Return of Alpe d'Huez and new Pyrenean climbs - 2026 Tour de France route rumours

The only official certainties about the 2026 Tour at this point are that the race will start in Barcelona on July 4 and it will finish in Paris on July 26, with the climb to Montmartre again set to feature on the final day.

Some doubt has been cast on Barcelona’s hosting of the Grand Départ in the wake of events at the Vuelta a España, where Israel-Premier Tech’s presence was the subject of repeated protests amid Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza.

Barcelona city council has called for Israel-Premier Tech to be excluded from next year’s Tour, but as things stand, the Catalan capital will play host to the opening weekend of the La Grande Boucle.

The race will start with a 19.7km team time trial that finishes atop Montjuïc, where the finishing times will be taken individually. In other words, teams will provide an extended lead-out for their GC contenders ahead of the climb to the line. Stage 2 from Tarragona to Barcelona will again feature climbs up Montjuïc as part of the punchy 12km finishing circuit. 

Stage 3 will start from Granollers and, per ASO, will head “towards the French border for a destination which has not yet been unveiled.” Early rumours suggested a summit finish at La Molina, but ICI Occitanie last week reported that the race will instead cross into France for a summit finish at Les Angles in the Ariège, at 1,800m above sea level.

As ever, the Velowire website has done considerable heavy lifting in sifting reports from local media in France to piece together an overall picture of what next year’s Tour route might look like. Per Velowire, a touted summit finish at Guzet-Neige in the opening week now looks unlikely to feature, but the race will spend time in the Pyrenees beyond the summit finish at Les Angles. 

Sudouest reported earlier this month that stage 6 will be from Pau to the new ascent of the Col de Tentes, which brings the Tour to the spectacular Cirque de Gavarnie for the first time. The natural amphitheatre was described by Victor Hugo as ‘the Colosseum of nature’ and it will provide a most dramatic backdrop to the final day of action in the Pyrenees.

The same newspaper expects a stage finish in Bordeaux the following day. The precise picture for the second weekend of the Tour is less clear, but Velowire reports that the race will pass through the Dordogne ahead of the first rest day in Cantal.

The Tour resumes on Bastille Day and multiple local outlets – most notably La Montagne – have reported that stage 10 in the Massif Central will start from Aurillac and tackle the Puy Mary and Col du Pertus ahead of the finish at Le Lioran, where Jonas Vingegaard beat Tadej Pogačar in 2024.

Details about the stages that follow are not complete, but Velowire expects the Tour to travel northwards towards the Vosges during the second week. The third weekend of the Tour would then feature a return to La Planche des Belles Filles, either on stage 14 or 15. 

Local newspaper L’Est Republican reported the stage in July and the recent news that the Ultra Trail du Grand Ballon running event has changed its date from that weekend “due to a potential conflict with ASO regarding the passage or finish of a stage of the 2026 Tour de France” seems to confirm as much. 

The third week will see the Tour enter the Alps, and the race’s return to Alpe d’Huez for the first time since 2022 will be the centrepiece. The touted inclusion of the Alpe generated ample headlines at the end of this year’s Tour, and Velowire’s own sources report that it will feature on stage 17 on Wednesday, July 22.

Local newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré has reported that the Tour’s sojourn in the Haute-Savoie will also feature a mountain time trial to Plateau de Solaison, but it is not yet clear if that stage will come before or after the summit finish at Alpe d’Huez. The same newspaper has also floated the possibility of a stage finish at Orcières-Merlette, where Luis Ocaña humbled Eddy Merckx and where Primoz Roglič won in the opening week in 2020.

There is still a relative void of information about the penultimate stage of the Tour. This year’s relatively routine breakaway stage notwithstanding, ASO has made a habit of placing a mountainous leg on the final weekend of the Tour, and it will be intriguing to see what Thierry Gouvenou ultimately cooks up ahead of the long transfer to Paris.

Despite all the carefully verified rumours, there might still be a surprise of two when the 2026 Tour is unveiled on October 23.