to grazing the Pyrenees, and the race returns to for a full-impact encounter with the mountains on stage 6, which features more than 4,100m of total climbing, including the mighty Col du Tourmalet.

The day’s three mountain passes are shoehorned into the final 80km, with the Col d’Aspin (12km at 6.5%) followed by the Tourmalet, which is climbed via its Sainte-Marie-de-Campan approach (17km at 7.3%). 

The Tourmalet brings the race above 2,000m for the first time and, based on 2020s trends, we can expect the yellow jersey group to be whittled down severely in size by the summit. It will be a big moment for Evenepoel, who abandoned the Tour on its slopes in 2025.

After a fast descent, the race climbs again for a new summit finish at Gavarnie-Gèdre, though the backdrop of the spectacular Cirque de Gavarnie is perhaps more striking than the climb itself, which averages 4% across its 18.7km. But with the Tourmalet already in the legs, the final ascent should still spark some separation among the contenders.

Hagetmau is a staple of the Camino Francés route of the Camino di Santiago, but this is the first time the town features on the Tour de France. After serving another penance in the Pyrenees, the sprinters will have another clear opportunity on the road to Bordeaux, which has traditionally been such a happy hunting ground for the fast men over the years.

The trek through the forests of the Landes will be scenic, but the escapees will know in advance that the odds are stacked against them upsetting the sprinters here, and a mass finish looks inevitable in the shadow of the Place des Quinconces.

Bordeaux has been the site of some vintage bunch sprints over the years, and 2026 should offer up a grand cru of its own.

Momentum is a key feature in sprinting and in lead-out trains, and the fast men will be glad of the chance to go again on the road to Bergerac on stage 8. The winner in Bordeaux will hope to take advantage of his hot hand, while those who missed out the previous day will look to iron out any wrinkles overnight and go again.

With that in mind, the escapees on this run through the Dordogne will again know that their chances of springing an upset are slim. And with two intermediate sprints per stage on this year’s Tour, expect this leg to be a key battleground for early supremacy in the points classification.

The fast run-in to Bergerac offers little chance of a late surprise. Starved of opportunities early in the race, the sprinters won’t let this one pass them by.

The opening week of the Tour concludes with a stage open to a variety of possibilities. In generations past, a rolling stage like this one might have lent itself clearly to a breakaway, but in the 2020s, every day is a GC day. And with a rest day to follow immediately afterwards, it would be a surprise if stage 9 to Ussel went by without some skirmishes among the podium contenders.

There is barely a metre of flat on this run through the Corrèze department, and the 3,400m or so of total climbing scarcely does justice to how tough this stage might prove to be. Three early climbs, including the Côte de Miel (6.6km at 3.9%), offer a platform for the break to establish itself, while the Suc au May (3.8km at 7.7%) might force a selection at the midpoint of the stage.

The terrain remains rugged thereafter, with the Côte de la Croix de Pey and Mont Bessou followed by the short Côte des Gardes (2.2km at 4.8%). Coming just 14km from the line, it looks an obvious springboard for the winning move.

After a rest day in the Cantal, the Tour resumes on Bastille Day with an arduous run into the Massif Central, where the effects of the 3,900m of climbing could well be amplified by the stifling heat so typical in these parts in mid-July.

The bulk of the climbing is also packed tightly into the second half of the stage, which underlines the difficulty of the finale. The Massif Central doesn’t boast the mammoth passes of the Alps and the Pyrenees, but it exacts a toll through sheer attrition.

The Col de la Griffoul (5.9km at 6.7%), Col de Prat de Bouc (3.2km at 5.8%) and Côte de Murat (6.6km at 4.4%) are the preamble to what should be a dramatic finale. The Puy Mary – aka the Pas de Peyrol – climbs for 7.8km at 6%, with a wickedly steep upper section, and it’s followed immediately by the Col de Pertus (4.4km long at 8.5%), which comes just 14km from the line.

The short, sharp Col de Font de Cère comes just before the finish, and the road kicks up once again at Le Lioran. Jonas Vingegaard famously caught and beat Tadej Pogacar on this finale in 2024, and it’s no surprise that ASO have opted to revisit that terrain so quickly. 

Last July, technical director Thierry Gouvenou suggested that sprint stages were an endangered species in the Tour due to the way sprinters’ team bolted down the race on flat days to ensure a mass finish.

