A visual feast recapping the opening week of the 2026 Tour de France
The opening stage was a Team Time Trial with a twist. Under the new format, team leaders and GC contenders need not finish the stage with their team – and they receive their own individual stage time. It also means domestiques can ease off once their job is done instead of trying to hang on until the finish.It’s been seven years since the race had a TTT stage and back in 2019 it was Jumbo-Visma who won it, securing the yellow jersey for Mike Teunissen. In 2026, the same team (now known as Visma Lease-A-Bike) delivered Jonas Vingegaard the win and the leader’s jersey. Perfection — a fitting description of Team Visma Lease-A-Bike’s execution of the TTT that catapulted Jonas into yellow.Stage Two and they rolled an undulating yet beautiful course that finished with a few circuits of a Category Three climb. A tactically brilliant run up to the line by UAE kept Tadej out of yellow and awarded Del Toro his first ever stage win. The bookmakers had stage three as one for the breakaways and until the halfway mark they appeared to be spot on. However, the mighty Tadej Pogačar and UAE decided otherwise and the arduous route became a GC day. With a tempo that is usually reserved for the final week, Tadej Pogačar and UAE rode Jonas Vingegaard off the wheel and out of yellow. Although Jonas and Tadej would end the day on the same GC second – with Tadej officially in yellow – the ease with which UAE dominated stage three was the talking point.Whether it was the plan or not, tomorrow – stage four – Tadej will be in yellow.Stage four, 182km to Foix and a big group eventually got away to contest the stage.It was another day of searing heat with temperatures in the mid-40’s and sometimes higher.Initiating the break, controlling the small group and then dominating the sprint, stage four belonged to Trek and Pedersen.Torstein Traeen, the Norwegian powerhouse was a somewhat unlikely but very popular wearer of the yellow jersey as the race rolled towards Pau on Stage Five.Jubilation as Olav Kooij takes the bunch sprint on Stage Five, which happened to be the first bunch sprint of the race.Tadej ramps it up on the Tourmalet and nobody could hang on. Reportedly, the numbers were 435 watts for the 42 minutes. In total, he rode alone, off the front, for 42km to take the win and the yellow jersey. Complete domination. After stage six it certainly appeared that Tadej is untouchable, Jonas is tired but stronger than the rest and the fight for third in Paris will be between Seixas, Evenepoel, Ayuso, Del Toro, Skjelmose and Lipowitz. By Friday, the sprinters were ready for their first real opportunity to go all-in for the stage win – and so too were the fans.Everyone loves Le Tour.As the weekend rolled around, the temperatures remained high and the racing was spicy. Since Thursday, there was no change in the top GC rankings by end of play Saturday – the terrain and dominance of Visma and UAE saw to that.Onto Sunday, a small powerful group got away on the rolling terrain and Van der Poel was not going to miss an opportunity to take his third (all time) stage win on the same roads his late Grandfather raced and won on.Happy faces ahead of the rest day.
