Previewing the 2026 Tour de France Route, where Tadej Pogacar ‘wants it all’ | Beyond the Podium

Bob Roll and Tejay Van Garderen take a look at the recently announced route for the 2026 Tour de France, including how the route impacts cyclists’ training, the team trial stages, and if Tadej Pogacar can win his third Tour de France in a row. They also look at the five summit finishes, notably Alpe d’Huez appearing twice on the route, and how sprinters might take on the route.
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Previewing the 2026 Tour de France Route, where Tadej Pogacar ‘wants it all’ | Beyond the Podium
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I’ll just do a hot take real quick. Nobody’s beating Totty Pagot in next year to France. It might be closer. It might not be as decisive after the first few days. Uh but this course suits him perfectly, especially like you said without the long time trial miles that might favor Remco. He’s not just in it for winning the tour to France. He’s chasing ghosts. He’s he’s out to get any merks. I mean, he wants to get the stage win victories. Uh you know, break Cavendish’s record. He want He wants it all. He’s he’s greedy now and as he should be because you know if he wants to be the goat he’s got to do goat things. This is my idea. Alternate one year with the climb and the cobbles of mart and the next year up the shops for the sprinters. Hey everybody, welcome back to Beyond the Podium. In a minute, the tour to France route has been announced for next year. They do that every year in October. I’m Bob R joined by TJ Van Garden. Now TJ, in my era, there was no such thing as a tour Rouse announcement. They kept that secret amongst themselves while they negotiated, extorting money out of the towns across France and Western Europe before we even got there. We had no idea what to expect one day from the next. So that might have been a personal problem within the team. We were first starting out getting to know the sport, but there was none of the hoopla that we see nowadays. And that started maybe 20 years ago where the route announcement is a big deal for the next year’s tour to France. In your era, what was it like TJ? I don’t know. I don’t really think that you would train any differently once the route gets announced, but it was a big deal. I did actually attend one Tour to France presentation. That was the year after I won uh the best young rider jersey. So, it was announcing the 2013 route. And I got to say, it was really confusing. They had all these flashing lights and it was over in like four minutes and they just like had this line that went through like this like uh holographic map and and then afterwards all these reporters shoved microphones in your faces like so what do you think of the route and I was like I I really don’t I I know actually less than what I did before I even came here. So, I don’t know. I think it’s getting to study the route on uh online. I think it’s a definitely a cool route that they came up with, but it’s not going to change the way the riders train and it’s also not going to change the winner. The tour to France is always going to be the tour to France. It’s the most grueling. The best ride is always going to win. It seemed like last year they tried to keep at least some suspense going into the second week of racing with the northwestern part of the country being used and not big mountains up there. Uh this year a very different proposition starting in Spain. Let’s get into stage number three in a moment. But let’s start with the team time trial. An interesting format that we’ve seen the last three years if I remember correctly in Perry Nice whereby each rider is given their time at the finish line. Now, that only uh makes a difference if there’s a climb at the end. And for the team time trial, there’s two climbs uh before the finish line. It’s short, but each guy on the team will get their own time. It seems like the advantage considering the last two climbs, very punchy, shorter, steeper, really suit Tatty Paga. But what do you think about the format and the team time trial for stage number one in this year’s tour to France in Spain? To be honest, I love it. I mean, uh, we all know that cycling is a team sport, but it’s kind of an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. So, like the team time trial, you obviously you need a strong team. However, you never want the team to hold back the best rider. So, if it’s advantageous for the best rider to like hit out solo and go it on its own and make up some more ground, I’d say like don’t hold them back. You don’t have to wait for your fourth or fifth best rider. you just just go and get your best time. Uh, so I actually think this is a super exciting way to uh to run the team time trial. I know that it’s gotten some criticism, but I’m