2026 Tour de France: Carapaz to Lead EF Pro Cycling

The Pyrenees, Vosges, and Alps await them — 21 stages through the mountains and fields of La France Profonde en route to Paris for the iconic finish over Montmartre and onto the Champs-Élysées. Every day will be a new opportunity to take the race to the peloton. We’re going to rip up the script again and again.

Richard Carapaz is back to his best and ready to soar in the high mountains. The Olympic champion and 2024 polka dot jersey winner is coming off second place at the Tour de Suisse and would love to get another Tour stage win.

“I’m very motivated for this Tour. After a long period at home training at altitude, things have gone really, really well,” Carapaz said. “I’m coming in with high motivation and, above all, high morale, which I think is crucial for starting this great race. I am very happy and very eager. I believe that’s the most important thing for the start of this Tour.

“My ambition is to try and do my absolute best, to make it a beautiful Tour, and, above all, to enjoy it as much as possible.

“We have a versatile team and that ultimately helps a lot with the team’s ambitions. The general classification will depend heavily on how the race circumstances unfold. I want to go after stage wins and could try to repeat winning the mountains jersey. That would be beautiful for me, and it’s what I desire most for this Tour.

“The Tour is a race that is simply the best in the world. The top riders are there, and it’s surrounded by an atmosphere of the absolute highest level. Just being there is already a win for me. The Tour is the Tour, and everyone involved in cycling knows it is a beautiful, very special race — the most important one in the world of cycling. It’s a race that makes you fall in love, fills you with hope, and stirs up emotions that few other races can. It’s thrilling and, above all, incredibly motivating,” Carapaz concluded.

Ben Healy had a dream Tour last year with two days in the yellow jersey and his stage 6 victory. Ben is going to race this Tour with the same aggressive verve.

“I’m hopeful,” Healy told reporters. “I’ve had a spring with some bad luck, but I’m in good shape and ready to race. I’m looking forward to being back racing again and hopefully racing at the front.

Last year was a standout year and it would be amazing to replicate it, but even half that success would still be a successful Tour in my eyes. There’s not too much pressure —  I just want to be up front and in a fight for a stage win, maybe even two. There are a lot of hard transitional stages this year, so I think there’ll be plenty of opportunities for breaks.

Our team is super strong and pretty well balanced. We can go into this Tour with any goal in mind and be adaptable to any situation. We have a lot of experience, a lot of young guys — it’s going to be a fun one.

I have had a good prep. I did an altitude camp, which I was able to do the full block of, and then Dauphiné as a prep race — even though I got sick, I didn’t really miss too much and was able to get back into training fairly quickly. And yeah, some heat work in Mallorca. Hopefully that’s me ready.

I will just have to race the same way, with an air of unpredictability. Even if they know how I’m going to race, if it’s still unpredictable then it’s still hard to predict. Even last year people kind of knew who I was and I was still able to do it. So nothing’s going to change really — just going to try and rinse and repeat.

Alex Baudin is on a roll in 2026. Our Frenchman won stage 1 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with a 28-kilometer solo breakaway and defended the yellow jersey until the final stage. He can’t wait to show his strength in his home Alps.

Max Walker and Georg Steinhauser will make their Tour debuts this weekend in Barcelona. They are confident and excited to take on the biggest race in the world. Max is a dependable teammate with the power to drive the peloton or a breakaway on all terrain. Georg is a Giro d’Italia stage winner. Earlier this year, he finished third on GC at Paris-Nice and won the white jersey as best young rider. He will go on the attack when the Tour hits the mountains.

Danes Kasper Asgreen and Michael Valgren bring strength, experience, and race-winning savvy. Kasper has already won a stage of the Tour de France, alongside classics like the Ronde van Vlaanderen, E3 Saxo Bank Classic, and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and a stage of the Giro. He knows how to keep a cool head in a break, see his moment, and go. So does Michael Valgren. Michael just added a Giro stage win to his long list of achievements and would love to do the same at the Tour.

Sean Quinn rounds out our EF Education-EasyPost roster. The 2024 American champ is in great form after coming back from a career-threatening knee injury. Sean can’t wait to get this Tour de France started.

EF Pro Cycling 2026 Tour de France Roster: Richard Carapaz, Ben Healy, Kasper Asgreen, Michael Valgren, Alex Baudin, Sean Quinn, Max Walker, and Georg Steinhauser