r/peloton

Stage Info

Route	Profile	Finale Route	Stage starts: 12:20 CEST
Finale Profile	TimeTable		Stage finishes: 17:00 CEST

Weather

34°C, Sunny, slight South East wind at the start, 24°C, sunny at the finish

Stage Breakdown

Hello everyone and welcome to the 3rd stage of the Tour de France. We start in Granollers, near the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya which hosts the Spanish F1 GP, for a mountain stage. I've talked a lot about the Volta a Catalunya in the last 2 previews and will continue to do so today, because this really looks like a basic La Molina stage that you see almost every March, and it is almost exactly that, as the stage is filles with long shallow climb pretty disctinctive of the Eastern Pyrénées. The first half of the stage is pretty insignificant apart from the uphill fals flats, the first KOM and the IS, but after the IS we get to our first real climb with is the Collada de Toses, which happens to be one of the sides of La Molina, which the riders who have done the Volta will know, then we go down to Alp (pretty funny) and then we go back up into France.

In France we will start by going around the Llivia enclave, a part of Spain still in France then we get to Font Romeu which is a well known city as it is where the training grounds to prep the 1968 Olympics in Mexico were established, for the Altitude and is still operating today, it's less popular for cyclist these days but notably Sylvain Chavanel did his Tour prep there. After that we go up towards Les Angle with 1.7km at 6.5%

With that in mind here are our predictions:

★★★ Breakaway ( Bernal, Vauquelin, Jorgenson, BOC, Plapp, Verstynge)

★★ Pogacar

★ Del Toro, Vingegaard, Remco, Seixas

Only 31 riders are at less than 4 mins of Vingegaard alreay, which seems like a nice limit to allow for riders in the breakaway. This leaves a ton of possible candidates for it and will likely lead to an intense breakaway battle. This leaves Visma with 3 options: Try to control but will likely lead to Pogi win and possible yellow, let the break go, or let the break go wit some of their rider, including Jorgenson who has a kick and is already 8:33 down on GC.

It's also dependant on what Pogi wants to do, he already gifted Del Tor a stage (ngl I expected it to be stage 3, not 2) so if he bothers it's more likely for him not for Del Toro so he might not bother, but it's hard to properly anticipate.

That's it for us, what is your prediction for the stage?

Date	Stage	Route	Length	Type	Altitude	Finish	Time
Sun. 05/07	2	Tarragona > Barcelona	182km	Medium	2391m	Uphill	13:45-17:35 CET

_	_
Information	Official Site / Startlist / Startlist FC / Wikipedia / TourView
Previews	INRNG / CyclingNews / CyclingWeekly / Cyclist.co.uk /
/r/Peloton Content	Pre-Race Thread / Cheat Notes / SWL
Social Media	Instagram / Facebook / X / Youtube / Dailymotion / Tiktok
Live Trackers	Official / Tissot / Cycling News / TourTracker Live
TV	CourseDeJour / Official live broadcasters list / Race Coverage starts at 12:00 CEST

Date	Stage	Route	Length	Type	Altitude	Finish	Time
Sat. 04/07	1	Barcelona > Barcelona	19km	TTT	231m	-	17:05-19:15 CET

_	_
Information	Official Site / Startlist / Startlist FC / Wikipedia / TourView
Previews	INRNG / CyclingNews / CyclingWeekly / Cyclist.co.uk /
/r/Peloton Content	Pre-Race Thread / Cheat Notes / SWL
Social Media	Instagram / Facebook / X / Youtube / Dailymotion / Tiktok
Live Trackers	Official / Tissot / Cycling News / TourTracker Live
TV	CourseDeJour / Official live broadcasters list / Race Coverage starts at 12:00 CEST

Stage Info

Route	Profile		Stage starts: 13:45 CEST
Finale Profile	TimeTable		Stage finishes: 17:36 CEST