all for it. I love it. I I know that you know me, uh, Bobby, I I’m a bit of a conservative. I love the tradition of things, but this is one of the rule changes that I’m actually like, you know what, I’m in favor of. And you guys had a pretty successful team time trial in your career in the tour to France if I remember correctly TJ. Oh man, when I was on BMC, if there were like we there was never a team time trial that we didn’t go to like say we want to just dominate this thing. Actually, the very first stage of the very first grand tour I ever did was 2010 Vulta Espa with HTC and we won it and it was like actually done at night and it was lit up by uh by like street lights and Mark Cavendish crossed the line first, but it was like like basically the very first stage of the very first grand tour I did was a victory and like uh it was more or less all downhill from there. But, uh, it was it was the coolest experience. And, yeah, the team time trials I’ve done in my career, man, we I was on some very very powerhouse squads. And so, I love that event. I I I wish that like I’ve I’ve actually gotten to direct a few team time trials for H uh for EF Education Easy Post, and it is the funnest thing. I mean, when you see like a welloiled squad just chopping off, going back and forth, trading pulls, it is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Well, let’s hope that the tour to France doesn’t revisit what happened in the VA a couple of years ago in in Barcelona when it was raining and the last three or four teams had to start almost in the dark. A bit of a disaster. I’m sure the tour will have better timing than that than that particular stage. I remember Remco kicking a few water bottles on that day as well. Red, the defending champ, if I remember, was not pleased. But, uh, anyway, be that as it may, first two and a half stages in Spain and then by stage three already, we’re into the mountains of the Pyrenees. How do you think that’ll change things in this year’s tour? Yeah, it’s interesting. Those those climbs, we do them a lot in the Valta Catalunia. They go over like Tossas, which is not the steepest climb. I don’t know. I remember I’m remembering back when the tour to France started in Nice. It was I think the last tour to France I ever raced and we went uh we went over some massive massive coals but it actually finished in not such a selective group. So I’m actually wondering if the GC favorites are going to think like you know what this is maybe a little too early to make a move. We don’t actually want the jersey yet. Uh, it’s going to be a big burden to try to defend this jersey from stage three all the way to the end. Maybe they take it early and give it away or maybe they just let the breakaway go. Or maybe it’s just this GC stalemate where everyone’s too afraid to move because they’re like, you know what, it’s only stage three. We got 17 more of these things to go and then into the Pyrenees and only one big day in the mountains in the Pyrenees. much different from last year when we had a uphill time trial to perigude and hotcom and by the even by hodokcom it looked like Tatty Pagacha all he had to do was sit on the wheels for the rest of the tour to France maybe this year a little bit less decisive in the Pyrenees considering the rest of the tour to France yeah no I agree I um when I look forward I think okay there’s only one individual time trial only 22 kilometers but when they get into the voge I think that’s going to be very selective and then uh obviously the final week is going to be very selective but you know what knowing TD Pagotcher he’s he’s going to attack at any chance he sees so maybe it’s going to be one of those cases like we saw a couple of years ago they went um there was a massive mountain stage on stage three like we we’re going to see this year and Tada he had his whole team light it up into a headwind descent finish and put minute into Yonas Vingigo. So maybe he’s just going to try to, you know, stamp his authority on the race early. Well, that wouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. Let’s hope that by stage three, after the team time trial in stage one and the day in the hills in stage three, that it’s not a foregone conclusion all the way to Paris. Let’s get into the second week a little bit. Now, the sprinters always complain that there’s not enough sprint stages. It seems like on paper there’s seven. For me that’s maybe four too many is the day of the sprinter and the tour to France. Maybe they get a couple of stages, but uh for me the more exciting stages are more dynamic, have a lot more terrain and they’re not a pro a procession all the way to the finish line in a big bunch gallop which are thrilling. They’re exciting. The last 5ks is crazy but come on. I mean it’s modern cycling. I think seven stages for the sprinters is way too