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Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,

Sunday, July 5, 2026

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Current racing:

July 4 - 26: Tour de France

Upcoming racing:

July 8 - 12: Tour of Austria
July 26: Vuelta a Castilla y Leon

Latest completed racing:

Tour de France stage one team reports

We poster the report from the race organizer with the results.

Stage winner Team Visma | lease a Bike posted this report:

Team Visma | Lease a Bike has made the perfect start to the Tour de France. On the opening day, the yellow-and-black squad triumphed in the team time trial in Barcelona. Jonas Vingegaard brilliantly finished off the work of his teammates, with the 29-year-old Dane earning the first yellow jersey of this year's Tour.

"It's the perfect start to this Tour," Vingegaard said afterwards. "My teammates were incredibly strong today, which allowed me to begin the final climb in an excellent position. Everyone gave everything for me. This victory and this yellow jersey belong to the whole team."

Jonas Vingegaard will start stage two in yellow. Sirotti photo

The Catalan coastal city of Barcelona provided the backdrop for the Grand Départ of the 113th edition of the Tour de France. Rather than a traditional road stage, the race began with a 19.6-kilometre team time trial to determine both the first stage winner and the first wearer of the yellow jersey. After a largely flat route through the city centre, the finale featured two demanding climbs.

Team Visma | Lease a Bike rolled off the start ramp as the penultimate team. Along the way, Netcompany INEOS and Lidl-Trek posted impressive intermediate times. In the closing kilometres, however, Team Visma | Lease a Bike gradually extended its advantage over the competition. On the steep final climb, Vingegaard sealed the fastest finishing time with a powerful effort. The two-time Tour de France champion also claimed the first yellow jersey.

"We had a clear plan and executed it to perfection," Vingegaard said. "It feels fantastic to wear the yellow jersey again. It remains one of the most iconic jerseys in cycling. The past few seasons haven't been without setbacks, so it means a great deal to be back in yellow."

Also Head of Performance Mathieu Heijboer was delighted: "It was a bold strategy, but it paid off perfectly. Our plan was to keep Jonas sheltered for as long as possible, and the guys executed that brilliantly. To take such a fantastic victory straight away, after such a long period of preparation, is incredibly rewarding. It's also wonderful to see Jonas wearing the yellow jersey again for the first time since 2023. We're going to enjoy this day."

Here's the report from second-place Team Netcompany INEOS:

Netcompany INEOS took second place on the opening stage time trial at the Tour de France, with Filippo Ganna taking the fastest time for the team as Egan Bernal secured the points jersey.

The Italian powerhouse led home Netcompany INEOS, crossing the line in a time of 21:55.20 over the 19.8km course in Barcelona to fly into the hot seat.

Ganna now sits second on the GC behind Jonas Vingegaard (Visma - Lease A Bike), while a strong early effort from Egan Bernal also saw him secure the green jersey classification, which he will wear in tomorrow’s road race.

Filippo Ganna riding to second in the GC. Sirotti photo

Strong efforts from time trial specialists Ganna, Tobias Foss, Thymen Arensman and Josh Tarling put the team in a great position over the parcours, which were well supported by Michal Kwiatkowski, Dorian Godon, Bernal and Kevin Vauquelin. A late puncture from Vauquelin, just six kilometres from the finish, put the Frenchman out of contention to fight for the line.

Having averaged 53.6kph, the time from Ganna ensured the team were amongst the fastest on the day, with the first rider who crossed the line securing the time for the overall team.

On crossing the line, the team were 31 seconds up on second placed Alpecin - Premier Tech, but the penultimate team of the day, Visma - Lease A Bike, well delivered Vingegaard to the line, to stop the clock seven seconds ahead of Netcompany INEOS.

Here's the Tour de France report from third-place UAE Team Emirates-XRG:

On stage 1 of the 2026 Tour de France, UAE Team Emirates-XRG produced a united effort to ride to third place in the team time trial.

