Tour de France: The Tourmalet Awaits—The Rivalry Between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard Heats Up Again

After a couple of transitional stages—with victories by Mads Pedersen on Tuesday in Foix and Olav Kooij on Wednesday in Pau (in the first bunch sprint of the 2026 edition)— the Tour de France promises to shake things up on Thursday’s demanding stage, which will take the riders from Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre, in the Hautes-Pyrénées department.

The 186.2-kilometer stage features four mountain primes, plus an uphill finish that also awards points toward the polka-dot jersey. Inevitably, fans’ attention will be focused on the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet, a 17.1-kilometer “hors catégorie” climb with an average gradient of 7.3%, where the battle between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard could reignite.

After their intense clashes in the first three stages, the two champions have kept a low profile in the subsequent stages and currently trail the current yellow jersey holder, Norway’s Torstein Traeen, by several minutes. Both Pogacar and Vingegaard trail by 7’53”: the Slovenian is ahead of Traeen in the overall standings and is currently in fourth place.

But it’s not just the Tourmalet that’s keeping fans, insiders, and the riders themselves on the edge of their seats: after two fourth- and third-category climbs (Côte de Loucrup and Côte de Mauvezin), the first-category climb of the Col d’Aspin will begin at kilometer 106, which already promises an initial shakeout ahead of the hors catégorie climb awaiting the riders at kilometer 130.7. The final climb, leading to the finish line in Gavarnie-Gèdre, is a second-category climb 18.7 kilometers long, with an average gradient of 3.7%.