many for me. Yeah. No, honestly, I think uh what what we’re seeing is like you have to be a stronger sprinter. There’s not there’s less of these like super flat stages where it’s just going to be a pure bunch sprint where it’s just a twoman breakaway. They chase it and then they get it back and then there’s a sprint in the final which is always super exciting. But I think what we’re going to see is less of a Mark Caendish style sprint and more of a Peter Sagen style sprint and I think that’s what the fans want. But yeah, like we are going to have to endure a couple of those just like all right, it’s a little bit of a snoozefest until the final 10k and then what what you’re going to see when the stages are that easy obviously is everyone thinks they’re a sprinter. They see the line and you’re going to see a lot of crashes. Some people like to see that. I hate to see that. I don’t know about you, Bobby, but like that’s the worst part of cycling for me. So, and when you make the race harder and more selective, you’re going to see a safer race, and you’re gonna see you can still see a like a Binium Germay or a Peter Sagun or like a one of those stronger sprinters kind of win, but you got to make the race just a little bit more dynamic throughout the day in order to get the the race thinned out a little bit more and and you can still get the fast men, you know, their chance to shine. Well, that will bring us into the third week and what I think is maybe the most brilliant course design in a long time. The most iconic climb in all of cycling, Alz beyond category, the 21 switchbacks on the front side. This year, a little bit different. The backside will be used uh the cold siren for the second day to finish in Aldaz. That’s the highlight of the entire tour coming just stages 19 and 20. But I am absolutely thrilled. I can’t wait to get to Aldoz again this year. It’s been a couple of years. I believe it it was uh Tom that won the last time the tour to France visited. That’s a couple of years ago now. Uh but I am absolutely thrilled to see what’s going to happen on two days of the Alto. What a coup by Christian Prudome. So, hats off to ASO, the organizers, for giving us two chances on Alduez. 100%. I am super thrilled to see that. When I heard that they were going to do a double ascent of ALD due, I had flashbacks of myself in 2013 on probably one of very well, TJ. Yeah, I remember it all too well. It’s a day I wish I could forget, but it was a I’m glad that they’re not doing the descent down the backside because that thing is treacherous. But if they’re going to climb that side, I think that’s going to be mega exciting. And we’re going to get two days of the most iconic ski resort in the tour to France and I am all for it. So, uh, definitely hats off to Christian Prudome. They like that is going to be a day that we’re both going to be on the edge of our seat for. Everyone’s going to be on the edge of their seat for. However, I do want to ask you about one thing, Bob, and I’m a little bit biased on this. We I know we have the team time trial on stage one, but there’s only 22 kilometers of individual time triing. Now, when I just watched the world championships, I saw Remco Evanapool put two and a half minutes into Tida Pagotcher. So, if you wanted to have an exciting race and a more legit threat to Tide Pagotch, why not give Remco Evanapool what we’ve had in the past? I’ve done tour to Frances where we’ve had two 45 km individual time trials plus a prologue which is probably like a 100 kilometers of individual time triing. I know that there it’s a little bit boring to get through that like you have to wait for your specialist, you have to wait for the GC riders, but the GC riders have been stacking the top of the list. It’s not the way it used to be where you have your Tony Martin, you have your Fabian Cancelara and then somewhere around like the lower end of the top 20 you’re going to see your GC guys come in. RGC guys are showcased in those time trials and I actually think that would be a way to kind of put a threat to Tatty Pagotch’s dominance. What do you think about a 22 km individual time triing in this year’s tour to France? I I agree that’s not nearly enough to give us an idea of who’s the best all-around cyclist in the world. Todd has been able to hold his own uh in the tour to France like you said at the worlds and it seems like Remco aanapole is even better than he was at the tour to France in the time trials that we’ve seen in in recent years. Uh so I agree with you not nearly enough kilometers of time traveling. I think you’re referring to 2012 when Bradley Wunds of time trials and put demented amounts of time into everybody except you TJ. You were flying against the clock that year. Yeah, I do remember that year and I it was a bit of a boring tour to France. Now, I actually loved that