How to watch Tour de France 2026: TV channel, highlights and streaming online

The 2026 Tour de France begins on Saturday 4 July, with four-time champion Tadej Pogacar once again the hot favourite to retain his crown.

The Slovenian is currently level on Tour titles with Chris Froome, who quietly announced his retirement from the sport on the eve of the race, and few would put it past him to go one better than the Briton at the close of this year’s race.

Two-time champion and recent Giro d’Italia winner Jonas Vingegaard remains his biggest competition, while former third-place finisher and Vuelta a Espana champion Remco Evenepoel is back after a disappointing edition last year, when he withdrew partway through.

French wunderkind Paul Seixas leads home hopes on his debut at the sport’s biggest race.

The Tour gets underway with a team time trial in Barcelona on Saturday, with three stages of the Grand Depart in Spain before heading to France.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch the race.

When is the Tour de France 2026?

The Tour de France begins in Barcelona on Saturday 4 July, and runs for 21 stages - plus two rest days - until the finale in Paris on Sunday 26th July.

How can I watch it?

This year marks the first without full free-to-air coverage of the Tour de France in the UK, after ITV failed to bid for streaming rights beyond 2025.

The Tour de France will be shown exclusively and in full on TNT Sports and HBO Max, while there will be a free daily highlights show at 7pm BST on Channel 5. A TNT Sports subscription to watch the Tour starts from £30.99 a month.

Tour de France 2026 route

Stage	Date	Start	Finish	Distance	Type
1	Saturday 4 July	Barcelona	Barcelona	19.6km	Team time trial
2	Sunday 5 July	Tarragona	Barcelona	168.5km	Hilly
3	Monday 6 July	Granollers	Les Angles	195.9km	Mountain
4	Tuesday 7 July	Carcassonne	Foix	181.9km	Hilly
5	Wednesday 8 July	Lannemezan	Pau	158.3km	Flat
6	Thursday 9 July	Pau	Gavarnie-Gedre	186.2km	Mountain
7	Friday 10 July	Hagetmau	Bordeaux	175.1km	Flat
8	Saturday 11 July	Perigueux	Bergerac	180.4km	Flat
9	Sunday 12 July	Malemort	Ussel	185.5km	Hilly
10	Tuesday 14 July	Aurillac	Le Lioran	166.6km	Mountain
11	Wednesday 15 July	Vichy	Nevers	161.3km	Flat
12	Thursday 16 July	Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours	Chalon-Sur-Saone	179.1km	Flat
13	Friday 17 July	Dole	Belfort	205.8km	Hilly
14	Saturday 18 July	Mulhouse	Le Markstein Fellering	155.3km	Mountain
15	Sunday 19 July	Champagnole	Plateau de Solaison	183.9km	Mountain
16	Tuesday 21 July	Evian-les-Bains	Thonon-les-Bains	26.1km	Individual time trial
17	Wednesday 22 July	Chambery	Voiron	174.7km	Flat
18	Thursday 23 July	Voiron	Orcieres-Merlette	185.2km	Mountain
19	Friday 24 July	Gap	Alpe d’Huez	127.9km	Mountain
20	Saturday 25 July	Le Bourg d’Oisans	Alpe d’Huez	170.9km	Mountain
21	Sunday 26 July	Thoiry	Paris Champs-Elysees	133km	Flat