The result sees the Emirati squad begin its title defense with the four-time defending champion, Tadej Pogačar. Leading the team, the Slovenian crossed the line first and was shortly followed by teammate Isaac del Toro.

The pair came towards the final climb together, before Pogačar sought to make the most of the new TTT rules to post the quickest possible time for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. In the end, the world champion crossed the line just 12 seconds shy of the stage-winning time set by Visma-Lease a Bike.

Tadej Pogacar finishes the stage. Sirotti photo

The Dutch squad’s efforts place Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time Tour de France champion, in the first Yellow Jersey of the race, whilst Pogačar clocked the fastest time of any rider up the day’s final climb.

That display has earned the 27-year-old the polka dot jersey for stage 2, as the leader of the King of the Mountains Classification. The green jersey, meanwhile, was taken by Egan Bernal of Netcompany Ineos, another former Tour de France champion. A star-studded front row will be completed by Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) on Sunday, with the latter earning the white jersey as the best young rider.

As for the stage 1 team time trial, Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates were the last down the start ramp in Barcelona, and quickly put their months of preparation to good use. Thanks to the power laid down by recent national championship winners Nils Politt and Felix Großschartner, along with Adam Yates, Brandon McNulty, Tim Wellens, and Florian Vermeersch, the squad went through the first two time checks in provisional fourth place.

This impressive start was capitalized on by Del Toro and Pogačar in the finale.

The pair went in tandem towards the final 3km, before Pogačar darted away with just 700m to ride. Of course, the new rules stated that the time of the fastest rider would count for the team, doing away with the old regulation of requiring four riders to reach the line to set a benchmark.

For his part, Del Toro continued a strong pace to the line, ensuring that both he and Pogačar would sit in the top 10 of the general classification come the end of the opening stage. With Vingegaard taking yellow into stage 2, Pogačar now sits third overall, just 12 seconds down, with Del Toro healthily placed in sixth, a further 14 seconds shy.

Reflecting on the team’s performance, Pogačar heaped the praise on his teammates at the finish and looked forward to pulling on the polka dot jersey.

Pogačar: “It was a super good performance. Of course, you always aim for the victory, but I think we did a really good, super team time trial. I am super happy that the day is over because it is really hard to do this day. It is long and you prepare for just these 20 minutes with the team. It is really stressful, but I enjoyed it today because it has been a long time since I did a team time trial, and actually, it was a really good performance. We can be happy with today and be really motivated for the next days.

“Good news that I have climbing legs [and the polka dot jersey], but it was quite a short climb, and Isaac did a really amazing job. He is such a good kid, and all the team did super good today. Everybody went over the limit and also thanks to the team I have this polka dot jersey.”

And here's the Tour de France report from Team Soudal Quick-Step:

The 113th edition of the Tour de France began Saturday afternoon with a team time trial - the first time in seven years that the race scheduled such a stage. Barcelona, which had previously welcomed the Grande Boucle on three occasions, was the host of the Grand Depart, a 19.6km stage through the streets of the Catalan capital. The parcours: a pan-flat one with the exception of the final kilometers, which featured two demanding climbs, including the famous Montjuic hill, where the average gradient exceeded 7%.

Soudal Quick-Step got underway its 24th Tour de France with Pascal Eenkhoorn, Tim Merlier, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Jasper Stuyven, Dylan van Baarle, Bert Van Lerberghe, Ilan Van Wilder, and Louis Vervaeke, and the eight produced a fine effort to stop the clock in 22:45, thanks to an impressive average speed of 51.7km/h. Bronze medalist at last year’s ITT World Championships in Rwanda, Ilan was our first rider across the line after a powerful surge on the final part of the Montjuic.

“It was a hard but fast and exciting day, despite being only 20 kilometers in length. We had a conservative approach due to the heat and with that tough finale in mind, before launching Valentin and Ilan on the last climb, where they went full gas. Overall, we did a good TTT and can be content with the form and the determination that we showed here”, explained sports director Tom Steels.

Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,

Sunday, July 5, 2026

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