because I could make up ground in the time trials and they put a nice little pace for me on the climbs so that I could kind of just ride my way into a high overall place. And I get that that was boring for fans, but I actually think that you have to just take into account the current stock of riders and that and what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are and how you can create a rivalry. And I get that climbing is, you know, sometimes more exciting, sometimes more explosive, but if you have your current crop of riders and the way that they can put damage into TDI Pagotch and actually create an exciting race, you’re going to have to just adapt to what the riders what what the current crop of riders talents are. And I think Remco Aanapool is going to need more of a 2012 style course to kind of challenge a Tata Pagotch style rider. and he is going to be on a different team. Maybe that gives him a little bit more of an advantage compared to Quickstep Sudall. Now he’ll be on the Red Bull Bora squad. U so Remco might be a very different athlete in next year’s tour of France. 100% and I’m actually really curious to see because he’s going to have Primos Roglitch as well as Florian Lipowitz on his team. I mean, if they’re if they can work well together, that’s going to be a massive powerhouse squad. But are they going to be are they going to play nice together? Like we’ve seen Primo’s Rogich is he he doesn’t like to really share the spotlight like Yes. And and also another big question with Florian Leipoitz, we saw him do an amazing tour last year. He’s an amazing talent. He’s a German on a German team. But my big question is whenever I see a performance like that, the first thing that comes to mind is can he do it again? That’s a very good question. We’ve seen a lot of uh not I wouldn’t say flash in the pan, but young riders show a lot of promise and then struggle for the next uh few season. I think team Aaron uh time in Arensman a good example of that came out of the gate flying in the vault. took him a while to find his good legs again. And do you think we’ll have a situation like last year when UAE seemed to uh let some breakaways contest the stage wins in the big mountain stages that gave Aaronman a chance to win a couple in uh in this previous tour to France? Um I don’t think that was by design, Bob, to be honest. I think uh they were missing Jiao Almeida and if they had Jao Almeida there they would have steamrolled all of those breakaways and Tade probably would have won eight stages of this year’s tour to France. But TAD is only one man. As good as he is, he can’t also act as pulling back all the breakaways and winning on top of that while he’s got, you know, a guy like Yonasigo on his wheel. You know, you you can’t do the job of four men when you’re just one. Maybe he can do the job of two or three because he’s tied to Pagotcher. But I if UAE is fully loaded, fully healthy, I think that they’re going to try to win as much as possible because Tad Pagotch, he’s not just in it for winning the tour to France. He’s chasing ghosts. He’s he’s out to get Eddie Merks. I mean, he wants to get the stage win victories, uh, you know, break Cavendish’s record. He want he wants it all. He’s he’s greedy now and as he should be because, you know, if he wants to be the goat, he’s got to do goat things. And that brings up a great point, TJ. He’s looking at number five that would tie him for alltime wins with Indrain, Ankiel, Eno, and Eddie Merrick. That would be quite an accomplishment. I think you’ll see a very motivated TDI Paga. And I’ll just do a hot take real quick. Nobody’s beating Todd Pagotcha in next year to France. It might be closer. It might not be as decisive after the first few days. Uh but this course suits him perfectly, especially like you said without the long time trial miles that might favor Rimco even. Yeah. No, I I am agreeing with you 100% on that, Bob. I uh a couple of years ago I actually thought that you know okay Tadai he’s the better all-around rider but Jonas Vingo is the more quintessential grand tour rider and I was thinking a specialist over three weeks is going to be better than Tade Pagotch but he answered all of those questions for me this year because last year remember Jonas Vingo had that bad crash in the tour to pay his Basque and I was thinking okay you got to give Jonas Vigo a little bit of a break. He came in hobbled. He didn’t he didn’t have the the best preparation, but once he has the solid preparation, he comes in 100% fit. I was thinking that he was gonna actually the better three-week rider than Tatty Pagot. Not the better all-around rider, but the better three-week rider. This year, it answered all of those questions for me because they both came in completely healthy, successful seasons, and TAD just demolished him. He just walked all over