{"id":46838,"date":"2026-07-06T16:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/46838\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T16:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:40:19","slug":"2026-tour-de-france-stage-4-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/46838\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Tour de France stage 4 preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will there ever be a chance for the breakaway riders at this Tour de France? UAE Team Emirates-XRG wasted no time in the first two road stages, with victories for Isaac Del Toro<\/a> and then Tadej Pogacar<\/a>. But the Slovenian is clad in the yellow jersey<\/a>, and the fourth stage of the Tour de France seems too simple for the climbers\u2014but also too difficult for the sprinters. IDL Pro Cycling takes a look.Stage 4 Route of the 2026 Tour de France\"etappe-4-tour-de-france-2026\"\/After crossing the border in Stage 3, Stage 4<\/a> is the first stage to take place entirely in France. We\u2019ll start in beautiful Carcassonne. Below the Cit\u00e9\u2014the old, walled city center (including the castle)\u2014the riders will begin a 181-kilometer stage with 2,700 meters of elevation gain. Once again, it won\u2019t be easy!<\/p>\n

The first section is relatively simple. After thirty kilometers of flat riding, the road starts to undulate a bit for the first time, with two categorized climbs in a hilly section spanning about 35 kilometers. It will be a good time to form a breakaway group. Or will that have already happened?<\/p>\n

After a flat section, we\u2019ll reach an intermediate sprint in Quillan. For those who recognize it: that\u2019s where Bauke Mollema won his Tour stage in 2021. Immediately after the intermediate sprint, the road climbs for nearly eleven kilometers: the Col de Coudons is a Category 2 climb. If there\u2019s a large breakaway group, it might already start to break apart here.<\/p>\n

After a plateau at the top comes a short descent, followed by the day\u2019s toughest climb. The Col de Monts\u00e9gur begins in Fougax-et-Barrineuf. It starts with a section that\u2019s deceptively flat, but the real climb is 6.9 kilometers long, with a 6.6 percent gradient. It\u2019s definitely not easy. After the descent, the route continues to undulate a bit, but it\u2019s not too strenuous: it\u2019s the earlier kilometers that will make it particularly challenging.<\/p>\n

The final kilometers aren’t particularly difficult: few turns, little elevation gain. In the finish town of Foix, there’s a sharp right-hand turn about 300 meters from the finish line, after which the road climbs slightly toward the finish. It could turn out to be a grueling sprint.<\/p>\n

\"etappe-4-tour-de-france\"\/<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 1:25 p.m.
Finish: approximately 5:20 p.m.<\/p>\n

Weather Forecast, Stage 4\u00a0\u00a02026 Tour de Franc<\/p>\n

It remains scorching hot, even across the border in France. In Carcassonne, temperatures could reach as high as 38 degrees, and in Foix, it won\u2019t be much better. No rain and a moderate northwesterly wind: it\u2019s going to be a hellish day.<\/p>\n

Favorites, Stage 4 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be a day that\u2019s too tough for the sprinters, but the favorites don\u2019t seem to have a chance here either. And the attackers? They\u2019re licking their lips at the sight of this stage. You can count on seeing many of the names we saw in the breakaway on Monday\u2014or riders who wanted to be there. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was there, but the stage to Foix suits him better than Stage 3.<\/p>\n

Mathias Vacek and Quinn Simmons also have a shot on a day like this. Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) is another fast rider who climbs well, but the Norwegian team also has Torstein Traeen and Jonas Abrahamsen. For Jayco AlUla, we expect Michael Matthews, but perhaps also Luke Plapp and Mauro Schmid.<\/p>\n

Many eyes will also be on Mathieu van der Poel. These are the stages he came to the Tour de France for. With teammates like Emiel Verstrynge and Ramses Debruyne, he can bring strong riders along with him. Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 can spread its bets across several riders with Liam Slock, Jenno Berckmoes, and Huub Artz; the same goes for Tudor, with Julian Alaphilippe and Rick Pluimers.<\/p>\n

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

\"rick-pluimers\"\/<\/p>\n

Picnic PostNL is also targeting these kinds of stages: that\u2019s where Frank van den Broek will have to step up. TotalEnergies has a host of attackers in its ranks, including Alexandre Delettre. Alex Aranburu is a dangerous rival for Cofidis, while Movistar also has two strong Spaniards in its ranks: Pablo Castrillo and Ra\u00fal Garc\u00eda Pierna.<\/p>\n

The EF Education-EasyPost attack team will also be in the mix. Maybe not Richard Carapaz or Alex Baudin this time, but you can definitely count on powerhouses like Michael Valgren, Kasper Asgreen, and Ben Healy. At Netcompany INEOS, a strong Filippo Ganna could make a difference, but otherwise it might be Dorian Godon or K\u00e9vin Vauquelin\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n

NSN could go with Marco Frigo and Krists Neilands, or opt for a sprint with someone like Jake Stewart or Lewis Askey. At Soudal Quick-Step, we can keep an eye on Pascal Eenkhoorn, Dylan van Baarle, or Jasper Stuyven, while XDS Astana is hoping that Aaron Gate and Simone Velasco have recovered from their crashes. Caja Rural Seguros – RGA is hoping for a good day for their fast rider, Stefano Oldani.<\/p>\n

IDL Pro Cycling top picks, Stage 4 of the 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n

Top Favorites: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek)
Dark horses: Mads Pedersen, Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla), and Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility)
Long shots: Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Pascal Eenkhoorn, Dylan van Baarle, Jasper Stuyven (all Soudal Quick-Step), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Marco Frigo (NSN), Filippo Ganna, Dorian Godon (Netcompany INEOS), Alex Aranburu (Cofidis), Julian Alaphilippe, Rick Pluimers (both Tudor), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Jenno Berckmoes, Liam Slock (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will there ever be a chance for the breakaway riders at this Tour de France? UAE Team Emirates-XRG…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1428,5,3506,22119],"class_list":["post-46838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-cycling","tag-france","tag-previews","tag-tour-de-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46838","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=46838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}