At the Tour de France, the racing does not always end at the finish line. Sprint deviations, sticky bottles, feeding breaches, littering fines, time penalties, yellow cards and relegations can all become part of the daily story, especially in a race where every stage result and jersey position is wa...

Juan Ayuso put a full stop to a very complicated 2026 Tour de France with a brave ride on the queen stage in the Alps. The Lidl-Trek leader made the days break, fought for the win until the final kilometers, and crossed the line in ninth place - a result insufficient to alter a general classificati...

The 2026 Tour de France will take place from the 4th to the 26th of July. Throughout the21 stages, the peloton will be racing through the mountains, sprint stages, cobblestones, individual and team time trials, and even. We take a look at all stages, their official profiles, and preview the days -...

Paul Seixas, aged 19, has just more or less confirmed that he will finish fourth at his debut Tour de France, the first teenager to finish in the top 10, let alone the top five, since 1904.The Decathlon CMA CGM rider finished 10th on stage 20 atop Alpe d'Huez, 2:55 behind the stage winner, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and 1:50 behind yellow jersey Tadej Pogaar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and his teammate and white jersey, Isaac del Toro.It is a remarkable result, one that is beyond superlatives, for Seixas to finish fourth at his debut Tour, his debut Grand Tour in fact. It's all the more remarkable because Seixas fought hard on the penultimate stage, not to secure his place on general classification, but to actually attempt to move up into third, and to overhaul Del Toro. His team rode smartly, and while the plan failed, it showed intent.However, in the immediate aftermath, in the biggest huddle beyond the finish line, the young man is disappointed.I cracked. Voil. Thats how it is, Seixas said.I wanted to go as deep as possible, but there was a moment where I was on my limit, and I cracked, he continued.I hoped to be stronger than usual but in the end I exploded.The podium might have slipped away from his grasp, but it was clear that Seixas was ready to gamble his fourth place, rather than race conservatively to secure his historic result.We said in the team that we had nothing to lose. Today Im fourth, and yesterday I was fourth. We tried everything to crack Del Toro and he was just stronger today, he explained.We say we risk it all for the podium. Im still fourth so I didnt lose anything. I tried everything but the legs were not good enough, the head also. Thats why I cracked after. For me it was third or nothing, and today for me its nothing."However, fourth place is not nothing it is yet more confirmation that France has a serious talent on its hands, one that is only going to mature into a better racer, and one that also has time on his side in the battle against Pogaar and Del Toro in the future.It does show the sign of a great competitor to be disappointed with fourth, although that achievement will be understood more in the coming weeks.In a few days, with a bit of air, there will be some pride, Seixas said.

Paul Seixas saw his dream of a Tour de France podium slip away on the final mountain stage, but the 19-year-old still completed one of the most impressive debut Grand Tours in recent memory. After an aggressive bid to overhaul Isaac del Toro for third overall, the Decathlon CMA CGM Team leader event...

