The Tour de France 2026 rolls out this Saturday in Barcelona, the third Grand Départ to be staged on Spanish soil and the first Tour in 55 years to open with a team time trial. From the 19.6km blast around the Catalan capital, the race winds north over 3,320.7km and 21 stages to its finish on the Champs-Élysées on 26 July.
Once again the race turns on the rivalry between Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), the two men who have shared the past five editions between them. Pogačar arrives off a crushing Tour de Suisse, Vingegaard off a debut Giro d'Italia he turned into a procession. Behind them, a new generation crowds in - Paul Seixas, Isaac del Toro and Juan Ayuso among them - alongside the more familiar threat of Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz.
Here are the favourites for the 2026 Tour de France as the bookmakers see it.
Odds correct at time of publishing.
Tadej Pogačar - 2/7
To absolutely noone's surprise, Pogačar starts as the shortest-priced Tour favourite. The Slovenian has won four of the last six editions and has scarcely put a foot wrong in 2026, his defeat at Paris-Roubaix the only real blemish on the season. Everywhere else he has been imperious.
At the Tour de Suisse he won by six and a half minutes, taking a long-range solo on stage one, the time trial on stage four and a mountain stage on stage five.
Jonas Vingegaard - 9/2
For the first time since 2023, the year he last won the Tour, Vingegaard has enjoyed a clean run into July. The crashes that wrecked his 2024 and 2025 build-ups are behind him, and the Dane has been near-faultless: victory at Paris-Nice in foul weather, total command of the Volta a Catalunya, and then a debut Giro d'Italia he dominated almost mountain by mountain, taking Marco Pantani's old record atop Piancavallo along the way.
Vingegaard's climbing in Italy was relentless, but rarely reached the explosive register Pogačar produces on his best days. To beat him, the Dane will need to find a level in July he has not yet shown this year. The odds suggest he has it in him.
Paul Seixas - 11/2
Seixas, leader of Decathlon CMA CGM, will be the youngest rider to start the Tour in 89 years, and he has earned his billing: a win at Itzulia Basque Country, victory at La Flèche Wallonne on debut, second at Strade Bianche and a Liège-Bastogne-Liège where he lived with Pogačar's attacks up La Redoute before cracking late.
But Seixas crashed hard on a descent on the penultimate stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, losing his race lead, then rode on the next day with blood seeping through his white jersey before abandoning on the final morning. His remarkable chase back to the bunch that day spoke to his class, but whether his body has fully recovered in time is the great unknown of his first Tour.
Remco Evenepoel - 14/1
The Belgian's move to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe was meant to give him the GC engine to take the fight to the top two, and a strong Classics campaign hinted at it. Since Liège, though, he has gone quiet, opting for a long training block over racing, with a fifth at the Volta a Catalunya his last stage-race result of note.
The honest read is that Evenepoel remains a class below the leading two over three mountainous weeks, and the parcours does him few favours. A podium is well within range.
Florian Lipowitz - 14/1
Lipowitz finished third in 2025, and returns as Evenepoel's nominal lieutenant at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. The German topped the podium at the Tour of Slovenia, won in and the team may yet find itself racing a flexible hand if Evenepoel's form is left wanting.
At the same odds as his leader, the bookmakers are not ruling out the possibility that Lipowitz, not Evenepoel, emerges as Red Bull's best-placed rider in Paris. It wouldn't be the biggest surprise of the race.
Juan Ayuso - 25/1
Installed as Lidl-Trek's leader, Ayuso starts a Tour as an outright GC captain for the first time. The Spaniard opened his year with overall victory at the Volta ao Algarve, then stuttered with abandons at Itzulia Basque Country and Paris-Nice before returning to take third at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, comfortably the second-best climber there behind Del Toro, and 1:24 clear of teammate Mattias Skjelmose.
With Mads Pedersen chasing the green jersey, Ayuso should have the team built around his GC ambitions.
Isaac del Toro - 40/1
Del Toro is the reigning revelation of the sport: in 2026 he has won the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on debut. By any neutral measure he is among the three strongest stage racers in this race.
His 40/1 reflects that he's here for Pogačar. As UAE's heir apparent and luxury domestique, Del Toro will most likely spend the race in service. But as Adam Yates and João Almeida have shown in recent Tours, a rider that strong can finish high on GC while doing his job.
Read more: Del Toro and the new wave of Mexican cycling
Tom Pidcock - 66/1
Pidcock says he's coming to enjoy the race, but the Pinarello-Q36.5 leader's is a genuine top-10 threat. The Briton won atop Alpe d'Huez in 2022 - the headline climb of this year's Tour, ridden twice in two days. On his road return he won the Andorra MoraBanc Clàssica, beating a field of pure climbers.
Read more: The eight climbs that will decide the Tour de France
The caveat is mileage. Pidcock has built his year around the mountain bike and one-day racing rather than week-long stage races.
Tobias Halland Johannessen - 100/1
Perhaps the most underrated GC rider in the bunch. Johannessen quietly finished sixth at the 2025 Tour and has carried that form into 2026, taking fifth overall at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with three strong rides on the closing mountain stages. With Uno-X Mobility in their first WorldTour season, the former Tour de l'Avenir winner has the freedom to ride his own race.
Other contenders
The most notable name among the outsiders is one who won't start at all - Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos), fourth last year, misses the Tour after crashing at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, leaving Kévin Vauquelin (300/1) to lead the British team after his own seventh place in 2025. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar) are both 150/1 on their Tour GC ambitions, alongside Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) at the same price, while Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easy Post) arrives in form after finishing second to Pogačar at the Tour de Suisse.
Further down the market, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) sit at 300/1, with Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Ben Healy (EF Education EasyPost), Thymen Arensman and Carlos Rodríguez (Netcompany-Ineos) all out at 400/1.
Prediction
Barring misfortune, this is Tadej Pogačar's Tour to lose, with Vingegaard the only rider who looks capable of taking it from him.
