Key events
Who are the Tour de France favourites?
Look no further than Tadej Pogacar. He seems to find a way to improve every single year, challenging for every Monument one-day race going, a testament to his versatility, hunger and power.
Unbeaten in a stage race since the 2023 Tour de France and relatively untroubled by rivals in recent years, it would be a surprise if he failed to win. He has turned up to the Tour looking like peak Eminem, who incidentally is one of his favourite singers.
While regular rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) could probably not pull off the bleach blond look, he is full of confidence after a dominant Giro d’Italia triumph and says he is “better than ever”. Those two will likely duel again in the high mountains.
As for outsiders? Mexican super-talent Isaac Del Toro is making his debut, learning from the best – his team leader Pogacar. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) has impressed this year, and Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe have podium potential in Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz, third last year.
And then, oh la la, last but certainly not east, there is Paul Seixas…
Team time-trial start times
This is the running order for the team time-trial. Without a road stage beforehand to separate wheat from chaff and yield any time differences, it has been done in reverse order of bib numbers.
Spanish wild card team Caja Rural (dossards 211 to 218) get the race rolling at 5.05pm local time. The big hitters are on the course an hour later, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG last off at 5.55pm BST, 6.55pm local time. Note: all times below are BST.
4.05 – Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
4.10 – Picnic PostNL
4.15 – TotalEnergies
4.20 – Tudor Pro Cycling Team
4.25 – Groupama-FDJ United
4.30 – Pinarello-Q36.5
4.35 – Cofidis
4.40 – Lotto Intermarché
4.45 – Movistar
4.50 – NSN
4.55 – Uno-X Mobility
5.00 – Jayco-Alula
5.05 – Alpecin-Premier Tech
5.10 – Soudal Quick-Step
5.15 – Netcompany Ineos
5.20 – Bahrain Victorious
5.25 – XDS Astana
5.30 – Decathlon CMA CGM
5.35 – EF Education-EasyPost
5.40 – Lidl-Trek
5.45 – Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
5.50 – Visma-Lease a Bike
5.55 – UAE Team Emirates-XRG
Preamble
Anyone care for some TTT?
The 2026 Tour de France is here. It gets under way in Barcelona this afternoon with a 19.6km team time-trial around the streets of the Spanish city.
The 21 squads will be passing La Rambla on the route, but this will be no ramble. As the discipline’s last word rather suggests, this is a test, the ultimate one for cohesion, power and aerodynamics in pro road racing.
Looking like Tron players in their wind-cheating helmets and skinsuits, eight riders roll down the start ramp, taking 10-to-20 second turns on the front to keep the speed at 60 kilometres per hour before slotting back into the slipstream, centimetres away from a teammate’s back wheel. It is all about going as fast as possible with optimal smoothness, ignoring their burning legs and lungs.
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The TTT is back on the Tour route after a seven-year absence, but not as many fans might know it. Rather than the clock stopping on the fourth rider across the finish line, as is traditional, this is individually timed. Therefore, many teammates will give their all and drop off the pace along the route, leaving one or two frontmen from each team accelerating for all they are worth on the finishing incline to the Olympic Stadium on Montjuïc.
The course is flat and fast until two short hills in the final four kilometres, meaning victory will mainly come down to sheer power, with climbing finesse needed in the finale. Given the tweaked rules, woe betide any GC contender who has a puncture or a crash.
This is probably the most prized stage for any team to win – a byword for strength-in-depth and total cycling, putting one of their riders in the yellow jersey right away. More than that, it takes the pressure off from the get-go. Job done in terms of performance and subsequent media coverage: not bad for 20 minutes’ work.
We will get deeper into favourites for today’s appetiser and the Tour de France later, but surefire contenders this afternoon are Netcompany Ineos, Visma-Lease a Bike, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and last team off, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, home of defending champion Tadej Pogačar.
Please do chime in with your emails, thoughts, tangents, predictions, hopes and dreams. You can find me at andy.mcgrath.casual@guardian.co.uk or @andymcgra..
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