The Mountain Stages 2026
There’s already A LOT of chatter about 2026 and there’s a palbable air of excitement already. If you’re considering riding the 2026 Tour with us and are already thinking about which stages might be most tempting, read on! We’re taking an early look at the potential mountain stages for 2026.
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The Alps and Pyrenees
The mountains stages of each year’s Tour are always open to the most speculation and the most excitement. It’s impossible to know where the mountain stages will take us until the rumours really hot up in September (with the big announcement being late October) but we can guess and we can hope…
Given that the Tour starts in Barcelona and stage 3 will already see us head towards the Pyrenees, most likely via Perpignan in the far east of the mountain range, there are a couple of possibilities:
Option A is that the Pyrenees feature very early in the Tour; probably not the highest mountains or longest stages but enough to be exciting for the TV without ruining the GC race too early. If this happens, it’s almost sure that we’ll experience at least one, if not two “bonus” mountain ranges while we’re away with the Massif Central coming later into the second or third week or, our guess is a trip up the east of France to the Jura and Vosges with the Grand Ballon d’Alsace giving us the climbs and the views we’d otherwise expect from the Pyrenees.
Option B is that we only wave at the Pyrenees on our first time of passing, loop up and across France for an Alps visit just after the first rest day which would have us very well placed for a visit back to the south west (via the Loire or Bordeaux?) as a grand finale to our three week adventure.
There are pluses and minuses to both of these scenarios. Option B would be very cool and would be a thrill to ride but would no doubt involve a couple of rest day transfers we’d prefer to avoid. Equally, option A would be historic and would provide plenty of adventure, discovering some of France’s lesser-known mountain regions (which, trust us, do not disappoint). But the obvious downside (or upside for a few!) is the amount of climbing this strategy would inevitably lend to the Tour.
We can always hope for Alpe d’Huez, Ventoux, the Tourmalet, the Izouard and all the other bucket list climbs that you can’t wait to visit… but whatever 2026 holds in store, you can be sure it’ll be a route and a Tour to remember.
Don’t just watch it … Ride it!
