{"id":45570,"date":"2026-07-03T14:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/45570\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T14:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:40:09","slug":"tour-de-france-2026-odds-predictions-start-date-esteemed-expert-reveals-cycling-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/45570\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France 2026 odds, predictions, start date: Esteemed expert reveals cycling picks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 Tour de France begins Saturday in Barcelona and will see a champion crowned at its conclusion on July 26 in Paris. It is the 113th edition of road cycling&#8217;s most prestigious race, with Slovenian Tadej Pogacar aiming for history. He enters the Tour de France 2026 as the defending champion and a four-time winner overall, as another triumph would tie him with four others for the most victories in race history. But he&#8217;ll face stiff competition from Jonas Vingegaard as the Dane has two Tour de France wins of his own, plus another three runner-up finishes.<\/p>\n<p>Pogacar is the -370 favorite in the latest 2026 Tour de France odds, with Vingegaard at +340. No other cyclist is shorter than +1100 to utilize Tour de France bets on, with France&#8217;s own Paul Seixas at those odds. Matteo Jorgenson (+25000) is the biggest favorite amongst American cyclists, while 2019 winner, Egan Bernal (+40000), is the only other past champion in the field. The event begins with the 12.2-mile Stage 1 on Saturday at 11:05 a.m. ET. Before making any 2026 Tour de France picks or predictions, you need to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsline.com\/insiders\/2026-tour-de-france-odds-picks-sportsline-writer-and-cycling-expert-releases-best-bets-for-this-years-race\/#ttag=07022026_agg_cbssports_picks_cycling_menez_TourdeFrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">see what cycling insider and SportsLine senior writer Gene Menez has to say<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Visit our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/betting\/news\/draftkings-promo-code\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DraftKings promo code<\/a>\u00a0review to see their latest offers and get started.<\/p>\n<p>A former reporter and associate editor for Sports Illustrated, where he covered an array of sports for almost 14 years, Menez has been following the iconic three-week race since the mid-1980s when Greg LeMond was riding to three yellow jerseys. Menez correctly hit Adam Yates to finish in the top three overall in 2023, at +3300, and in 2025 he nailed Jonathan Milan to win points classification at +250.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Menez has scrutinized the latest Tour de France 2026 odds and released his coveted best bets.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsline.com\/insiders\/2026-tour-de-france-odds-picks-sportsline-writer-and-cycling-expert-releases-best-bets-for-this-years-race\/#ttag=07022026_agg_cbssports_picks_cycling_menez_TourdeFrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">He&#8217;s sharing all his picks and analysis at SportsLine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Top 2026 Tour de France predictions<\/p>\n<p>For the 2026 Tour de France, Menez is high on Jasper Philipsen to win points classification (+150), which results in a cyclist being awarded the green jersey. The Belgian won the Tour de France points classification in 2023, garnering over 100 points more than the runner-up. He&#8217;s competed in this race six times previously, never placing better than 91st, as it&#8217;s apparent that Philipsen devotes his energy to sprints, making this a Tour de France prop worth pursuing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We got a sneak preview of the battle for the green jersey just last month when four of the top five favorites for the green (all but Mads Pedersen) squared off in the Baloise Belgium Tour,&#8221; Menez told SportsLine. &#8220;Philipsen dusted them all, winning the final stage and general classification. He not only is the fastest man on wheels and a past winner of the green jersey (in 2023), he also has the best leadout train in the business, led by the multitalented Mathieu van der Poel.&#8221; \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsline.com\/insiders\/2026-tour-de-france-odds-picks-sportsline-writer-and-cycling-expert-releases-best-bets-for-this-years-race\/#ttag=07022026_agg_cbssports_picks_cycling_menez_TourdeFrance\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">See what other Tour de France picks Menez likes at SportsLine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>New to sports trading? Visit our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/betting\/news\/kalshi-promo-code\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kalshi promo code<\/a>\u00a0review to see their latest offers and get started.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How to make 2026 Tour de France picks\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Menez has locked in two other best bets for this race, including one prop that pays around +400.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsline.com\/insiders\/2026-tour-de-france-odds-picks-sportsline-writer-and-cycling-expert-releases-best-bets-for-this-years-race\/#ttag=07022026_agg_cbssports_picks_cycling_menez_TourdeFrance\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">You can only see what they are here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsline.com\/insiders\/2026-tour-de-france-odds-picks-sportsline-writer-and-cycling-expert-releases-best-bets-for-this-years-race\/#ttag=07022026_agg_cbssports_picks_cycling_menez_TourdeFrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">So who wins the 2026 Tour de France and which cyclists should you back? Visit SportsLine now to see the 2026 Tour de France picks and best bets from a cycling insider,<\/a> and find out.<\/p>\n<p>2026 Tour de France odds, top contenders<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsline.com\/insiders\/2026-tour-de-france-odds-picks-sportsline-writer-and-cycling-expert-releases-best-bets-for-this-years-race\/#ttag=07022026_agg_cbssports_picks_cycling_menez_TourdeFrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">See Tour de France picks at SportsLine<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(odds subject to change)<br \/>(Top 20 cyclists odds to win)<br \/>Tadej Pogacar -370 <br \/>Jonas Vingegaard +340 <br \/>Paul Seixas +1100 <br \/>Isaac Del Toro +1800 <br \/>Remco Evenepoel +2200 <br \/>Florian Lipowitz +2700 <br \/>Juan Ayuso +3300 <br \/>Tobias Halland Johannessen +7000 <br \/>Tom Pidcock +12500 <br \/>Antonio Tiberi +15000 <br \/>Lenny Martinez +20000 <br \/>Richard Carapaz +20000 <br \/>Cian Uijtdebroeks +20000 <br \/>Mattias Skjelmose +20000 <br \/>Thymen Arensman +22500 <br \/>Derek Gee +22500 <br \/>Matteo Jorgenson +25000 <br \/>Adam Yates +25000 <br \/>Pablo Torres +30000 <br \/>Ben O&#8217;Connor +30000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Tour de France begins Saturday in Barcelona and will see a champion crowned at its conclusion&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8941,30604,5,2543,1696,22119,30601,30602,30603],"class_list":["post-45570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-2026-tour-de-france","tag-cycling-picks","tag-france","tag-general","tag-tour-de-france","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-tour-de-france-odds","tag-tour-de-france-picks","tag-tour-de-france-prediction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}