Despite that warning, the sprinters have their chances – albeit well spread out – on this Tour, and they won’t want to waste this opportunity on the road to Nevers. Although there is 1,800m of climbing on the agenda, none of it is particularly demanding, with the main obstacle coming on the Côte de Billy-Chévannes (1.5km at 6%) with a touch under 40km to go.

The sprinters will expect to be the fore once again as the race roars into Nevers. 

The day starts on the former Formula 1 circuit at Magny Cours and it’s hard to shake off the sense that this is another stage destined to fall to the fastest men in the peloton. The run east back across the Loire towards Chalon-sur-Saône is a largely flat one, and there should still be a solid coalition of sprinters’ teams eager to control affairs.

That said, teams still with nothing to show from their Tour will be growing increasingly desperate, and some optimistic escapees will hope the late climb of the Côte de Montagny-lès-Buxy (2.6km at 3.9%) can derail at least some of the sprint trains. 

With almost 20km between the climb and the finish, however, the sprinters should have ample time to get themselves organised and fight out the win.

The Tour’s only stage over 200km in length brings the race into the Vosges, but only after a largely flat run past Besançon and Thibaut Pinot’s hometown of Mélisey. As ever at this point in the Tour, there will be a scramble for the early break, and its composition will determine whether it’s given the leeway to go the distance.

The terrain grows more arduous in the final phase of the stage, with the Col des Croix (5.4km at 4.9%) followed quickly by the venerable Ballon d’Alsace, which was the first real mountain tackled in the history of the Tour back in 1904.

The climb is 8.7km at an average of 6.9% with stretches that graze 9%. Those kinds of gradients might tempt a GC man onto the offensive, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the summit is still some 30km from the finish in Belfort. The break will fancy its chances.

When Le Markstein featured on the final weekend in 2023, the hope was that it would see the fight for the yellow jersey go down to the wire, but Jonas Vingegaard’s knock-out blow on the Col de la Loze had already put the race far beyond Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian sprinted to the stage win, but the day is remembered for the outpouring of emotion as Thibaut Pinot bade an attacking farewell to the Tour.

This time out, the trek through the Vosges comes with more than a week of the Tour still to go and the race should still be in the balance by this point. Pogacar and Vingegaard – and any third man in the GC contest – will be primed for this tough day, which features 3,800m of climbing slung across seven ascents.

The Grand Ballon (21.5-km) is first up, followed by the Col du Page (9.8km at 4.7%) and the Ballon d’Alsace (8.7km at 6.9%). After that softening-up process, the race tackles four more ascents in the last 60km, with the Col du Schirm and Col du Hundsruck preceding a two-part final climb.

The ascent to Geishouse (10.9km at 7.3%), which features sustained pitches at 9%, is followed quickly by the Col du Haag (11.2km at 7.3%). The steep final mile of that ascent is more than 10% and there are just over 5km from the summit along the ridge to the finish at Le Markstein. 

When Christian Prudhomme revealed the route last October, he spoke of a Tour designed to be “in crescendo.” The slow-burning flame grows rather hotter on stage 15, which brings the race from the Jura into the Massif des Bornes for a new summit finish at Plateau de Solaison.

There is some 4,700m of total climbing on the agenda, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that the real showdown will be saved for the stiff final climb, which took its bow in pro cycling at the Dauphiné back in 2022.

The gentle but long Col de la Savine and Côte de Doppe are followed by some rolling terrain and the more demanding Col de la Croisette (7.6km at 8.8%), but the yellow jersey group should be together come the foot of Plateau de Solaison (11.6km at 8.9%). The winnowing process will begin right at the bottom, with long sections at 11% sure to burn off all but the strongest riders. The gradient doesn’t ease off much from there. Jonas Vingegaard, winner in 2022, will hope he can lay a glove on Pogacar here, but it won’t be straightforward. 

The days of the Tour featuring two long time trials are long since gone, and the rouleurs have especially meagre pickings in 2026. The race’s lone individual time trial is just 26km in length and it comes at the beginning of the third week, by which point residual fatigue can often count for as much as pure ability against the watch.

Still, Jonas Vingegaard put daylight into Tadej Pogacar on the corresponding stage in 2023, and Remco Evenepoel will see this test along the shore of Lake Geneva as a key moment in his Tour challenge. 

It’s not a pure rouleur’s course, mind, with the road climbing steadily for the first 9km to the Côte de Larringes (9.4km at 4.3%). A short descent follows but a flat run into Thonen-les-Baines. Evenepoel, the ‘Aero Bullet,’ will be favourite for stage honours, but it’s not immediately clear what kind of gaps will open among the podium contenders here.

