Slim hopes: Will anyone deny Pogacar fifth Tour title?

The world’s greatest cyclist sets off on Saturday on a journey he believes can lead him to history in the 113th Tour de France.

Tadej Pogacar could let his cycling do all the talking for the next three weeks. But his style extends beyond his form on the bike.

A recent new haircut has drawn comparisons with a legend of rap music rather than cycling.

His bleached crop means Pogacar now has the look of Eminem – the self-styled ‘Slim Shady’ – and it caused as much of a buzz as the special bikes and jerseys on show in Barcelona, where the race begins.

It was a sideshow in the grand scheme of things though, because sporting immortality is on the line.

Victory in Paris on 26 July would move the 27-year-old Slovenian level with the most successful Tour winners – five-time champions Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil and Miguel Indurain.

Who can stop him?

Yellow jersey contenders

Consisting of punishing mountain ascents, high‑speed Alpine descents, and explosive sprint finishes, the 2026 Tour features 21 stages from Barcelona to Paris. The start will mark the 27th occasion the race has begun outside France as the world’s elite riders target the race leader’s yellow jersey.

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is the clear favourite because of his versatility to dominate each race discipline, especially his power on mountain stages, and speed in individual time trials. He has been on form all season, most recently winning the Tour de Suisse in June.

Jonas Vingegaard is Pogacar’s long-time rival and a credible challenger this year. The 29-year-old Dane will be targeting his third Tour de France title after wins in 2022 and 2023.

Vingegaard, of Visma-Lease a Bike, has had a few tough years, with injury setbacks along the way, but his form has returned and he recently triumphed in the three-week Giro d’Italia by more than five minutes.

Isaac del Toro iscontinually in the conversation despite racing for the same team as Pogacar, and he can point to victories at the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico this year. The Mexican will be a strong domestique, a supportive rider to Pogacar on his quest, but could finish in a top-three spot himself.

French debutant Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) are also in contention given their recentform. Seixas, only 19, will be France’s next hope of producing a winner on the Tour, as the wait enters its fourth decade.

British hopes on the Tour

There are seven British riders in the Tour de France this year: Tom Pidcock, Adam Yates, Josh Tarling, Fred Wright, Jake Stewart, Lewis Askey and Max Walker.

Pidcock is Britain’s best hope for stage wins. He leads the Pinarello-Q36.5 team on their debut appearance at the race.

After finishing third overall at the 2025 Vuelta a Espana, the Leeds-born 26-year-old could finish in the top 10 of the general classification here.

And there will be fond memories of his famous victory on stage 12 to Alpe d’Huez in 2022.

If Yates, 33, can be given some time off domestique duties for Pogacar, he could win another mountain stage.

Stewart, 26, will be a contender for a fast, rolling finish for NSN Cycling.

One notable absentee is 23-year-old Oscar Onley from British super-squad Netcompany Ineos Cycling, who crashed during the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes warm-up race last month.

The team instead will rely on 2019 winner Egan Bernal of Colombia, Dutchman Thymen Arensman and France’s Kevin Vauquelin to contend for the GC.

Sprinters and strong men

The Tour de France hosts the world’s best sprinters as they contest the green jersey.

Belgian Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) will be targeting his second green jersey, having previously won in 2023. His team-mate, Dutch classics legend Mathieu van der Poel, has had a busy if less successful than usual year so far and will be making his sixth Tour de France appearance supporting Philipsen.

Eritrean trailblazer Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling) should also be in the picture for the green jersey, which he secured in 2024 when becoming the first black African to win a jersey and a stage at the Tour de France.

Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM), Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) are other top sprinters for whom green is the goal.

World Cup hero eyes Tour success – analysis

The Tour de France starts while much of the sporting world’s focus is on the Fifa World Cup.

Sixteen years have passed since Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta scored the goal that gave Spain their first World Cup title.

Now he presides over the NSN Cycling team, who contest their first Tour de France and start their mission in the city where Iniesta has legendary status.

Iniesta has one of the best riders in sprinter Girmay, but he also must deal with the headache of trying to run a cycling team which still has none of the free-market TV rights cashflow of the sport in which he made his name.

“Once you get to see the sport from the inside, it’s absolutely fascinating,” Iniesta told a pre-race news conference. “From the outside, you mostly see the riders, but you don’t see all the strategy and hard work that goes on behind the scenes. That’s what surprised me the most.

“We’ve tried to create values for our team. I think fans can love our team because we are trying to make something special.”

New ways to monetise cycling so that teams do not have to rely solely on sponsors continue to be discussed.

So too does the sport’s attempt to keep doping out of cycling.

The International Testing Agency is carrying out a feasibility study into using power data as part of its anti-doping strategy.

The Swiss group, in charge of anti-doping for cycling’s world governing body the UCI, is working with five teams to gather data with the aim of supporting more traditional methods of blood and urine analysis through the athlete biological passport.

There is some scepticism within cycling about whether such an approach will be of any additional benefit to a sport which has not had a major doping controversy for more than five years.

But while lower-level riders are still being caught and the average speeds in the big races are creeping up, the issue never entirely goes away while cycling, hurt by past scandals, looks to build and maintain a clean image.