{"id":241327,"date":"2025-10-26T12:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T12:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/241327\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T12:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T12:28:11","slug":"where-the-2026-tour-de-france-route-falls-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/241327\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the 2026 Tour de France route falls short"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated October 25, 2025 01:20PM<\/p>\n

Tour de France<\/a> organizers made much about the tough final week of the 2026 route, saying the race would remain undecided right until the end. Yet it is clear ASO missed a major opportunity in the course design unveiled Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> has dominated the race the past two seasons, winning the overall in both 2024 and 2025, and collecting a cluster of ten stage wins along the way.<\/p>\n

But with the world number one all but unbeatable for much of the year, there is a big danger of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu next July.<\/p>\n

Those watching this year\u2019s race felt a sense of the inevitable in the final week, even if Poga\u010dar\u2019s performance and mood became somewhat muted.<\/p>\n

He held a lead of 4:13 heading into the final six stages, making the race all but over.<\/p>\n

And while ASO has bigged up the finale of next year\u2019s edition, saying that the pattern of the race means it will be \u2018a Tour in crescendo,\u2019 that won\u2019t necessarily translate into suspense.<\/p>\n

Keeping things more uncertain would have been a big plus for the race, and would ensure that TV audiences continue to tune in right until the end.<\/p>\n

What is true is that the three stages prior to the concluder in Paris are all very difficult. The long climb to Orci\u00e8res-Merlette should blow things apart on stage 18, while the next two days both feature summit finishes atop Alpe d\u2019Huez.<\/p>\n

Those are three very big challenges and will pose major danger to anyone with tiring legs.<\/p>\n

Yet it is worth noting that despite Poga\u010dar\u2019s relative slowing in week three of this year\u2019s race, Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> did almost nothing to reduce his deficit.<\/p>\n

The only day he took time out of Poga\u010dar during the entire Tour was on stage 19; the only gain was a two second time bonus in beating him for second place at the line.<\/p>\n

The race of truth is Poga\u010dar\u2019s area of danger
\n\"Pogacar\"Poga\u010dar demolished the 2025 Tour but he has a weakness. (Photo: Dirk Waem\/Belga Mag\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The pattern of both 2024 and 2025 doesn\u2019t spell danger for Poga\u010dar in the final week of the 2026 race.<\/p>\n

Tough finale or not, his agent Alex Carera told Velo<\/a> that Poga\u010dar\u2019s loss of momentum this year was down to a pre-Tour race program that was too heavy.<\/p>\n

The same mistake won\u2019t be made again next year.<\/p>\n

So, if cramming leg-busting climbs into the final week doesn\u2019t guarantee an open race, where did ASO<\/a> drop the ball in terms of the 2026 route?<\/p>\n

In a word, time trials.<\/p>\n

There are two races against the clock in 2026. The first is on day one in Barcelona, and will be a 19km team time trial rather than a solo test.<\/p>\n

UAE Emirates-XRG, Visma-Lease a Bike and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe should be quite evenly matched, meaning time gaps between them could be minimal.<\/p>\n

Other than that, the only clash with the chrono is on stage 16. This will be a 26km individual time trial from \u00c9vian Les-Bains to Thonon Les-Bains, with the first 10km or so being gradually uphill, and the remainder downhill or flat.<\/p>\n

Important? Yes. Consequential? We will see.<\/p>\n

But the fact remains that 2026 will have one less individual TT than 2025. What\u2019s more, the early uphill of that course will throw a bone to Poga\u010dar in a discipline that could otherwise prove dangerous.<\/p>\n

Want some proof? All you have to do is look at the outcome of two of this year\u2019s most important time trials.<\/p>\n

Remco has the edge, and it isn\u2019t even close
\n\"RemcoRemco Evenepoel beat Poga\u010dar to win stage 5 of this year\u2019s Tour de France (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Cast your mind back to July 9, and the Caen stage of the Tour.<\/p>\n

Remco Evenepoel<\/a> beat Poga\u010dar on the flat 33km TT, winning with a time that was 16.68 seconds faster than his rival.<\/p>\n

At the world championships he beat him again, catching him for two and a half minutes and finishing a staggering 2:37 ahead.<\/p>\n

While Poga\u010dar is a big threat in uphill time trials\u2014he did win the stage 13 test in this year\u2019s Tour\u2014he is far more vulnerable against Evenepoel in flatter efforts.<\/p>\n

The Belgian rider is smaller, more compact, more flexible, much more aero, and a complete master at the discipline.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s Olympic champion, thrice world champion, and the current European champ to boot.<\/p>\n

A staggering 23 of his 67 career wins have been against the clock.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar has 108 wins: a mere eight of those are in time trials.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a massive difference.<\/p>\n

Indeed this is the one area of the sport where Evenepoel has a clear and undisputed edge over Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

They have clashed 11 times in all; Evenepoel has beaten him on nine of those occasions.<\/p>\n

If ASO wants to make a real race of the 2026 Tour, if it wants to make things less straightforward for Poga\u010dar and therefore more dramatic for the event, this was the way to do it.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just about Evenepoel: who can forget Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s annihilation of Poga\u010dar in the 2023 Tour, when he took 1:38 out of him over just 22.4km?<\/p>\n

Where ASO fell short
\n\"2026The route of next year\u2019s Tour (Photo: ASO)<\/p>\n

So what should ASO have done?<\/p>\n

A one-sided Tour has limited value.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominance in 2024 ticked the boxes in terms of spectacle, marking as it did his return to form after two years in the Tour doldrums.<\/p>\n

But his early domination in this year\u2019s race was seen differently. His growing stranglehold on the sport made his four stage wins between stages four and 13 somewhat anti-climatic.<\/p>\n

Those watching the race wanted more suspense, more uncertainty, a reason to keep tuning in day after day.<\/p>\n

Team time trial on the opening day? Sure, that will be dramatic enough next July.<\/p>\n

But having just one other TT, and only 26km in length?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a huge own goal, in terms of trying to keep the race open and the outcome up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Had ASO made that a longer test, and also included another flat TT, things would suddenly be a lot more interesting.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel would be chomping at the bit to gain time, and to counter any losses in the mountains.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar would be under pressure to raises his game against the Belgian, building a buffer wherever possible.<\/p>\n

And Vingegaard would have gone all in on trying to recreate the magic of stage 16 in 2023.<\/p>\n

Instead the chance has been missed.<\/p>\n

Look, perhaps ASO has its reasons. But in banking on a tough final week in 2026 to keep things unpredictable, the race organizer has forgotten the lessons of 2024.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar went on a rampage then, winning the final three stages and proving that when his buildup is right, he only gets stronger as the race goes on.<\/p>\n

If that happens again next summer, ASO may well rue not testing him more in the only area of GC racing where his dominance is not assured.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated October 25, 2025 01:20PM Tour de France organizers made much about the tough final week of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,79742,113601,57421,113602,70573,54267],"class_list":["post-241327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-analysis","tag-tag-aso","tag-tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-tag-opinion","tag-tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241327","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=241327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}