Tour de France 2026 highlights to be free to view in UK after Channel 5 deal
Organisers of cycling's most prestigious stage race have confirmed a thrilling route for the next edition, which will begin in Barcelona
Highlights of the Tour de France 2026 will be shown on Channel 5 as part of a three-year-deal with TNT Sports, which will also see the best bits of the Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia televised for free.
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The three-year deal kicks in for this year's Tour, which begins in Barcelona in July, and will offer free-to-view action for fans who had feared the cycling might be lost behind a paywall after coverage ceased last year on ITV 4.
TNT announced this week that 5 will also show highlights of the next three Spanish and Italian grand tours, which will commence in 2027 for the springtime Giro.
There is also set to be extensive coverage of the 2027 Grand Depart, which will see the Tour and women's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift start in the UK next year.
Here is what you need to know about the 2026 Tour de France.
When is the Tour de France 2026?
The Tour de France 2026 runs from July 4-26, starting in Barcelona and finishing in Paris - with time trials, mountain stages, flat finishes, and breakaway stages all along the way. There will be 21 stages and two rest days.
- Stage 1, July 4: Barcelona (Spain) (Team time trial, 19.7 km / 12.2 mi)
- Stage 2, July 5: Tarragona (Spain) to Barcelona (Spain) (Hilly stage, 178 km / 111 mi)
- Stage 3, July 6: Granollers (Spain) to Les Angles (Mountain stage, 196 km / 122 mi)
- Stage 4, July 7: Carcassonne to Foix (Hilly stage, 182 km / 113 mi)
- Stage 5, July 8: Lannemezan to Pau (Flat stage, 158 km / 98 mi)
- Stage 6, July 9: Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre (Mountain stage, 186 km / 116 mi)
- Stage 7, July 10: Hagetmau to Bordeaux (Flat stage, 175 km / 109 mi)
- Stage 8, July 11: Périgueux to Bergerac (Flat stage, 182 km / 113 mi)
- Stage 9, July 12: Malemort to Ussel (Hilly stage, 185 km / 115 mi)
- Rest Day, July 13: Cantal
- Stage 10, July 14: Aurillac to Le Lioran (Mountain stage, 167 km / 104 mi)
- Stage 11, July 15: Vichy to Nevers (Flat stage, 161 km / 100 mi)
- Stage 12, July 16: Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours to Chalon-sur-Saône (Flat stage, 181 km / 112 mi)
- Stage 13, July 17: Dole to Belfort (Hilly stage, 205 km / 127 mi)
- Stage 14, July 18: Mulhouse to Le Markstein Fellering (Mountain stage, 155 km / 96 mi)
- Stage 15, July 19: Champagnole to Plateau de Solaison (Mountain stage, 184 km / 114 mi)
- Rest Day, July 20: Haute-Savoie
- Stage 16, July 21: Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains (Individual time trial, 26 km / 16 mi)
- Stage 17, July 22: Chambéry to Voiron (Flat stage, 175 km / 109 mi)
- Stage 18, July 23: Voiron to Orcières-Merlette (Mountain stage, 185 km / 115 mi)
- Stage 19, July 24: Gap to Alpe d'Huez (Mountain stage, 128 km / 80 mi)
- Stage 20, July 25: Le Bourg-d'Oisans to Alpe d'Huez (Mountain stage, 171 km / 106 mi)
- Stage 21, July 26: Thoiry to Paris (Champs-Élysées) (Flat stage, 130 km / 81 mi)
What is the new team time trial for 2026?
The 2026 Tour de France will start in Barcelona next month with a team time trial that features a whole new ruleset to potentially shake-up the peloton.
Stage one will see the 23 teams of eight riders tackle the 12-mile course around the Spanish city but, unlike previous team disciplines, individual riders will be timed and not the whole squad will not get the same time.
This alteration means that the overall favourites, likely leaders of their team, will need to choose whether their best chance of a lower time is to stay with their team mates, or race ahead on their own.
It will bring rules seen in the 2023 Paris–Nice race to the Tour de France for the first time and, unusually for the Tour, might see yellow jersey contenders at the top end of the general classification from the very start.
Barcelona will be the third Spanish city to host the Grand Depart after San Sebastián in 1992 and Bilbao in 2023, and will also host the second stages, before the race enters France on stage three, where it remains until the finale stage 21 in Paris on July 26.
How to watch 2026 Tour de France on TV in the UK
After being shown on ITV 4 for years, fans of the Tour de France will need to find a new home for 2026 after Warner Bros. Discovery snapped up the rights for its brand TNT Sports.
But while watching the race in its full glory will come with a price tag, Warner Bros. boss Scott Young had promised that some of the action could be seen in the UK for free, and this was confirmed with the news that Channel 5 will broadcast a nightly highlights show.
Rebecca Charlton will present the highlights coverage, which will also be shown on TNT Sports.
There will also be coverage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the women's tour which runs from August 1-9.
Which riders are favourites for the 2026 Tour?
Jonas Vingegaard, Tour winner in 2022 and 2023, has shown with his Giro win that he is back to near his best following a major crash in 2024 which led to him suffering major lung injuries, but Tadej Pogacar remains the favourite.
Four-time yellow jersey winner Pogacar, who is the defending champion, also has good form, having won Liège–Bastogne–Liège at the end of April, after also tasting glory in Milan–San Remo and the Tour of Flanders.
Remco Evenepoel, third in 2024, will return to lead his new team Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe, a team which also contains last year's best young rider winner Florian Lipowitz.
French 19-year-old sensation Paul Seixas, who rides for Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale, and Britain's Olympic cyclo-cross champion Tom Pidcock, Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, are also podium contenders.
For the points jersey, which often rewards the best sprinter, favourites include Italy's Jonathan Milan, who won in 2025, Biniam Girmay, who took the maillot vert the previous year, and perennial contender Jasper Philipsen