Weather

30°C, Sunny, 15km/h North Wind

Stage Breakdown

Hello everyone and welcome to the second stage of this 2026 Tour de France. We keep going in this Catalonian Grand Depart with a stage starting in Tarragona on the coast, for a stage very similar to the usual last stage of the Volta a Catalunya but a bit longer. A long nice stroll for the first 85km will probably make for a calm race, unless the sprinters teams decide to control for the intermediate sprint. After that, some riders will try to go for the first KOM of the race, which likely will give the first mountains jersey of the race. After that we go to Barcelona, where we will go, once again, around Montjuic, not on the usual circuit but on a longer but a bit harder circuit which the riders will have to go through three times, with most importantly the long version of the climb to to Montjuic Castle, with 1.6km at 9.3% ad a finish at the same place as the TTT today. Clearly every rider who has done the Volta a Catalunya will know this finale by heart and ti will make for a great battle

With that in mind here are our predictions:

★★★ Pogacar

★★ Vingegaard, Seixas, Evenepoel, Gregoire, Del Toro

★ Van Der Poel, Matthews, Ayuso, Vacek

With today in mind to give a nice preview of where everyone is at, Pogacar still looks like the best of the bunch but some other riders have given interesting indicators, such as Vingegaard or Evenepoel but mostly Gregoire, who did an incredible finish in the TTT, and they could possibily challenge Pogacar even if it seems fairly unlikely.

That's it for us, what is your prediction for the stage?

My sweet prince

Today the 2026 Tour de France begins in earnest, and once again /r/peloton will host daily race threads, results threads and predictions threads, with curated links and opinions in order to gather together discussion.

This pastime has been going on since 2012(ish) in its current form, with predictions threads coming a couple of years later. Uniquely, this centralised discussion location offers a nice chance to use the number of comments per thread as a look back at the TDF of the past 15 years, allowing us to pick out extremely dull stages, mood shifts during a Grand Tour and those days that people will never forget.

At least, this was my idea before compiling the data. You can be the judge of that.

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First off, the stage categories are from the official Tour Categories - Medium Mountain used to be used far more, and now it has been usurped by Hilly. 2014 gets its' own special stage category, for reasons I'm sure are clear to those who remember.

Else, data is from some lovely copy and pasting, via reddit search. When the threads have been deleted, happily they are still accessible via the wiki, on the grand tour thread hub. It is possible there are errors, but it should be mostly good. Let me know if you recognise one!

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2012

2012 is the first year with daily Race & Results Threads. The sub existed in 2011, but daily threads did not exist - traffic was a bit low after all at this point.

2012 Stats

2012 is the first (of many) Sky wins of the Tour, and also the last time we started with a Prologue. It also has a tremendous outlier in stage 11, where attacks flew from Evans (to no avail), Froome dropped Wiggins (until he got an earful on the Radio) and /r/olland won the day.

2013

This is the year of the fabled Contador return to the Tour, with Wiggins trying the Giro (and getting cold), Froome is the Sky leader, Andy Schleck for Radioshack and Valverde for Movistar, although he has this young Colombian kid as a domestique who proved quite useful.

2013 stats

2013 sees an extreme high for the results thread of Stage 8, after Froome demolished his competitors on the summit finish to Ax-3 Domaines. Stage 13 sees a wild breakaway sprint win by Cavendish, whilst 15 is the Ventoux stage**. However, the subreddit becomes excited in the last few days, as maybe this Colombian kid Quintana can actually beat Froome, after dropping him on Alpe d'Huez. Unfortunately, babysitting Valverde comes back to haunt him in the end.

** Editors note: The Ventoux Results thread is lost to time. If anyone can find it, please let me know.

2014

This Tour is the hyped Tour from my memories. We have come off an outrageous Dauphine, with three contenders: Contador, Froome & Nibali.

2014 stats

Stage 5 is the original cause of the fad of messing around with alternative surfaces the Tour does nowadays, a stage borrowing heavily from Paris-Roubaix, an absolute all timer in the rain. Froome crashes out here, and Contador does the same on Stage 8.

Come stage 10, Nibali squishes the rest of the field on Le Planche de Belles Filles, and interest drops after.

