# Five times yellow — Pogačar's 2026 Tour from Barcelona to Paris

> The 113th Tour de France started in Barcelona and ended in Paris. Tadej Pogačar won it with a 6:26 lead and five stage victories.

- Published: 2026-07-26

It began with him not riding in yellow.

The 113th Tour de France began on 4 July 2026 in Barcelona with [a 19.7 kilometre team time trial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Tour_de_France) — the first opening of this kind since 1971. The Parc del Fòrum was the start, from where the route ran along the coast to Port Olímpic and then straight through the city. Team Visma-Lease a Bike won. Jonas Vingegaard wore the first yellow jersey.

It stayed that way for two days.

## Catalonia, then the Pyrenees

On the second stage from Tarragona back to Barcelona, with two laps around Montjuïc, Isaac del Toro won. A Mexican in Barcelona, and Vingegaard kept yellow.

On 6 July the race went from Granollers to Les Angles, up into the Pyrenees. Pogačar won the stage and took the lead. He gave it up again for a short while — on the stages to Foix and Pau, Torstein Træen rode in yellow, while Mads Pedersen and Olav Kooij took the stage wins.

On 9 July Pogačar took it back for good. On the stage from Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre he attacked four kilometres before the summit and rode the last 40 kilometres alone. The yellow jersey stayed with him all the way to Paris.

## The flat middle, and the first cut

What followed is the part of a Tour that rarely gets told: a week for the sprinters. Tim Merlier won in Bordeaux, then in Bergerac, later in Chalon-sur-Saône — three stages. Mathieu van der Poel came through in Ussel. Søren Wærenskjold won in Nevers, Mauro Schmid in Belfort out of a two-man sprint.

This ninth stage to Ussel was the first the organisation had to shorten. A red heat warning was in force for the Corrèze department. The route shrank from 185.5 to about 155 kilometres, while the start and finish towns stayed the same.

In between, Pogačar struck twice. On 14 July in Le Lioran, his third stage win. On 18 July in Le Markstein, his fourth.

## Evenepoel fights

Anyone who reduces the 2026 Tour to a show of power overlooks Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian won two stages in a row: first on the Plateau de Solaison, then the 26.1 kilometre individual time trial to Thonon-les-Bains. For Evenepoel it was a third time trial win at a Tour.

Pogačar finished second there, 28 seconds back. His overall lead shrank to four and a half minutes. On the same stage Florian Lipowitz crashed on the descent, broke his collarbone and left the race.

## The Alps

The race was decided in the third week, and Pogačar took his fifth stage win. Jasper Philipsen won the stage from Chambéry, Richard Carapaz the one after it.

The twentieth stage was laid out as the queen stage: four climbs, three of them hors catégorie. Sepp Kuss led for a long time out of a breakaway, then crashed twice in the last eight kilometres. Carapaz inherited the front, won the stage and extended his lead in the mountains classification.

What stood out that day was what the race leader did: Pogačar worked as a domestique for Isaac del Toro. He helped his team mate secure third place and the white jersey. A rider with five Tour wins has nothing left to prove.

## Paris, shortened

[The final stage on 26 July was shorter than planned](https://www.cyclingweekly.com/racing/tour-de-france/final-stage-of-2026-tour-de-france-shortened-due-to-french-wildfires-montmartre-circuit-still-included). Forests were burning in the Gironde, so the security forces went there instead of to the route. Half of the plan held: the preparations took place in Thoiry as scheduled, then the peloton travelled to Paris by bus. The start was on the Champs-Élysées.

132.5 kilometres became just under 89. Two extra laps of the Champs-Élysées circuit came in, then the three laps with the climb to Montmartre.

Mathieu van der Poel won it. [Pogačar rolled in behind him](https://www.npr.org/2026/07/26/nx-s1-5908503/tadej-pogacar-tour-de-france-2026-winner-wildfires) and had what he came for.

## What the fifth win means

[Four riders reached five Tour wins before him](https://www.nbcsports.com/news/tadej-pogacar-tour-de-france-2026): Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. At 27, Pogačar is the youngest in that group. It was his third win in a row.

Behind him, [Evenepoel was 6:26 back, del Toro 9:42](https://www.cyclingstage.com/tour-de-france-2026-results/). Paul Seixas took fourth at 11:56 — the same Seixas who finished second behind Pogačar at Strade Bianche in March. Pedersen won the points classification, Carapaz the mountains classification, del Toro the young rider classification.

In the end 3,245 kilometres were ridden. Two stages shorter than planned, both because of heat and fire.

## The gear

For a shop, the interesting part is what had to work for three weeks straight.

Next to the skin Pogačar wore the Magistrale pieces from Pissei in Pistoia, among them a hybrid body that the Custom Lab built exclusively for UAE Team Emirates XRG. On his head, depending on the stage, sat the MET Trenta 3K Carbon or the Manta. On his feet: DMT. On 4 July, the day the Tour started, he had signed a lifetime contract there.

And there was something new in the bottle. Enervit and the team had worked two years on a mix with lactate in it. This Tour is where it went into use.

None of that wins a Tour. But over more than 3,245 kilometres, what does not chafe, does not press and does not sit in the stomach also decides the outcome.

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Source: https://kilometro.ch/en/articles/five-times-yellow-pogacars-2026-tour-from-barcelona-to-paris