him. It wasn’t even close. So, I was like, you know what? Um, as much as I wanted to tip it in Yonas Mingo’s favor and say that there is a true rivalry, the fact is Titaga, he has zero rivals. Yeah. And if he’s behind by a few seconds on the last day in Paris with the climb three times around Mark that we saw, how how awesome would that be to see? How awesome would that be? I hope for that. I pray for that. But my guess is he’ll be away by three minutes at that point, but he’ll still try to win that last stage. Let me ask you this. Do you like that having that very dynamic, competitive, dangerous, and we saw TD rampaging on all the little bit different scenario because the GC was not a factor in the last three laps with the cobbles. Uh, but if it were, his time gaps would have been insane over everybody else in the GC on that day. Yeah. I mean, Bobby, you were a little bit different style of rider than me. So, you probably would have loved racing that Mom Mard stage. I would have hated it. I would have been stressed. I would have been like, “What is going on? Come on, give us a break.” Like, cuz I was kind of that, you know, whiny, wimpy, like little frail GC guy, whereas you were one of those hard-hitten headbangers. uh you would have loved it. But uh I got to say watching it on TV I was like and thank you very much to Todd Pagata for making it exciting because the fact that he decided to join in the fight I was like all right we got ourselves a race in Paris but uh yeah I mean it I do feel a little bit sad for the sprinters um like you just alluded to that you know we’re we’re kind of shifting away from that pure sprinter mentality and we’re going more towards the exciting pache and the and and the attacking. But what we also saw last year in the tour was a lot of the best guys, they were so tired. They were on their hands and knees and even on the mountain stages, which should have been exciting, it was we were kind of seeing them just kind of make their way to the finish and just Absolutely. Yeah. So, at a certain point, something’s got to give and you have to give these guys not just the rest days, like the physical rest days, which the two they’re going to get, but you’re going to have to give them a little bit easier stages. And the Paris stage, it it was more of a procession. It was more of a parade and it was more of like let’s get the sprinters another chance. But guess what? We can stick in their slipstream and and just kind of get to the finish safely hopefully. Yeah. And uh you know obviously those cobblestones on the Shs le they’re just they’re definitely going to open up some of those saddle sores that have been brewing for the last three weeks. But uh from the booth I love it. But I do feel I feel so bad for the riders having to do that. Man, this is my idea. Alternate one year with the climb and the cobbles of Mont Mart and the next year up the shops for the sprinters. Just what? That’s a good one. Yeah, that’s or or had two days in Paris. Two days in Paris. We do one Mont Mart stage and one That’s even better. I’m not sure. I’m not party in Paris, Bobby. Party in Paris. I might not be on time for the second day in Paris. Might be a little bit late that morning. Well, anyways, what’s You can only imagine, right? What are you doing the rest of the winter, TJ? You going to be in Spain or traveling at all? You guys have some training camps, I would imagine. Yeah, we uh we have a training camp in Jerona in November. So, I’m hanging out here in Mayorca until then. So, I’m actually going to try to get on the bike a little bit, get a little bit of fitness back. You know what? I actually have this bet going with Neielson Pow. You remember when he started running during the um the Maryland race? So he thought that he could beat my time in a 10 kmter race. So he bought these carbon shoes and he and he did this like full gas 10 kilometers on the prominade days on glaze there in Nice. And my previous best 10K that I ever run was 3630. And I was like, you’re not going to beat that. Look, I understand what what an athlete you are, but you’re not a runner. Like, I’ve been a bit more habituated to running. Uh, so I get that if you could train more that you would beat that, but I don’t think you can beat it just coming off the bike. Just coming off of the Jera Lombardi. Well, he went and bought these carbon soul shoes off the couch, ran a 10K in 34 minutes and 14 seconds. So, he took 2 minutes and 16 seconds off of my best 10K. Wow. Now, I have until training camp to try to better his time, otherwise I lose this bet. The bet is that if if I can’t beat his time, he’s having another baby. He’s expecting another child. So, I said, “I’ll pay for a babysitter in a hotel for you and your wife to spend the night on your own without kids so you can like have some alone time with your wife. If I win