5 Storylines You Need to Know to Watch the Tour de France Like an Expert

So you’ve not tuned in to bike racing since last year’s Tour de France? Or maybe you jumped in for the classics and are back for La Grand Boucle?

If you’re feeling out of the loop, don’t worry – we’ve got you.

We’ve compiled the most important narratives you need to know so you can follow the 2026 Tour de France like a pro.

This is your primer on the biggest stories in bike racing of the past 12 months, and how they’ll shape the race for the yellow jersey.

Keep it handy so you know what to shout about while you watch the action on the couch.

Nobody will ever know you tuned out.

1. Tadej Pogacar continues to dominate and stands to make more history

Tadej Pogačar hasn’t slowed down since he romped to his fourth Tour de France victory last summer.

In fact, he might even be getting faster — he’s having a season so immaculate you could eat your dinner from it. Only a sprint vs. Wout van Aert at Paris-Roubaix denied Pogačar a perfect sweep of the races he’s entered.

And now, after he rampaged through victories at three monument classics, two stage races, and the iconic Strade Bianche, Pogačar is chasing a place in the most elite club in cycling.

The 27-year-old will join Eddy Merckx, Jacques Antequil, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Induráin as a 5-time Tour de France winner if he defends his title this July.

Pogačar faces a deep field as he strives for yellow jersey No.5.

Jonas Vingegaard, Paul Seixas, and Remco Evenepoel top the deepest GC start list King Pog ever faced at the Tour de France.

But the Slovenian is still the outright favorite.

UAE Emirates-XRG will bring a team strong enough to bully Visma-Lease a Bike.

Pogi’s bottle boy, Isaac del Toro, might even hit the podium himself. The Mexican would be the first GC option on nearly any other team.

And Pogačar is Pogačar.

What more needs to be said?

2. Jonas Vingegaard is back to his best and chasing the Giro-Tour double

After winning two Tour de France titles in 2022 and 2023, Jonas Vingegaard finished second to Tadej Pogačar in the last two editions of the race.

But Pogačar isn’t guaranteed a third-straight win this summer.

Vingegaard will show up at the Tour de France with serious swagger after he made hay during his first fault-free spring in two years.

In 2024 and 2025, “Vingo” was chasing Pogačar before the Tour even started. A huge crash and then a costly concussion crushed his preparation plans.

This year, the Vimsa-Lease a Bike star found his perfect preparation in the most ironic circumstances.

After marquee stage-race wins in Paris-Nice and Volta a Catalunya, Vingegaard braved the wilds of the Giro d’Italia. He dominated it on debut, and sprang off the winner’s podium as if he’d been on a café ride.

Vingegaard became the eighth man to win all three grand tours when he claimed the maglia rosa this spring. And now he could join Pogačar in owning the mythical Giro-Tour double if he retakes the maillot jaune in summer.

It’s not out of the question that he does it.

Vingegaard’s risky decision to race the Giro d’Italia sharpened him into the “Killer Bee” that stung Pogačar in 2021 and 2022.

All that said, he remains the underdog at the Tour de France. Pogačar has the momentum, the team, and the Merckxian genes.

However, unlike in 2024 and 2025, King Pog might not have it so easy this time around.

3. Racing has gotten even faster — and this year’s Tour could be the fastest on record

You might need to watch the 2026 Tour de France at half-speed. We’re betting this year’s race will be the fastest on record.

The carbohydrate revolution, a devotion to aero, and the birth of an extra-aggressive new style of racing have accelerated pro cycling every year since COVID.

Whether on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix or the climbs of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, winning times are shattered every year.

The Tour de France is where racing reaches peak velocity, and this year will be no different.

Mountains are being demolished at 6.7 w/kg by Tour de France superdomestiques.

Climbing whippets eyeing the yellow jersey are boasting of 420-watt power thresholds.

A wave of new tech will turn the dial further. Specialized and Van Rysel are among the many bike partners expected to roll out prototype frames for their Tour de France teams that are slipperier than ever [for Quick-Step, Red Bull, and Decathlon – ed].

And this year, it’s not only Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Emirates-XRG who’ve got the depth to dominate the racing. Nouveau riche superteams Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek, and Decathlon CMA-CGM will come to the Tour with newly inflated budgets and ambitions to match.

It all makes for a high-pressure melting-pot of speed and power.

Last year’s Tour de France was run off at an average of 42.85kph – the fastest in history.

This year, on a course that’s arguably harder, we bet that the average nudges north of 43kph and sets the next mark to beat.

4. Paul Seixas has emerged as the most exciting new talent since Pogačar

The French were starting to lose hope of seeing a home rider come anywhere close to the podium of The Tour de France.

The top-placed Frenchman in the 2025 Tour was Kévin Vauquelin in seventh. In 2024, the home nation had to make do with Guillaume Martin in 13th.

After the retirement of Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot, “the home team” desperately needed a GC talisman to cheer for.

Enter Paul Seixas.

He’s French, he’s fast — and even better, he’s only 19.

That’s 15 years of future hope for French fans.

And it’s not only the French who are feeling the Seixas hype. He staggered world cycling with his meteoric 12-month rise.

This spring, Seixas became the first Frenchman to win a WorldTour stage-race in 19 years at Itzulia Basque Country, and showed resistance to Pogačar in the hilly classics.

“Could this kid actually beat King Pog?” was the narrative of early summer.

Seixas would be the youngest yellow jersey in history if he pulls off the near-impossible at the Tour de France, and there were whispers he could do it.

However, a bruising abandon at the Tour Auvergne-Rhônes-Alpes this June came as a reality check. The Tour de France won’t be simple for this lanky teen.

But a few tough days in the Rhônes-Alpes don’t overshadow Seixas’ brilliance.

He’s the most exciting rider cycling has seen since Pogačar exploded onto the world stage.

The sky is his limit. A Tour de France debut will reveal how fast he gets there.

5. Remco Evenepoel needs to come good on a super-size deal with Red Bull

After a disappointing DNF in 2025, Remco Evenepoel is back at the Tour de France — and this year, he’s wearing a different jersey.

The Belgian will race the 2026 Tour de France for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe after he cashed in with a super-size transfer from Quick-Step in the winter.

It’s a 3-year deal valued at around $20 million that’s focused on one thing — delivering the yellow jersey.

But here’s the thing.

Evenepoel may be one of the best one-day racers in world cycling, but is he a GC guy, really?

He’s been consistently inconsistent in stage-racing since he hit the Tour de France podium in 2024.

A dramatic spell of stage-racing in spring didn’t suggest a Red Bull makeover has smoothed the blemishes in Evenepoel’s multi-day capacity.

The 26-year-old’s decision to skip all racing for two months before the Tour de France to double down on training heightens the intrigue.

Florian Lipowitz complicates things even further. Evenepoel’s German teammate delivers results to his home squad with metronomic consistency.

It’s not out of the question that Evenepoel becomes a bottle boy in his high-profile debut Tour with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

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