2026 Tour de France features Punishing back to back Alpe d'Huez Stages

The route of the 2026 Tour de France has been revealed with punishing back to back Alpe du Huez stages before finishing in Paris with three thrilling climbs of the cobbled Rue Lepic in Montmartre

The 21-day race will start from Barcelona on July 4 and cover 3,333 kilometres before finishing beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on July 26, organisers revealed at Thursday's unveiling in Paris

Barcelona Grand Depart: Team Time Trial

After an opening Team Time Trial in Barcelona, Spain, riders will down Mediterranean Sea coast on Stage 2 and finish at the Estadi Olímpic Lluis Companys, the focal stadium for the Olympic Games Barcelona 1992

First Week: 2 Spanish Stages before the Pyrenees

The first three stages will take place in Spain before crossing over to France where the peloton will traverse the Pyrenees and head west to Bordeaux.

The first uphill finish awaits in the home country on Stage 3 at the ski village of Les Angles, but this is not a really tough mountain stage yet, it will follow a few days later. First, there is a stage through the middle mountains from Carcassonne to Foix, after which the sprinters will be featured for the first time on stage five from Lannemezan to Pau. The day after the first bunch sprint, the first serious mountain stage follows, starting in Pau and finishing on Gavarnie on stage 6. This is the only Pyrenees stage, and also a classic. Before the final climb, the riders will first go over the Col d'Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet.

Second week: Massif Central, Vosges and Alps

The day after the rest day, a stage in the Central-Massif is on the programme, with a finish in Le Lioran. The final is almost the same as that of the tenth stage of 2024, when Jonas Vingegaard tadej Pogacar Defeated in the sprint. After this, it goes via two flat stages, with arrival in Nevers and Chalon-sur-Saône in the direction of the Vosges.

Stage thirteen ends in Belfort, after the climb of the Ballon d'Alsace. The next stage goes straight through the Vosges. The riders will go over the Grand Ballon and again the Ballon d'Alsace. The main meal of the day is the Col du Haag, with the summit just a few kilometers from the finish in Le Markstein.

At the end of the second week, there will be a tough uphill finish in the Alps. Stage fifteen ends on Plateau de Solaison, a climb of more than 12 kilometers at just under 9 percent average. Along the way, the riders will also cross the steep Mont Salève.

Third week: Brutal back-to-back Alpe d'Huez before Paris

The third week starts with an individual time trial from Evian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains. The race against the clock is 26 kilometers long and goes over a rolling course. The next day, a transition stage from Chambéry to Voiron is on the program, with plenty of opportunities for attackers.

In stage eighteen we definitively head into the Alps. That starts carefully, with a stage from Voiron to Orcières-Merlette. After this, it is the turn of the Alpe d'Huez, where the finish is two days in a row. In stage nineteen, the riders ride up the classic climb, with the 21 bends.

A day later, the penultimate stage also finishes on the Dutch mountain, but then. via a totally different mountain stage. Stage 20 is the Queen Stage in 2026. The riders will start from Bourg d'Oisans, then go over the Col de la Croix-de-Fer, Col du Télégraphe and Col du Galibier towards the narrow and steep Col de Sarrenne. This is followed by a short descent and the last few kilometers of the traditional climb to Alpe d'Huez.

Stage 20, the Queen Stage, also doubles up as the Etape Du Tour. The 2026 Etape du Tour will be one of the most demanding, a brutal 171 km route with 5,400 meters of climbing. Registration opens on Monday November 3rd at 2pm CET with over 16,000 amateurs to participate.

Paris Champs-Elysées: Rue Lepic cobbled climb

The final stage leads to the finish line at Paris Champs-Elysées on July 26th. In 2026, the finish line will be 15km from Sacré-Cœur, set to create a similarly striking spectacle to the road race at Paris 2024 with the the thrilling Rue Lepic cobbled climb!

Olympic bronze medallist Tadej Pogacar is the double defending champion, and the Slovenian is aiming to become the joint-most successful man in Tour de France history with five general classification victories.

You can follow our daily coverage of the 2026 Tour de France here.

2026 Tour de France Stage Map

2026 Tour de France Stages

Stage	Date	Start	Finish	Type	Distance
1	July 4	Barcelona	Barcelona	Team Time Trial	19 km
2	July 5	Tarragona	Barcelona	Hilly	182 km
3	July 6	Granollers	Les Angles	Mountain	196 km
4	July 7	Carcassonne	Foix	Hilly	182 km
5	July 8	Lannemezan	Pau	Flat	158 km
6	July 9	Pau	Gavarnie-Gèdre	Mountain	186 km
7	July 10	Hagetmau	Bordeaux	Flat	175 km
8	July 11	Périgueux	Bergerac	Flat	182 km
9	July 12	Malemort	Ussel	Hilly	185 km
—	July 13	Rest Day	Cantal		—
10	July 14	Aurillac	Le Lioran	Mountain	167 km
11	July 15	Vichy	Nevers	Flat	161 km
12	July 16	Magny-Cours	Chalon-sur-Saône	Flat	181 km
13	July 17	Dole	Belfort	Hilly	205 km
14	July 18	Mulhouse	Le Markstein Fellering	Mountain	155 km
15	July 19	Champagnole	Plateau de Solaison	Mountain	184 km
—	July 20	Rest Day	Haute-Savoie		—
16	July 21	Évian-les-Bains	Thonon-les-Bains	Individual Time Trial	162 km
17	July 22	Chambery	Voiron	Flat	175 km
18	July 23	Voiron	Orcières-Merlette	Mountain	185 km
19	July 24	Gap	Alpe d’Huez	Mountain	128 km
20	July 25	Grenoble	Alpe d’Huez	Queen Stage	171 km
21	July 26	Montmartre	Arc de Triomphe	Flat	130 km

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