Jonas Vingegaard and Team Visma | Lease a Bike made the perfect start to the 2026 Tour de France, triumphing in the heat-shortened Team Time Trial in Barcelona.
Barcelona provided the backdrop for the Grand Départ of the 2026 Tour de France. Rather than a traditional road stage, the race began with a 19.6-kilometre team time trial to determine both the first stage winner and the first wearer of the yellow jersey. After a largely flat route through the city centre, the finale featured two demanding climbs.
A new TTT format this year, wherein the team’s winning time comes from the first rider that crosses the line (instead of the fourth), gave rise to GC hopefuls busting out on the stage’s final climb to grab some precious seconds for their future efforts. Indeed, Mathieu van der Poel, Filippo Ganna and others all went on the attack.
Rolling down the ramp second to last, Visma | Lease a Bike had what looked like a perfect day. Netcompany INEOS and Lidl-Trek posted impressive intermediate times ahead of them, but in the closing kilometers Visma | Lease a Bike gradually extended their advantage over the competition. On the steep final climb, they unleashed Vingegaard to cap the off the work of the squad. Vingegaard sealed the fastest finishing time with a powerful effort and also claimed the first yellow jersey.
“It’s the perfect start to this Tour,” Vingegaard said afterwards. “My teammates were incredibly strong today, which allowed me to begin the final climb in an excellent position. Everyone gave everything for me. This victory and this yellow jersey belong to the whole team.
“We had a clear plan and executed it to perfection,” Vingegaard added. “It feels fantastic to wear the yellow jersey again. It remains one of the most iconic jerseys in cycling. The past few seasons haven’t been without setbacks, so it means a great deal to be back in yellow.”
Also Head of Performance Mathieu Heijboer was delighted: “It was a bold strategy, but it paid off perfectly. Our plan was to keep Jonas sheltered for as long as possible, and the guys executed that brilliantly. To take such a fantastic victory straight away, after such a long period of preparation, is incredibly rewarding. It’s also wonderful to see Jonas wearing the yellow jersey again for the first time since 2023. We’re going to enjoy this day.”
Third for Pogacar
Pogačar sought to make the most of the new rules to post the quickest possible time for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. In the end, the world champion crossed the line just 12 seconds shy of the stage-winning time set by Visma-Lease a Bike.
Pogačar clocked the fastest time of any rider up the day’s final climb, earning the 27-year-old the polka dot jersey for stage 2, as the leader of the King of the Mountains Classification.
Reflecting on the team’s performance, Pogačar heaped the praise on his teammates at the finish and looked forward to pulling on the polka dot jersey.
Pogačar: “It was a super good performance. Of course, you always aim for the victory, but I think we did a really good, super team time trial. I am super happy that the day is over because it is really hard to do this day. It is long and you prepare for just these 20 minutes with the team. It is really stressful, but I enjoyed it today because it has been a long time since I did a team time trial, and actually, it was a really good performance. We can be happy with today and be really motivated for the next days.
“Good news that I have climbing legs [and the polka dot jersey], but it was quite a short climb, and Isaac did a really amazing job. He is such a good kid, and all the team did super good today. Everybody went over the limit and also thanks to the team I have this polka dot jersey.”
The green jersey, meanwhile, was taken by Egan Bernal of Netcompany Ineos, another former Tour de France champion. A star-studded front row will be completed by Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) on Sunday, with the latter earning the white jersey as the best young rider.
Tour de France 2026 Stage 1 (TTT) results:
- Visma-Lease a Bike 21:47
- Netcompany INEOS +8″
- UAE Team Emirates-XRG +12″
General Classification after Stage 1:
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 21:47
- Filippo Ganna (Netcompany Ineos) +8″
- Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +12″
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