Tour de France 2026 Begins With a Team Time Trial
The 2026 Tour de France started today with a team time trial through the streets of Barcelona, Spain. There were new rules for the team time trial. Riders will be given the fastest rider’s time on the team as they cross the finish line. This is instead of the entire team getting the fourth rider’s time. This encouraged racing.
Since racing was encouraged in the team time trial, we immediately got to the race for the yellow jersey. The main question for the 2026 Tour de France is whether anyone can beat Tadej Pogačar. He is the dominant cyclist and won the Tour last year. Do you think he will repeat?
Tour de France 2026 Begins: Team Time Trial
This team time trial was unusual as the start of the Tour de France. It was also somewhat unusual to start the Tour in Barcelona, though it has started in foreign countries before. The time trial had new rules, with each rider using the team’s fastest time instead of the fourth rider’s. This encouraged racing, as the requirement was that each rider go as fast and as hard as he could.
The stage was only 12 miles long. It was flat at the beginning, and uphill at the end. This profile encouraged the stronger riders on each team to ride away from their teammates in pursuit of fast times and a possible yellow jersey. Seeing breaks in the teams was unusual, and the race has never started with a team trial. In fact, there has not been a team time trial in the last seven years.
Each team went off at five-minute intervals. Here is the start order of teams; generally, they went in reverse order of skill, with the biggest names in the sport starting last.
1 Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
2 Team Picnic PostNL
3 TotalEnergies
4 Tudor Pro Cycling Team
5 Groupama-FDJ United
6 Pinarello-Q36.5
7 Cofidis
8 Lotto Intermarché
9 Movistar Team
10 NSN Cycling Team
11 Uno-X Mobility
12 Team Jayco AlUla
13 Alpecin-Premier Tech
14 Soudal Quick-Step
15 Netcompany INEOS
16 Bahrain Victorious
17 XDS Astana Team
18 Decathlon CMA CGM Team
19 EF Education – EasyPost
20 Lidl-Trek
21 Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
22 Team Visma | Lease a Bike
23 Team Emirates-XRG
The start list is interesting because it shows each team in the Tour. Each team started with eight riders. One can also see that the favorites’ teams started last. Tadaj Pogačar is on Team Emirates. Jonas Vindegaard is on a somewhat depleted Team Visma.
How it Played Out
As the teams went off at 5-minute intervals, there were some big stories. One was the riding of 19-year-old Paul Seixas, a Frenchman. He is the youngest rider in this year’s Tour, and, in fact, the youngest rider in the race in almost 100 years. Some riders had bad luck. An example of that was Kevin Vauquelin, who got a flat back tire less than three miles from the finish. That happened to other riders as well.
Some riders performed well. Mattieau van der Poel set the fastest time near the end of the race. That was important because Van der Poel is a perennial contender who is getting a bit old. The last three teams to depart were the big favorites in the race: Remco Evenepoel, Vingegaard, and Pogačar. In a bit of a surprise, Vindegaard and his Visma team won. Phillip Ogano and his Netcompany squad were second. Tadej Pogačar was third, by 12 seconds.
Next Stop On the Tour
The Tour de France is the most challenging test in sports. Stage Two is tomorrow. This race is a grueling 3,327.7 kilometers. It features several mountain stages. The first flat stage, for the sprinters, is stage five. The riders summit the famous Alp d’Huez twice. There are two rest days on the agenda, and they tend to follow particularly difficult mountain stages. The race finishes on July 26, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