2015

2015 sees Froome defending again, Contador coming off the Giro win and Quintana back to challenge for GC.

2015 stats

Stage 10 is officially "Medium Mountain", but Froome wins heavily again on the Pierre San Martin. However, the last week sees a combination of Froome illness with a resurgent Quintana leading to peak of interest in the last few mountain stages, although he ends up losing by the same amount he lost on the crosswinds on stage 2.

2016

2016 is another Froome win, but people do not remember that Tour for his overall victory.

2016 stats

They remember 2016 as the time that the yellow jersey ran up the slopes of Mont Ventoux, in wind induced moto chaos, a standout thread on the graph.

2017

2017 was the final one of the Froome streak, but as you can see below, the first week had a hugely talked about sprint stage.

2017 stats

Yes this is the year Sagan was DQ'ed on Stage 4, which needed a spillover thread to contain the comments. Quite a controversial one that.

2018

Following on from the incredible conclusion to the 2018 Giro, Froome was going for the Giro-Tour double and his 5th TDF in a row, but was beaten in the end by his teammate, Geraint Thomas. Tom Dumoulin was a strong contender throughout the whole race.

2018 stats

Stage wise, we have a peak for Alp d'Huez, and stage 9 was another one of those mini-Roubaixs by the Tour, concluding in not quite as much chaos as 2014, but an excellent win by John Degenkolb**.

** Yes, this was classified as medium mountain. Your guess is as good as mine.

2019

Ah, 2019. The Tour in which France very nearly got its' first GC winner in forever.

2019 stats

The dogged survival of Alaphillipe in the final week, winning the TT and coming into stage 19 everything was to play for, following an attack from Bernal. Until the stage was neutralised, and time gaps placed him firmly in control. What would have been, we will never know.

2020

I'm sure by this point, we're in most peoples memories. Fabio Aru, leading for UAE, has a young Slovenian helping him. Primoz Roglic looks set to finally win the Tour. We all know how this one ends.

2020 stats

Stage 20 naturally, is the standout here. Notable also for a interesting comments ratio is Stage 11, where Sagan is once again the reason, being DQed from the sprint.

2021

The 2021 Tour starts with a highly entertaining day of hills and a fab finish, netting more results thread comments than race thread ones. Stage 3 followed this trend, with a crash infested run in, resulting in a Roglic injury and a win for Merlier following a Ewan/Sagan tangle near the line.

2021 stats

After this, Stage 11 is the highest, with mountain goat Wout van Aert winning a hugely mountainous day.

2022

This year is the first of two occasions that Jonas Vingegaard proved that Tadej Pogacar had some shortcomings.

2022 stats

Two days here are standouts: the stage ending on the Col du Granon, and the one that ended on Hautacam, both reaching above 7000 comments in their respective race threads.

2023

Starting off in Spain, as we are this year, with a wet and slippery opening. This time Pogacar wins on Stage 6 to Cauterets, but all hope of the overall disappears after a sensational time trial from Vingegaard in the final week. Clearly the standout discussion point, as you can see below.

2023 stats

2024

2024 started with a famous breakaway win for Romain Bardet, putting him in the yellow jersey after he failed to take it off Froome in the previous decade. Stage 5 is our standout sprint stage from the comments in the results thread, as Mark Cavendish finally ekes out one stage more than Eddie Merckx, for the most stage victories in history.

2024 stats

The mountain stages this year were absolute ding-dong battles between Pogacar and Vingegaard, with Pogacar finally taking the Tour back from his rival. However, stage 9 and the many gravel sectors it contained had the highest number of race thread comments all Tour.

2025

Last year we saw an opening week where Remco Evenepoel won the opening TT, but fell away as Pogacar stamped his mark on the race, with multiple stage wins. The high points are stage 12, site of the "revenge" on Hautacam for Pogacar, and stage 18, a hugely difficult day ending on the Col de la Loze.

2025 stats

The last stage is notable as it wasn't the classic sprint finish in Paris, instead the Olympic circuit was reused and Wout van Aert took the honours.

