After a failed Tour mission filled with Pogacar's demons, organizers now hope for mercy, and for Evenepoel and Vingegaard to join the party

The Tour de France organization is looking for a little more challenge. In 2025, course designer Thierry Gouvenou changed course and suddenly created a handful of opportunities for punchers in the first ten days. Stages full of potential slip-ups, with a second week that already included a lot of climbing.

With the Hautacam and Col de la Loze, the Tour sought out two "demons" that had already defeated Pogacar in the past. Mont Ventoux had also been the scene of a sign of weakness from the Slovenian, but in 2025, he settled the score with all his past enemies. He won the Tour with four stage victories, a four-minute lead over Vingegaard, and a third week in reserve.

In the hope that the Tour in 2026 will not be decided after just two weeks, Gouvenou has built a completely new route. “What characterizes this Tour is the increase in power. We are not looking for the big difficulties at the start of the race. Those will come later, especially in the last week, which will be exceptionally tough,” the route builder told the French media.

Although we will start with a team time trial and a punchy stage in line in Barcelona on the opening weekend, Gouvenou is mainly looking for climbs that are not too difficult in the Pyrenees in the first week. “We have taken it a bit easier there; it will be more terrain for the attackers. We will not see any big differences in the Pyrenees.”

There are also three sprint opportunities in the first week, and in the second week, there is another Pogacar monster with the finish in Le Lioran. That's where Vingegaard beat the Slovenian in 2024. In the Vosges, we end the second week with the finish on the Col du Haag and Plateau de Solaison. “This is where the first hierarchy should emerge.”

With some luck, Pogacar will stay calm in the first two weeks of the Tour, because that is Gouvenou's intention. "We have tried to keep the tension going by putting the big challenges in the third week. Because with a time trial, a finish at the top of Orcières-Merlette and the finish on Alpe d'Huez on days 19 and 20, that's when the real differences have to be made."

Does Pogacar have the best legs? Or can Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel perhaps put up a fight? “This is a route where the man in yellow cannot say 48 hours before Paris: I have won,” said Tour boss Christian Prudhomme to the French because the Sarenne and Tourmalet are also included in the final weekend. “Everything will be possible until the last moment. ‘

“We don't create routes that are against any rider. We just try to give everyone – whether journalists, organizers, or fans – a route that guarantees excitement. Maybe the eventual winner will now have a six-second lead in the final weekend instead of three minutes. Or maybe he won't be the leader at all.”

And Montmartre again on the final day in Paris? “That’s all thanks to the 2024 Games. It was such a huge success that if we get the chance to do it via Montmartre, we will.”