The favorites could skip the Tour

The presentation of the Tour de France 2026 leaves us with a route that seems ideal for Tadej Pogacar to conquer his fifth yellow jersey. This marked favoritism is causing some of the main contenders to consider alternative plans to challenge the Slovenian, which could even mean that some of them may not participate in the Grande Boucle.

Vingegaard and Evenepoel consider alternative calendars to avoid Pogacar

With hardly any time trial and an overdose of mountain stages in the Tour de France 2026, the participation of Remco Evenepoel in the French race is still not confirmed as secure as his new team Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe commented, opting to wait to know the routes of the Giro d'Italia and La Vuelta a España before making a decision about the Belgian cyclist's calendar.

Instead, facing a route not very conducive to Remco Evenepoel's characteristics, it is very likely that the leader of the Austrian team in the Tour de France will once again be Florian Lipowitz, who, let's not forget, finished this year's race in third place on the podium.

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“Although there are many stages that suit our racing style and take advantage of the strengths of many of our riders, we will now wait for the routes of the other Grand Tours before finalizing the season plans for the team leaders” explained Zak Dempster, sports director of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.

Vismo-Lease a Bike have fewer doubts, as after learning about the route of the Tour de France 2026, they explained, through their sports director Grischa Niermann “In general, the route looks nice. Of course, we will have to analyze it more thoroughly and delve into each stage, but there is certainly a lot of mountain, which is good”.

However, in recent days, rumors have been growing that Jonas Vingegaard may face the Giro-Tour double, which, as happened in the recently ended season with La Vuelta, would give the Dane the opportunity to add another Grand Tour victory. These rumors stem from statements made by Vingegaard before La Vuelta 2025 in which he pointed out that, if he were to win La Vuelta, “it would be really great to race the Giro next year” and thus be able to join the select club of cyclists who have managed to win the so-called Triple Crown.

In any case, there are still months to go before the start of the 2026 season, during which cyclists will have to face pre-season training camps and begin planning their calendar with coaches and technicians, always aiming to achieve peak physical condition on the designated dates. Only then, on January 1st, will we be able to know the final calendar of the most important men in the peloton, and despite all the rumors, it is hard to believe that any of the big names will miss the most important race in the world, the Tour de France.