Richard Carapaz knows how to win hearts and minds.Always aggressive, always classy, always embodying panache.The Tour de France wasnt even supposed to be on his 2026 calendar winning the Giro dItalia for a second time was what his season was based around, until a perineal cyst ruled him out of the Italian Grand Tour.How the Tour has benefitted.The Ecuadorian third on GC at the Tour in 2021, and the winner of the mountains jersey and a stage in 2024 has lit up the race in the final week.Two stage wins, his second coming on stage 20 atop Alpe dHuez just two days after his first, and an unassailable lead in the mountains classification all he has to do is finish in Paris on Sunday to round off a terrific, enviable Tour. Perhaps only the three podium finishers and Tim Merlier with three stages can be happier. As a bonus and it really is an added tip Carapaz will finish eighth on GC.Unlike other riders in the top-10 whove ridden a careful, considered GC race but havent earned their respective teams much visibility, Carapaz has shown off the EF Education-EasyPost jersey at the front of the race, repeatedly. Hes also shown how to ride a Tour de France. He is a proper bike racer. The one everyone dreams of being like.Weve broken many speed and climbing records this year, and every year the competition gets higher and higher, so to win this jersey is very complicated, the 33-year-old said after sealing his various triumphs.It was made even more difficult by his injury-marred spring. When I realised I wouldnt do the Giro, it was a complicated situation for me, he said. When I came out of the operation, I didnt ride my bike for three weeks and I didnt know if my preparation for the Tour was complete.But working with the team I got a lot of help, not only physically but mentally and morally, and they helped me tremendously.When I knew I was coming to the Tour, we knew the first week would be hard, and I lost some time when I had to. I wanted to be 100% in this last week.Carapaz always comes into his own when the race enters the high mountains; its no surprise he was born and raised at an altitude of 2,800m. I knew the last week of the race would be hard but its like that every year, he said.The third week is my favourite and weve ridden it in a spectacular way, with two stages and the polka dot jersey. Weve achieved the goal we had when we started in Barcelona.(Image credit: Getty Images)When Carapaz began the penultimate stage, he had one main aim: to get in the breakaway and hoover up the dozens of polka dot jersey points on offer over the Croix de la Fer, Tlgraphe, Galibier, Saranne and then Alpe dHuez. WInning the stage was a secondary ambition. But once over the Galibier, he started to believe. When we passed the Galibier and went downhill, there was good collaboration with [fellow escapees] Jai Hindley, Sepp Kuss and Juan Ayuso, Carapaz reflected.We had four minutes [lead to the GC group] but we had to stay calm. I knew I had the legs to win. Coming into the last climb I knew I had to do a half-an-hour effort and to pace myself to achieve the victory. Sepp attacked me at one point. I was six or seven seconds behind but I was always close to him.Then Kuss, also in the breakaway with Carapaz 24 hours earlier, crashed. Twice. The second time he was saved by netting that prevented the Visma-Lease a Bike rider from falling down a mountain side at speed. Fortunately Kuss was fine and able to remount, but he had passed up his chance of victory. Carapaz swooped in, ascended the final four kilometres, and won by 26 seconds from Remco Evenepoel; Kuss finished third.On Alpe dHuez I suffered so much, Carapaz added. Even though I knew the route until the last metre, I suffered so, so much, but it was worth it to win this stage.I think we have deserved what has happened to us. The goal was to win the mountains jerseys that was our mission and we did that. Two stages and eighth overall aint a bad addition, either. Chapeau, Richie.

Isaac del Toro is on the verge of completing one of the biggest achievements of his young career. The UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider secured third place overall at the 2026 Tour de France after withstanding repeated attacks from Paul Seixas during the brutal final Alpine stage. Afterwards, the Mexica...

The iconic summit finish, visited twice by the 2026 Tour, is one of sports greatest theatres. But you have to learn to take the rough with the smooth (and a few bare arses, too)

Sepp Kuss finished stage 20 of the Tour de France disappointed, having finished third after cresting the Col de Sarenne in third, but it could have been so much worse.The Visma-Lease a Bike rider crashed twice in the final 8km of the day on the descent from the Sarenne before the small climb up to Alpe d'Huez, with the second crash looking particularly terrifying.First, the American crashed as he left a dark tunnel with 7.1km to go, but then with just over 4km to go, he misjudged a corner on a fast descent and was saved from plummeting over a sheer drop just by safety netting on the bend.The heart-stopping moment allowed Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) to catch and overtake him, and win the stage, his second in three days. To add insult to injury, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) passed him in the finale.The only consolation was third place, and a combativity prize. The other good news is that the man from Colorado seemed unhurt by the incidents, but he came close to disaster. The prize of a second Tour stage win was on the line, hence the pressure Kuss put on himself on that descent."I wasn't entirely clear-headed," Kuss told France Tlvisions post-race. "The effort was incredible. I was trying to maintain the gap with Richard Carapaz. I knew he wasn't far behind and that he would fight to the end. I was trying to gain as much time as possible on every corner.""I wasn't too scared," he continued. "I thought I'd read the right line. Luckily, there were nets. It would have been nice to finish this Tour on a positive note. But I managed to finish the stage, and we're satisfied with the fighting spirit we showed in this Tour. We fought to the very end.""I was so on the limit, I misjudged the corner a bit," he added to the Tour's media team. "First in the tunnel, and then after that I was still trying to make up too much time and I misjudged the corner. It was a bit scary, sorry to my wife and my family watching at home! That's racing. Im happy with the fight and the performance, and it was a big day out."Thats how it goes, you can't always have good luck, of have everything in your way. We can be proud of the way we fought as a team. After Jonas [Vingegaard] was out the race, we made the most of every single day. I felt the support of the guys during the stage, I couldn't pay it back but we can be proud of our effort."

The Tour de France is often shaped as much by survival as by strength. Across three weeks of racing from the Grand Dpart in Barcelona on 4 July to the final stage in Paris on 26 July, crashes, illness, heat, fatigue and withdrawals can quickly reshape the peloton, from nervous sprint stages and exp...