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We can also look at the ratio of comments between threads - which is only usually higher in results threads when something wild has happened at the end of a stage. Can you work out which incidents caused these spikes (I've now linked the respective threads in the table)?

Year	Stage	Type	Ratio
2014	7	Flat	109.09%
2014	19	Flat	173.53%
2016	7	Medium Mountain	107.86%
2016	14	Flat	107.97%
2017	4	Flat	250.86%
2017	14	Medium Mountain	116.63%
2018	8	Flat	133.69%
2020	11	Flat	124.15%
2021	1	Hilly	118.81%
2021	3	Flat	126.11%
2023	7	Flat	122.25%
2024	5	Flat	107.95%

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Hope you found this interesting. I'm sure there is much more statistically to be done, so if anyone wants the data, let me know, I just wanted to get the thread out today. I also personally haven't watched as much of the race in the last 5 of so years, so if you have something to add, please do!

Stage Info

Route	Profile	Finale Route	Stage starts: 17:05 CEST
	Start Times		Stage finishes: 19:16 CEST

Weather

28°C, Sunny, 15km/h North Wind

Stage Breakdown

Hello everyone and welcome to the first stage of the 2026 Tour de France! Welcome back for another season of this (as long as Reddit isn't a bugged hellhole anymore) and we start in the sun!

Well that could mean anywhere in France considering the recent heatwave and the one that will be coming soon but anyway, we're in Barcelona, for another spanish grand depart after 2023. Barcelona is known for the Football, sometimes sailing, tourists but it's also a cycling city, it's been the host of many races in the past such as the Volta a Catalunya which sees a stage in Montjuic every year, the Setmana Catalana which occupied the currunt position of the Volta a Catalunya in the calendar or the atypical Escalada a Montjuïc with only two half stages. All of this to say, this isn't uncharted territory, evn more so this TTT. Some of you may Wonder why a TTT in Barcelona seems so familiar, well it's because it happened fairly recently, in the Vuelta a Espana, in the rain and at night, which made for a lot of falls and a lot of complaints, especially from Remco Evenepoel which resulted in this magnificent GIF. Well, one might hope he isn't too traumatized by the experience because this TTT has a fairly similar middle part. While the start here is different, arguably less technical, along the Mediterranean Sea, from more or less the 14km to go mark up till 5km to go, it is almost the same TTT, with fewer corners, but the Plaça d'Espanya where everyone slipped 3 years ago is included.

While the Vuelta stupped there, the Tour will continue, up to Montjuic by roads to which most pro riders are used to but it does have differencies to the way it's all done compared to the Volta.

So this TTT is known territory, nobody should be caught off guard and if they are it's on them. IMPORTANT THING TO ADD, this is TTT by ASO rules, the time is taken on the FIRST rider to cross the line, not the 4th or the 5th like in the past.

With that in mind here are our predictions:

★★★ Netcompany INEOS

★★ UAE Team Emirates - XRG, Team Visma / Lease a Bike

★ Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe, Lidl - Trek, Pinarello - Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team

TTT, unless you show up with a highly specialized team, often turns up to be a battle of those who have the biggest budgets int he sport, even more so than any other type of stages. This TTT falls into both categories, the richest teams are clearly the strongest but among those, one is showing up with a highly specialized team, Netcompany - INEOS, with 2 former World champion, one rider who is arguably the best TTer who hasn't won worlds currently in activity, some of the best TTers among GT riders and very solid flat riders. If they Don't win this it's a Failure and their Tour will be off to a very bad start in the first edition in which they aren't explicitely targetting GC since the team has been at the Tour. UAE and Visma obviously have a card to play and try to take some psychological advantage rather than a lot of time. For Visma it's really dependant on Affini's recovery since his crash in the italian national championships.

While we have seen the new TTT formula at Paris Nice and the Tour Auvergne - Rhône Alpes, we have yet to seen it with optimized teams in a really important setting so this will be the Curiosity of the day.

That's it for us, what is your prediction for the stage?