On the very first day of this Tour de France in Barcelona, we wondered if organizer ASO may have finally fixed time trials. Now, in the aftermath of stage 4 into Foix, it seems possible that route master Thierry Gouvenou may have cracked the code for the first week altogether.
Assembling an engaging opener is no easy task, particularly in an era when the sport’s top rider is willing and able to hoover up almost any stage outside of the purest of field sprints and the list of realistic contenders for yellow is nearly as short as it can be. Much of what makes the Tour great is its breathtaking tangle of competing goals, priorities, motivations, and egos, the misalignment of which creates the drama that hooks fans for three solid weeks.
But creating and sustaining the conditions for those dramas to unfold can be a delicate undertaking. Give the top contenders and the superteams they ride for too much opportunity early on, and they’ll quickly squeeze the life out of the general classification race. Push their opportunities too deep into the race, and risk losing fan interest before things have really kicked off and creating a lack of structure that has its own detrimental effects.
Each year, ASO tries to balance terrain, sponsors, contenders, history, and dozens of other factors to create the perfect Tour. There’s no such thing, of course, but from the Grand Depart in Barcelona through Tuesday’s frenzied finish in Foix, 2026’s opening quartet of stages has combined to deliver headliner performances, a largely healthy peloton, and a promising storyline for the coming weeks.
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