For all the obstacles that lie in wait for the riders at the 2026 Tour de France, from crosswinds to time trials to lairy descents and tense bunch sprints, there's one that stands head and shoulders above the rest, both figuratively and literally — the climbs.
It's in the mountains where the Tour is won and lost, and where its most famous, epic battles take place. This year's route will be no different, with a variety of already established iconic passes to intriguing new additions, plus a novel new spin on the most famous mountain of them all.
Here are the eight climbs we think will be the most significant of this year's race.
Côte de Château de Montjuïc — stage two
The hills of Montjuic that overlook Barcelona are familiar from the Volta a Catalunya, which each year climates with a circuit stage centred around the Alto de Montjuic which always delivers great entertainment. The Tour visits the same territory the day after the opening team time trial, although not the same specific climb as usual — they'll instead ride up the Côte de Château de Montjuïc, which at 1.6km, might be shorter than Alto de Montjuïc, but has steeper (9.3%) gradients.
It's the kind of punchy incline that Tadej Pogačar simply cannot resist attacking on, so expect him to make a move the third and final time they ride up, with only 2.5km between its summit and the finish at the Olympic Stadium.
Col du Tourmalet — stage six
The proximity of this year's Grand Départ location of Barcelona to the Pyrenees means the mountain range is visited earlier than normal, with the first category one test (Col de Toses) appearing just three days into the race. But while that climb features too early in the stage to have an impact on the GC, stage six poses the first proper mountain challenge, with multiple giants of the region's 'Circle of Death' to be taken on.
Hardest of them all is the Col du Tourmalet, the infamously long (17.1km at 7.3%) and high (2,115m) mountain that will extend its record as the most visited at the Tour; and with just under 40km between its summit and the foot of the (comparatively easier) summit finish to Gavarnie-Gèdre, it will likely initiate the first GC sort-out of the race, and inform us who is in the shape to push for the podium.
(Image credit: SWPix)
Col de Pertus — stage 10
On paper, the Col de Pertus does not look like the sternest of tests; its average gradient of 8.5% might be steep, but, lasting only 4.4km, does not require a prolonged effort. However, coming towards the end of a punchy stage in the Massif Central that features no less than seven separate hills, and a total elevation gain of 3,800m that's almost as much as the Pyrenean stage from the first week, it will be taken on by riders with weary legs.
If its last inclusion from 2024 is anything to go by, on a stage that featured the same finale and three final climbs, it could be a thriller. That day, Jonas Vingegaard was dropped by Tadej Pogačar on the preceding climb, Puy Mary-Pas de Peyrol, only to miraculously bridge back up to him on the Col de Pertus, and ultimately outsprint him for the stage on the same finishing straight in Le Lioran.
Col du Haag — stage 14
Stages 13 and 14 will be a double-header in the Vosges mountains, where the climbing, and therefore the GC race, will really begin to intensify. The historic Ballon d'Alsace (which, in 1905, became the first ever mountain climbed at the Tour de France) will feature twice, first on stage 13 as the final climb tackled before a 30km descent to the finish, then the following day as the second of four mountains taken on.
But the mountain likely to have the biggest impact is stage 14's Col du Haag, which would be the first major summit finish of the race were it not for a 6km plateau that takes them to the finish at Le Markstein. The converted forest track is an unknown entity, having never before been ridden at the Tour, but its remote location, 11.2km length, and irregular gradients that average 7.3% but often touch double digits, promise to ignite the race.
(Image credit: SWPix)
Plateau de Solaison — stage 15
If stage fourteen was the Tour's first near-proper summit finish, the stage fifteen finish up Plateau de Solaison that rounds off the second week is the first unambiguously so. It's viciously steep, averaging 9%, and relentlessly so, with barely any easing of the gradient for its entire 11.3km duration. It's hard enough to have been deemed an hors category climb, one of only two summit finishes to have that designation this year.
This will be the Plateau de Solaison's debut at the Tour, but it has been used at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (aka the Dauphiné), as recently as this year's edition. That stage offered a glimpse of how selective we can expect this stage to be: Isaac del Toro attacked from near the bottom and soloed to both the stage win and overall victory, putting a whole minute into the next best rider, Juan Ayuso, in second, with the rest arriving home in ones and twos. With three climbs to complete before they even arrive at Plateau de Solaison, expect similar carnage here at the Tour.
(Image credit: SWPix)
Orcières-Merlette — stage 18
The race's endgame begins on stage eighteen with a summit finish to Orcières-Merlette, the first of an Alpine triple-header that will determine the ultimate fate of the yellow jersey. Of the three, this is perhaps the 'easiest', but there are still a total of five climbs and 3,900m of elevation gain to contend with.
The Orcières-Merlette itself isn't especially daunting, averaging a relatively shallow 6.7% for its 7.1km duration, and its last Tour appearance in 2020 saw 16 riders arrive at the summit together, led by Primož Roglič. Nevertheless, the climb is steeped in Tour history thanks to a famous stage from 1971, when Eddy Merckx's great rival Luis Ocaña put him to the sword on the climb by soloing to a huge stage victory, and the yellow jersey — only to lose it, devastatingly, just four days later when he crashed out of the race.
Col du Galibier — stage 20
The queen stage of this year's Tour de France is saved until last, the final stage before Paris featuring no less than 5,450m of climbing and three hors category summits. Tackled after the Col de la Croix de Fer and Col du Télégraphe and before the Col de Sarenne, Col du Galibier is the biggest of the lot, and will be the highest point of the whole race — by the time the riders have slogged up the 17.7km of 6.9% roads to the summit, they'll find themselves 2,642m above sea level.
Though summited a long way from the finish, with 60km still left to ride, the riders might deem it more sensible to wait until Col de Sarenne to make their moves. But in this era of modern, attacking cycling, and as the final opportunity to gain time before the finale in Paris, the scope is there for someone to emulate the exploits of past legends like Fausto Coppi and Marco Pantani and use the Galibier for an epic long-range attack.
Alpe d'Huez — stages 19 and 20
Four years is an unusually long time for the Tour to go without visiting the iconic Alpe d'Huez, and race organisers A.S.O. have made up for lost time by including it not once, but twice. The Alpe is always the headline climb in every Tour it features, but the novelty of this year's double-appearance makes it even more so, so expect even bigger and more raucous legions of fans from around the world crowding every inch of its famous 21 hairpins.
Its first appearance will come at the end of stage 19, when it will serve as the second hors category mountain top finish of this year's race, the last and hardest of four Alpine climbs crammed into just 128km of racing, tackled up its familiar 13.8km side with its many hairpins and 8.1% slopes. Then the following day it will be the cherry on the cake of what is this year's queen stage, albeit this time climbed instead via the Col de Sarenne. This route may not be quite so steep, climbing at 7.3% for 12.8km, before reducing to 6.2% to the final 3.7km to the Alpe d'Huez summit, following a plateau and descent; but as the final mountain of the Tour, it will surely uphold the tradition that whoever is in control of the yellow jersey at the top of the Alpe will go on to win it.
(Image credit: SWPix)
