Organisers of the 2026 Tour de France on Thursday unveiled the routes for the men's and women's races.
The 113th edition of the men's race will start in Barcelona on 4 July and end 3,333km later at the Champs-Elysées in Paris on 26 July after a sweep through the streets of Montmartre.
The women’s event will begin in Lausanne on 1 August and finish in Nice on 9 August.
After the success of the road race through northern Paris during the 2024 Olympics, the city's police chief, Laurent Nunez, allowed the 2025 men's race to trundle through Montmartre before the traditional finale along the Champs-Elysées.
Nunez, appointed Interior Minister in Sébastian Lecornu’s new cabinet on 13 October, has sanctioned a repeat.
"He has given us permission to pass through Montmartre again," said race director Christian Prudhomme as he outlined the routes at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. "And we are obviously very happy about that.
"Thanks to the Paris Olympics, last year was a phenomenal success. We would never have been able to pass through Montmartre with the Tour de France without the Olympics. Rue Lepic was amazing: the fervour, the enthusiasm, the smiles."
The men's tour will begin with a 19km team time trial around Barcelona. During the course, individual times will be taken into account for the general classification.
The individual time trial will unfold over 26km on stage 16 between Evian-les-Bains and Thonon-les-Bains.
The 21st and final stage of the most prestigious cycling race on the planet will proceed over 130km between Thoiry and the Champs-Elysées.
Tadej Pogacar, who won the 2025 event, will, barring injuries, attempt to become only the fifth man to win the race five times since the inaugural event in 1903.
Le Court Pienaar regains lead of women's Tour de France after winning stage 5
Women’s title defence
A fortnight after claiming the 2025 race in front vociferous partisans, Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévot announced she would defend her crown.
The 33-year-old said in the days after her victory that one tour was enough. But during a victory celebration reception at the Team Visma – Lease a Bike headquarters in Den Bosch, in the Netherlands, she told reporters: "I want to fight again to win it."
The 2026 women's race will start with a 137km route around Lausanne and include for the first time a trawl up Mont Ventoux in southern France during the the seventh stage.
"I don't think there is anything better in terms of scale, anything more majestic than Mont Ventoux, which is just magnificent," said Marion Rousse, director of the Tour Femmes.
"In terms of elevation gain, this is the toughest tour in history, with almost 19,000 metres of elevation gain. We want to make it a little harder because the peloton is also better equipped."
The 1,175km race will culminate on 9 August after a 99km loop around Nice. "This route is tricky because there's a trap on every stage," Rousse added.
