Tadej Pogacar’s pursuit of a record-tying fifth title is the prevailing storyline of the 2026 Tour de France, which starts Saturday with all 21 stages live on Peacock.
Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and Remco Evenepoel of Belgium, top challengers to the Slovenian in recent years, and rising French star Paul Seixas could flip the script.
The three-week Tour begins with a team time trial in Barcelona. It crosses into the mountains early on stage three.
It ends with back-to-back stage finishes at the famed Alpe d’Huez (July 24-25) followed by the closing ride into Paris — made tougher by bringing back the Montmartre climb from the 2024 Olympics and 2025 Tour.
Pogacar can join the list of men who share the record of five Tour de France titles: Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil.
At 27, Pogacar would be the youngest to do it, and NBC Sports analyst Tejay van Garderen expects him to do it.
“After last year, it settled all the questions for me,” van Garderen said on Beyond the Podium. “Tadej’s just the best cyclist we’ve ever seen.”
Pogacar had a typical spring for him — six wins in seven races. That included victory by a whopping 6 minutes, 32 seconds in the five-stage Tour de Suisse, his most recent outing two weeks ago. It marked the largest margin of victory in that race since 1959.
“With this heat, this is likely how it will look at the Tour de France, and so much elevation before,” Pogacar said on the last day of the Tour de Suisse. “So it was really good to test the legs, the heart, and the lungs on the final climb.”
What’s more, Pogacar should have a stronger UAE Team Emirates XRG supporting cast than in 2025.
Isaac del Toro of Mexico, the 2025 Giro d’Italia runner-up, and American veteran Brandon McNulty are in the squad after not racing last year’s Tour.
Jonas Vingegaard eyes Giro-Tour double
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) receives the award for first place in the 109th Giro d’Italia 2026, Stage 21, a 131 km stage from Rome to Rome, on May 31, 2026, in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Domenico Cippitelli/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
If it wasn’t for Pogacar, Vingegaard may well be a five-time Tour de France winner already. The leader of the Visma-Lease a Bike team won the Tour in 2022 and 2023 and was runner-up to Pogacar in 2021, 2024 and 2025 (each time a distant second by more than four minutes).
Already this year, Vingegaard completed a feat that Pogacar has not: becoming the eighth man to win all three Grand Tours, thanks to a Giro victory in May.
Now Vingegaard bids to become the second man in 28 years to win the Giro and Tour in the same year. Pogacar did the double in 2024.
“With the level I showed here in this Giro, I at least believe that I will be in a very, very good shape for the Tour de France,” Vingegaard said at the end of the Giro.
But Vingegaard will be without one of his top teammates. Wout van Aert, a 10-time Tour stage winner and the only man to beat Pogacar in 2026 (at Paris-Roubaix), is out with an elbow injury.
Vingegaard will rely on Americans Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss to help him up the Pyrenees and Alps.
Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz chase podium
Aug 3, 2024; Paris, FRANCE; Remco Evenepoel (BEL) reacts after winning the gold medal in the menís road race during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Pont d’lena. Mandatory Credit: Andrew P. Scott-Imagn Images
Remco Evenepoel swept the road race and time trial gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. (Andrew P. Scott-Imagn Images)
Is it better to have one unquestioned team leader, or multiple podium contenders at a Tour? Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz are about to find out.
Evenepoel, third at the 2024 Tour, switched teams after last season to join Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. That’s the team of the German Lipowitz, who placed third in his Tour debut in 2025.
Last Friday, the squad was announced in an article titled, “With a dual leadership approach to the Tour de France.”
“The Tour is no longer won by an exceptional rider alone, but by an exceptional team,” said Zak Dempster, Chief of Sports at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. “We believe we are bringing one of the most complete squads to the start. With Remco and Florian, we have two leaders who have already proven they can stand on the Tour podium. Their different strengths give us tactical options that could prove decisive.”
Paul Seixas, France’s new hope
LIEGE, BELGIUM - APRIL 26: Paul Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM Team of France during the match between Liege v Bastogne - Liege Men Elite at the Liege on April 26, 2026 in Liege Belgium (Photo by Pim Waslander/Soccrates/Getty Images)
Soccrates Images/Getty Images
No Frenchman has won the Tour since Hinault in 1985, and none have finished on the podium since 2017.
But French cycling has reason for optimism this year: 19-year-old Paul Seixas, who is set to become the youngest Tour rider in 89 years, according to L’Equipe.
He has the talent to become the youngest Tour podium finisher ever and the second teen to place in the top three (Henri Cornet, 1904 champion).
“He’s been one of the only riders in recent history over the past 12 months that’s actually taken it to Tadej Pogacar,” NBC Sports analyst Brent Bookwalter said.
Seixas won La Fleche Wallonne in April and was runner-up to Pogacar at two other one-day races. He also won the six-stage Tour of the Basque Country over Lipowitz, though he crashed out of his most recent race two and a half weeks ago.
“I’m not setting a more specific (Tour de France) goal because I’m heading into the unknown — I’ve never competed in a race this long and demanding before,” Seixas said. “I hope to be a key player, continue to improve, and also enjoy myself. This is the race I’ve always dreamed of, and I realize how lucky I am to be able to compete in it so early in my career.”
How to watch the Tour de France 2026
- Dates: Saturday, July 4-Sunday, July 26
- Start times: Between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. EST
- Full schedule can be found here
- Watch on: NBC, NBCSN, Peacock
