The Big Tour de France Preview! - Domestique Cycling Podcast

On Saturday the 113th Tour de France rolls out of Barcelona: 21 stages, 3,333 kilometres to Paris, opening with a team time trial for the first time since 1971. For the sixth year running it comes down to Tadej Pogačar against Jonas Vingegaard, and this time the Dane arrives off a crushing Giro win with his cleanest run-in since 2023. But two new faces are forcing their way into the picture: 19-year-old Paul Seixas, France's biggest home hope in decades, and a rebooted Remco Evenepoel at Red Bull.In this big preview episode we go through all 21 stages one by one, from the Barcelona team time trial and the explosive Montjuïc finishes, through the early Pyrenean double of the Tourmalet and Gavarnie-Gèdre, the Bastille Day return to Le Lioran, the new summit finish at Plateau de Solaison and the Lake Geneva time trial, to the brutal Alpine double-header that ends on Alpe d'Huez twice. We talk through the green jersey rule changes and why they hand Tim Merlier a real shot, the Seixas pressure and that reported €13.5m contract talk, and Pogačar's chase for a record-equalling fifth title.We then work through the start lists team by team, UAE, Visma, Lidl-Trek, Decathlon and Red Bull, including the Affini fitness question, Lidl-Trek's crowded leadership, and Red Bull's two-leader puzzle with Evenepoel and Lipowitz. We finish with our predictions for the GC podium, the surprise names and breakaway riders to watch for three weeks, and our picks for yellow, green, polka dot and white.Tour de France 2026: Saturday 4 July to Sunday 26 July. Barcelona to Paris, 3,333 km, 54,450 m of climbing, 21 stages, rest days on 13 and 20 July. Five summit finishes, with Alpe d'Huez featuring twice in the final week.We're also launching Domestique Predict for the first time at this Tour. Pick one rider each day to win the stage, you can only pick each rider once, and we run it as a GC, so the rider's time counts, not their position. The overall winner takes home a Santini Tour de France yellow skinsuit. Sign up at debate.domestiquecycling.com/predictRead all our previews on domestiquecycling.com:Route, stage-by-stage guide: https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/features/tour-de-france-2026-stage-by-stage-guide/ Analysing the 2026 favourites: https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/news/analysing-the-2026-tour-de-france-favourites/ Full team-by-team guide: https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/cycling-races/tour-de-france/2026/news/This episode is fuelled by MNSTRY. Fuel your body actually recognises, no artificial flavouring, no artificial anything. Use code DOMESTIQUE20 for 20% off your tasting box at https://mnstry.comSubscribe for race previews, reviews and analysis every week, and drop your yellow, green, white and KOM jersey picks in the comments. We love reading them, and sometimes making fun of them.