With more than 2,000m of climbing on the menu, stage 17 is only notionally ‘flat’ – but with the Alps to come and with Montmartre still in place on the final day in Paris, this looks a lot like the last dance for the sprinters on the 2026 Tour.

They won’t have it all their own way, mind, and much will depend on how many fast men are left with something to fight for come the third week of the Tour. There will certainly be no shortage of willing attackers, with the Col des Prés and Col de Couz featuring in the opening half of the stage.

There is some rolling terrain in the finale, too, including a shallow 2.5km climb just before the finish in Voiron. That might burn off some of the fast men, but a bunch finish of some description still seems likely.

Orcières-Merlette will forever be synonymous with the Tour’s greatest unfinished symphony. Luis Ocaña took yellow there after putting the hitherto unbeatable Eddy Merckx to the sword with a mesmerising solo display in 1971, but the Spaniard would crash out of the race on the descent of the Col de Menté in the Pyrenees.

The burning question in 2026 is whether anybody can do unto Pogacar what Ocaña did unto Merckx, though this year’s run to Orcières-Merlette might not offer the right platform. It’s a gentler run to the final climb than in 1971, when Ocaña used the Col du Noyer as a springboard.

The climbs of Engins (11.4km at 5.4%) and Monteynard (9.7km at 5%) are straightforward by comparison, though the road then climbs steadily towards the foot of the final ascent to Orcières-Merlette (7.1km at 6.7%).

On the Tour’s last visit in 2020, Primoz Roglic sprinted to victory from a sizeable group, but that came on stage 4 and in a season interrupted by the COVID-19 lockdown. The peloton won’t be as fresh here, and so this should be a more selective kind of day.

This backloaded Tour ventures further into the Alps on stage 19 for the first part of a striking doubleheader. The short distance and the early climbs could make for a ferocious start, while the famous 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez will make for a breathless finale.

The tired legs in the peloton will curse the placement of the Col Bayard (5.5km at 6.8%) right from the start, and that’s followed by the Col du Noyer (7.3km at 8.2%). If the yellow jersey’s team are showing signs of flagging by this point, expect their rivals to do some early probing in the hope of isolating the race leader.

There’s a chance to regroup in the middle portion of the stage, mind, with the Col d’Ornon (5.6km at 6.2%) serving as a prologue to the indelible ascent of Alpe d’Huez (13.9km at 8%). Navigating the ocean of humanity on the climb is never easy at the best of times. With the Tour potentially still on the line, this could produce one the most dramatic finales ever seen on the Alpe.

In an echo of the modern Giro d’Italia, the 2026 Tour has saved its hardest days for last, and no stage is more demanding than this mammoth Alpine leg, which features some 5,600m of climbing. ASO’s great hope is that the race will still be undecided by this point; at the very least, the sheer difficulty of this stage means that a late Hail Mary offensive might just pay off.

The stage is brutal in its simplicity and in its demands, with four mountain passes crammed into its 172km: the road either goes up or down all day. 

The winnowing process begins with the interminable Col de la Croix de Fer (24km at 5.2%) and it continues with the Col du Télégraphe (12km at 7.1%), which segues immediately into the mighty Col du Galibier (17km at 6.8%). At 2,631m, it’s the highest point of the Tour, but the riders won’t be able to see Paris just yet.

There’s still the minor matter of the Col de Sarenne (12.9km at 7.3%), which is the alternative road up to Alpe d’Huez. The Tour descended this road during the novel dual ascent of the Alpe in 2013, but this is a completely new test for the peloton. The summit comes with 15km to go, and the course then loops around to take in the final part of the classic Alpe ascent (3.8km at 6.1%). This is, by some distance, the crowning stage of the 2026 Tour.

The addition of the climb of Montmartre last July didn’t prevent the Paris finale from being a procession – Pogacar had long since wrapped up the yellow jersey and heavy rain saw the final 50km neutralised for GC – but it still produced a breathless hour or so of racing, with Wout van Aert eventually winning out over the Slovenian.

Not surprisingly, the Tour organisation has opted to retain Montmartre for 2026, but they have tweaked the configuration of the stage to give the sprinters’ a notional chance of contesting the win on the Champs-Élysées.

As in 2025, the riders will take on three ascents of the Butte Montmartre, but when they pass Sacré-Cœur for the final time, they will still have 15km and one lap of the traditional Champs-Élysées circuit to go. "The strongest sprinters will still have a chance," Christian Prudhomme insisted.