{"id":237541,"date":"2025-10-24T18:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237541\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:38:09","slug":"cadel-evans-on-how-to-win-the-2026-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237541\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadel Evans on how to win the 2026 Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Tour de France route<\/a> was announced Thursday and everyone\u2013from current pros to former, are weighing in.<\/p>\n

Cycling legends and Mummu Cycling<\/a> pro hosts, 2011 Tour de France champion Cadel Evans and 2007 Paris-Roubaix winner Stuart O\u2019Grady, offered their take on the 2026 Tour de following the official route announcement.<\/p>\n

Evans said the route will demand attention from day one. \u201cFrom the opening team time trial, GC contenders will have to be at their best immediately. It\u2019s a tough first week and a brutal final stretch with two finishes on Alpe d\u2019Huez \u2014 that\u2019s rare. It\u2019ll be hard to control the lead and even harder to defend it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Evans riding on a Mummu Cycling Tour<\/p>\n

He singled out the last mountain week as decisive. \u201cThe final stage has 5,600 metres of climbing \u2014 probably the hardest mountain stage in living memory. When it gets that hard, the riders who are on will still be flying, and the others will be walking zombies. Instead of losing two or three minutes, they\u2019ll lose 15.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans highlighted several stages. \u201cTo visit, Barcelona will be a spectacular Grand D\u00e9part. To ride, Stage 6 to Gavarnie-G\u00e8dre and Stage 14 to Le Markstein Fellering will be challenges. But the one that stands out? Stage 20 \u2014 Alpe d\u2019Huez. A brutal day across terrain that\u2019s close to my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

2026 Tours de France: Double Alpe d\u2019Huez for men, and Mont Ventoux for the women<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

O\u2019Grady called it \u201can explosive edition from day one. You can\u2019t hide \u2014 you\u2019ve got to fight from Barcelona to Paris.\u201d He also warned that climbing Alpe d\u2019Huez twice \u201ccould destroy legs and decide the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both reflected on the Stage 1 team time trial, which will take individual times for GC purposes. The format is what was used in Paris-Nice. Instead of using the 5th rider of the team, it\u2019s about the team leader. Evans said it \u201cerodes the spirit of a team time trial but is fairer in some ways.\u201d O\u2019Grady added, \u201cI\u2019ve got a soft spot for TTTs, but this one\u2019s going to be something different.\u201d<\/p>\n

On strategy, Evans suggested \u201ctwo peaks instead of one crescendo,\u201d focusing on the first and final weeks. He also noted the increasingly blurred line between sprinters and GC contenders. O\u2019Grady praised Stage 14\u2019s \u201cwild\u201d 11-km bike path climb at over 9 per cent.<\/p>\n

Evans on Tadej Poga\u010dar: \u201cYou can\u2019t Pog-proof the Tour. The time gaps will be massive; maybe Evenepoel\u2019s in there too.\u201d O\u2019Grady said Barcelona \u201cwill be a carnival \u2014 chaos for the peloton, a dream for the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Evans and O\u2019Grady are ambassadors for Mummu Cycling Tours. You can learn more about Mummu Cycling at https:\/\/mummucycling.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Tour de France route was announced Thursday and everyone\u2013from current pros to former, are weighing in.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[112150,49,112151,48,635,82,112152],"class_list":["post-237541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-tour-de-france","tag-ca","tag-cadel-evans","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-stuart-ogrady"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}