the bet, you have to fly me out to Houston and we go to a shooting range and we shoot some guns.” So, that’s the bet. And I’m quite sure, Bobby, that I’m going to lose this bet. I’ll tell you this, in my day, we That’s what I’m doing the next three weeks before training camp. You’re going to be training. All right. Jeez. I’m gonna be training. lot of training camps nowadays though. We didn’t you would have all the way until the start of the season to run another 10k. We didn’t see or talk to each other until the first race of the year, which uh I’m not sure if like you’re on call basically 365 days out of the year for cyclists nowadays. It seems like to me it does seem like that. I mean, but the the plus side is is we get all of December free and unless you’re doing a tour down under, you get pretty much January free. Um the the reasoning for the de the November training camp was that in December we’d have the guys doing Tour Down Under and it was kind of like this the riders wanted to be social. They wanted to party a little bit but the season was a little bit too close around the corner. We were also flying in during cold cold and flu season and everyone would just kind of get sick. We’re like, let’s back that up until November. The riders, they’re going to be on their bike, but it’s also fun to hang out with the riders in November because they get to get a little loose. You know, they’re they’re going to go out on the town. They’re they’re going to hang out at the bar and you get to you get to kind of see them in a different light. Um, so I kind of like this format where we do it in November. Your holidays are uninterrupted. the riders get to focus and focus on their season and then we just it’s kind it’s almost like the season gets extended a little longer but then you don’t get this interruption in the middle of the off seasonason. So I’m I’m I’m kind of for this format. All righty. Well, one last question, TJ. Um your in-laws, if I’m not mistaken, live in Aspen, Colorado. I’m going to be there for some skiing. Might I get a chance to see you this off seasonason and do some skiing in Aspen? Absolutely. When are you going to be there? I’ll I’ll definitely make a trip up to Aspen for that. You tell me when you’re there and I will I will rock up. Absolutely. You just tell me when. Sounds good. I mean, uh, one last question for you, Bobby. Do you think you can keep up with me on the two planks? I mean, I do have the bulk, I’m pretty sure. So, if it’s not too twisty, I’m pretty sure if there’s none of this, you know how you I know you want these skiers like you like this. I like this. Ah, I don’t know. I think I’m just I’m just talking smack right now, Bobby. I know that you uh you’ve grown up in Durango doing all the skiing. I grew up in Montana, so I I I have a lot of pride in the Montana ski. Like Bridgetger bowl was my mountain growing up, but throughout my cycling years, I I kind of try to not ski as much. So every time I get on skis, I’m like just as good as I used to be. So I’m like a pretty good 15year-old skier because that’s around the point that I started focusing more on cycling, got a little scared to injure myself. But if you are up in Aspen, I will 100% I’ll 100% go skiing with you, Bobby. All right, that sounds good. But no hurting each other. Maybe at the bars afterwards no trips to the ER. That’s off the table. Yeah, it we have to make sure that we are at least healthy enough after the day of skiing to get a couple of beers at Cloud9 afterwards. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Well, I am absolutely thrilled at this coming year’s tour to France race route. As we said, the two trips up to Always are going to be fantastic, but the rest of it looks very dynamic, very competitive. Lots of chances for smaller teams to get riders in the breakaway and go for stage wins. The sprinters have will have their days, but I I love this race route for next year’s Tour to France. I think it’s better than the one we just saw. Uh be much more competitive throughout. And uh watch for Tatty Pagotaa to be rampaging all over France again in July. I’m pretty stoked. I’m stoked as well, Bobby. All right. Well, thanks a lot, TJ. Uh, good luck with your training against 34. That’s flying into 10K. You might be I couldn’t believe it, man. That’s awesome. I could not believe that Neielson Palace could just like off the couch, no running training. I know that he’s the athlete that he is, but I was like, I wasn’t expecting that. So, I bit off more than I could chew there, but All right. Well, thanks a million, TJ. Good luck and I’ll talk to you soon. I’ll see you in Aspen. Good to see you, Bobby. You, too. Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you next time on Beyond the Podium. For all your cycling content year round, subscribe to NBC Sports YouTube page. We got it all.