On Thursday, we will only be six days into the 2026 Tour de France, but it\u2019s gonna be a banger. Already there have been all kinds of wild stages\u2013gone are the days of the first week of flat stages for the sprinters. A thrilling TTT, a couple of punchy stages, and only one proper bunch sprint. Sure, the prime contenders are now over seven minutes behind\u2013led by Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard, both of whom have already worn yellow, but that\u2019s going to change, stat.<\/p>\n
Stage 6 of the Tour de France<\/p>\n
The Tour de France finally reaches the high mountains on Stage 6, and with the Col du Tourmalet looming in the second half of the day, things are going to shake up.
After a relatively gentle opening from Pau, the 186.2-km route gradually heads into the heart of the Pyrenees before the climbing begins in earnest. The first major obstacle is the Col d\u2019Aspin, a demanding 12-km ascent averaging 6.5 per cent that serves as the appetizer before one of cycling\u2019s most iconic climbs.<\/p>\n
The Tourmalet is where the race is expected to come alive. And by alive, that means some riders are going to feel pretty damn \u201cgone, and dead.\u201d (See what I did there? IYKYK.)<\/p>\n
The Tourmalet<\/p>\n
Stretching 17 km at an average gradient of 7.3 per cent, the climb becomes increasingly difficult near the summit. There are a bunch of sections that hover around 9 per cent. Riders crest the pass at more than 2,100 m before tackling a long descent and the final climb to Gavarnie-G\u00e8dre.<\/p>\n
The finish is far less intimidating on paper, averaging just 3.7 per cent over nearly 19 km. I mean that\u2019s not too bad. Still, anyone hoping to make significant time gains will likely need to attack on the Tourmalet rather than wait for the finale. But who knows anymore. Bike racing is becoming more and more unpredictable.<\/p>\n
Pogi and Vingegaard<\/p>\n
All eyes will be on the anticipated duel between Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard. Poga\u010dar has already shown excellent form during the opening week, but longer Alpine-style climbs have traditionally shown Vingegaard\u2019s prowess. If the Dane is planning to test his rival early, this is one of his best opportunities.<\/p>\n
Speaking of Scandinavia, don\u2019t discount Torsten Tr\u00e6en of UNO-X Mobility, who wears yellow. The comeback kid (the Norwegian had cancer only a few years ago) is ganske bra when it comes to going uphill. He snagged a stage of the Tour de Suisse in 2024\u2013ahead of Adam Yates, no less, and has been up there in the Tour of the Alps and La Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n
Behind the Big Two, or maybe Three, if you\u2019re a Remco Evenepoel fan, there\u2019s a slew of other riders who are question marks as to how they will do at the Tour.<\/p>\n
Juan Ayuso, Florian Lipowitz and Great French Hope Paul Seixas all have something to prove on the Tour\u2019s first major summit finish.<\/p>\n
There will be a break, probably, early. But most likely that will be part of the game, and the GC teams will eventually do what they do and just wreck everyone\u2019s legs as they approach the Tourmalet, and we cycling fans get to see some proper bike racing as the best in the world launch. It\u2019s technically a summit finish at Gavarnie-G\u00e8dre, because, well, it\u2019s uphill, but it\u2019s not a killer climb. Still, it\u2019s enough to make it interesting.<\/p>\n
Maybe Osgoode, Ont.\u2019s Derek Gee-West will be tasked with covering early moves? If so, he could try and pull a 2023 Giro move and see what happens. Most likely though, he will be Ayuso\u2019s right-hand man for the Tourmalet and finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, we will only be six days into the 2026 Tour de France, but it\u2019s gonna be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[112150,49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-789304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-tour-de-france","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789304","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=789304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}