Vingegaard wins Tour de France opener in Barcelona, takes early lead over Pogacar
Jonas Vingegaard won the opening team time trial of the 2026 Tour de France in Barcelona, crossing the line solo to claim the yellow jersey and an eight-second advantage over rival Tadej Pogacar.
A new format for the Tour's first test
For the first time at the Tour de France, a team time trial used individual timing rather than the time of the fourth rider across the line. The 19.6-kilometer course wound through Barcelona past the Sagrada Família, with temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius, before two short climbs decided the order. The format had been tested earlier this season at Paris-Nice, where Ineos took the win.
Vingegaard's solo statement
Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike attacked on the final rise and reached the finish alone, his team's tactic of keeping more helpers around him on the climbs paying off. The Dane, who won the Giro d'Italia this spring and the Tour in 2022 and 2023, stopped the clock eight seconds faster than Italy's Filippo Ganna (Ineos). Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe and UAE Emirates were already trailing at the first intermediate time check.
We gave everything today, I didn't have my best day.
Rivals left chasing
Defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) finished third, 12 seconds behind Vingegaard, after launching a late attack toward the Olympic Stadium. Remco Evenepoel dropped teammate Florian Lipowitz two kilometers from the line and took fifth at 19 seconds. Lipowitz, third overall last year, conceded 35 seconds and sits eighth. French teenager Paul Seixas lost 39 seconds in tenth.
- F. Ganna
- 8 s
- T. Pogacar
- 12 s
- R. Evenepoel
- 19 s
- F. Lipowitz
- 35 s
- P. Seixas
- 39 s
The legs weren't quite there yet, but I'm still pretty happy. We have three weeks of racing to go. In the end, a few seconds don't matter.
Preparation and pain
Teams invested heavily in the discipline, training on Formula One circuits and in wind tunnels. Evenepoel had said before the start, "We've been focusing on this for a long time. We're aiming for the stage win, but of course many teams are." German veteran John Degenkolb crashed in training the day before but managed to finish, telling ARD it cost him energy.
We've been focusing on this for a long time. We're aiming for the stage win, but of course many teams are.
What comes next
Stage 2 on Sunday runs 168.5 kilometers from Tarragona back to Barcelona. The route is mostly flat but includes a category-two climb after Begues and three ascents of the Montjuïc, with gradients up to 13 percent, before the finish at the Olympic Stadium. The Tour ends in Paris on July 26.
