Pogacar, the man to beat: the favorites of the Tour de France 2026

All against Tadej Pogacar (27 years old). This could be the great headline when we refer to the top candidates to win the 113th edition of the Tour de France. The Slovenian arrives at the date with history in excellent shape. It is the time that he goes to the Tour with the fewest days of competition in his legs (16) and he will land in Barcelona after clearly beating his rivals wherever he has raced, eating into their morale.

The leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG He has won every race he has competed in this season almost without breaking a sweat. He was only 2nd in Paris-Roubaix, a race that is hostile to him, in which countless factors intervene and which he was competing for the second time. He is number 1 in the world and wears the jersey of the best team in the world; That is to say, they have surrounded him with a solvent army ready to defend their leader in all areas.

Pogacar He is a rider who has no cracks, who dominates all terrains and who also knows that if he wins he would enter history: he would achieve his fifth Tour (2020, 2021, 2024, 2025) and he would sit at the table of the only four galactic who have managed to win the best race in the world five times: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

His great rival is none other than Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane (29 years old) is the great ‘enemy’ of ‘Pogi’ in the Tour and in the three-week races. In his favor, his regularity and tenacity and the team that surrounds him – although Van Aert is significantly missing. He arrives at the Tour after the first few months of competition in which he has swept, but in which he has not met Pogacar. He won Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro. Like Pogacar in 2024 he wants to achieve the historic Giro-Tour double. We’ll see if he succeeds. The leader of Team Visma-Lease a Bike is looking for his third Tour, after those in 2022 and 2023.

Behind them, several aspirants to make things difficult for them. Two of them are active in the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team. The German Florian Lipowitz (25 years old) has just clearly won the Tour of Slovenia and has been 2nd in Romandía, 2nd in Itzulia and 3rd in the Volta a Catalunya. Next to him in the energy formation, a piece of corridor like Remco Evenepoel (26 years old). The Belgian was 3rd in 2024, had to abandon in 2025 and sometimes, even though he won La Vuelta (2022), it seems that the three-week grand tours are overwhelming him (two abandonments in La Vuelta plus the one in the Tour).

Together with them we must closely follow the Norwegian Tobias Johannessen (6th in 2025) or French Kevin Vauquelin (7th in 2025). Speaking of French, the great attraction for the Gauls, for the youngest and for all good cycling fans is Paul Seixas.

The young man from Lyon, 19 years old, is the only one who has stood up to Pogacar this season as far as he could, but he is not only making his debut in the Tour, but in a three-week race. His performance is unknown, but France needs a hero, a new reference. He has not stepped on the final podium of the Tour since Romain Bardet (3rd, 2017) and has not won since ‘The Badger’ Bernard Hinault signed his fifth Tour (1985)