{"id":46524,"date":"2026-07-06T05:10:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T05:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/46524\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T05:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T05:10:28","slug":"2026-tour-de-france-stage-3-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/46524\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Tour de France stage 3 preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

For sprinters and breakaway riders, the opening weekend of the Tour de France wasn\u2019t much to write home about<\/a>, but Stage 3 could very well turn out to be an important day for the latter group. We\u2019re heading into some climbs, but they won\u2019t be intense enough to interest the general classification contenders<\/a>, in our opinion. So will it be a day for punchers? IDL Pro Cycling takes a look.Stage 3 Route of the 2026 Tour de France\"etappe-3-tour-de-france-2026\"\/At 195.9 kilometers<\/a>, the third stage will be a long ride, from Granollers across the French border to Les Angles. There will be four categorized climbs, starting with the C\u00f4te de Saint Feliu de Codines right from the start. The 8.2-kilometer climb at a 4.5 percent gradient could already cause trouble for riders who aren\u2019t strong climbers.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll have plenty of time to recover after the summit, since the Col de Toses doesn\u2019t come up until more than 100 kilometers into the race. At 9.4 kilometers with a 6.6 percent average gradient, it looks manageable on paper, but it\u2019s worth noting that the final 4 kilometers or so have an average gradient of 9 percent. So it\u2019s a very tough climb, with the summit just under 70 kilometers from the finish line.<\/p>\n

After a long descent, we race toward the final stretch, where the course won\u2019t be flat for even a meter. First, we climb the Col du Calvaire, a long stretch of over 11 kilometers at just over 4 percent grade. A breakaway group or the peloton could be whittled down, because after the summit, the route goes down, up, down, and finally up again. The climb to the finish in Les Angles isn\u2019t nearly as steep, but the final 1.7 kilometers will average 6.7 percent.<\/p>\n

\"etappe-3-tour-de-france\"\/<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 12:10 p.m CET
Finish: approximately 5:08 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 3 Weather Forecast, 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n

After two hot days around Barcelona, we\u2019re heading to the south of France on Monday. At the start, around noon, the temperature will already be approaching 35 degrees. It will be just as hot at the finish in Les Angles, even though the finish line is at an elevation of 1,800 meters. The east-southeast wind, at force 2, will not be a factor.<\/p>\n

2026 Tour de France stage 3 favourites<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike won on Day 1, but UAE Emirates-XRG struck back impressively with Isaac del Toro and Tadej Pogacar finishing 1st and 2nd. We\u2019re highlighting them in bold, but the chances that the general classification contenders will battle it out on Monday don\u2019t seem very high. Visma | Lease a Bike, for example, will likely want to relinquish the lead, we think.<\/p>\n

The breakaway therefore has a good chance, and with the yellow jersey potentially on the line, it could be a fierce battle. Strong climbers or punchers with staying power will be the ones to survive. Among the top ten in the general classification, we don\u2019t immediately see any names that are likely to break away\u2014unless it\u2019s Romain Gr\u00e9goire and Lenny Martinez riding for Groupama-FDJ United and Bahrain Victorious, respectively.<\/p>\n

Outside the top ten, more riders will be eyeing a possible one-two finish, including Mathieu van der Poel<\/a>. The Dutchman missed out on the battle for the stage win during the opening weekend, but is only 1.26 minutes behind the yellow jersey. Alex Baudin is also a rider to watch at EF Education-EasyPost, especially after he wore the yellow jersey for an extended period during the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"Alex-baudin\"\/<\/p>\n

Baudin was already wearing the yellow jersey in June.<\/p>\n

Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9), Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies), Yannis Voisard (Tudor), and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) still have a realistic chance at a stage win and the yellow jersey; after that, it becomes highly unrealistic to think that breakaway riders will succeed without at least one rider from the top 20 making it to the finish. Of course, there are plenty of names in the running for stage victories.<\/p>\n

Uno-X Mobility has Torstein Tr\u00e6en and Magnus Cort for those kinds of climbing stages; EF might also go for Sean Quinn. As a Tour debutant, Caja Rural will definitely want to be in the mix, with Jos\u00e9 Felix Parra, Abel Balderstone , and Sebastian Berwick as climbers. Netcompany INEOS has several contenders, though Thymen Arensman and Egan Bernal aren\u2019t really finishers. Tobias Foss, perhaps?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also adding Mathias Vacek to the Lidl-Trek roster, since Stage 2 was just a bit too tough for him with Lidl-Trek. At Jayco AlUla, they\u2019ve mainly been trying to lose a lot of time over the first two days, so Mauro Schmid and Luke Plapp are definitely ones to watch. Quinten Hermans is riding for Pinarello-Q36.5, and Groupama could go for Cl\u00e9ment Braz Afonso in addition to Gr\u00e9goire.<\/p>\n

\"mathias-vacek\"\/<\/p>\n

Mathias Vacek<\/p>\n

We can keep going like this, because although the big stages don\u2019t usually tire out the riders on a rest day, attackers from other teams have already made a good impression. Sergio Higuita (Astana), Marco Frigo ( NSN), and Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9) should be able to do the same.<\/p>\n

And in the unlikely event that the race is decided by a thinned-out peloton, we\u2019ll definitely include\u2014in addition to the general classification contenders mentioned above\u2014the punchy and consistently strong Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull), Paul Seixas (Decathlon), and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello).<\/p>\n

IDL Pro Cycling top picks for Stage 3, 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n

Top Favorites: Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla)
Dark horses: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Romain Gr\u00e9goire (Groupama-FDJ), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), and Tobias Foss (Netcompany INEOS)
Long shots: Tadej Pogacar, Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9), Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies), Yannis Voisard (Tudor), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Torstein Tr\u00e6en and Magnus Cort (Uno-X), Sergio Higuita (Astana), Marco Frigo (NSN), and Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For sprinters and breakaway riders, the opening weekend of the Tour de France wasn\u2019t much to write home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1428,5,2826,3506,22119],"class_list":["post-46524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-cycling","tag-france","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-previews","tag-tour-de-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46524","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=46524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}