Overview
- The 113th Tour de France starts on Saturday, July 4, with 21 stages covering about 3,333 km and a traditional finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
- Tadej Pogacar enters as the pre-race favourite seeking a record‑equalling fifth title after dominant form this season.
- Jonas Vingegaard arrives in strong form after wins at Paris‑Nice, the Tour of Catalunya and the Giro d’Italia and is widely viewed as Pogacar’s main challenger.
- Stage 1 returns a team time trial for the first time in years and uses a new rule that takes a team’s time on the first rider across the line while giving each rider an individual GC time, which could produce early time gaps.
- Squad makeup and injuries are likely to shape tactics after Wout van Aert was ruled out with an elbow injury and young riders such as 19‑year‑old Paul Seixas make high‑profile debuts that could influence how teams deploy domestiques.