On the second rest day of the Tour de France, Michael Storer joins the Domestique Hotseat to talk through a brutal and record-breaking second week of racing. He gets honest about backing up a second grand tour after the Giro, why the heat has been reshaping the race, and what changes now that Jonas Vingegaard has crashed out of contention.

Michael also reflects on racing against a dominant Tadej Pogačar, breaks down what to expect from the rest day time trial between Remco Evenepoel and Pogačar, and gives his take on the 2AM doping controls that have sparked debate across the peloton. He also touches on Trek's tactics this Tour, Quinn Simmons' climbing form, and shares his podium picks for Paris. A candid conversation from inside the bunch as the race enters its final week.

Jonas Vingegaard's Tour de France is over. The two time champion crashed twenty kilometres from the summit of Plateau de Solaison on stage 15 and abandoned with a suspected broken collarbone, ending his record of never finishing lower than second overall at this race. Remco Evenepoel beat Tadej Pogacar in an uphill sprint on the stage for his first ever Tour road win, while Isaac del Toro completed the podium and reclaimed the white jersey. Pogacar's overall lead is now five minutes over Evenepoel, with del Toro third and Paul Seixas fourth, all within 6:23 of yellow.

We also go back through the rest of the week: Søren Wærenskjold winning the fastest road stage in Tour history at 50.91 km/h in Nevers, Tim Merlier completing a sprint hat-trick in Chalon-sur-Saône, Mauro Schmid's win from a 57-rider megabreak in Belfort that briefly put Tom Pidcock into the top four overall, and Pogacar's solo demolition job on the Col du Haag at Le Markstein for his fourth stage win of this Tour.

Then we look ahead to the final week. The Tour's only individual time trial along Lake Geneva, one last shot for the sprinters before the terrain turns, Orcières-Merlette, and the back-to-back Alpe d'Huez finishes that close this Tour out before Paris. With the podium fight suddenly wide open for the first time in five years, this is the week that decides it.

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Ben Healy and Michael Valgren sat down with us on the first rest day of the Tour de France, nine days into one of the hottest editions in memory. The result is an honest conversation about racing in temperatures that have barely dropped below 35 degrees, and what it takes for a team like EF Education to keep chasing wins in the heat.

Healy is refreshingly open about his biggest weakness. The heat, he says, is a real Achilles heel, and it is stopping him from performing at his best when it matters most. He explains how the team manages his cooling, why it did not fall to him in yesterday's breakaway, and why his teammate got the nod instead on a brutally hot day.

Valgren talks through his own rest-day form, the world-class company in that breakaway, and why EF keep backing themselves to be in every move that reaches the line. We also get into the numbers behind the cooling effort, the bottles, the ice socks and the soigneurs working late into the night, and how a rider knows when their body is starting to overheat.

Then the tactical picture. With UAE locking the race down and seemingly fixated on the team classification, we ask both riders how you even beat a team riding like that, where the real chances are in the final two weeks, and what they made of Sean Quinn's standout Tour so far. Healy and Valgren also reflect on what Richard Carapaz brings to the team beyond a GC result, their goals for the rest of the race, and the small moments that make the Tour worth coming back for.

Gene Bates, Sporting Manager at Jayco AlUla, joins the Domestique Hotseat with Aidan Burgess on the eve of the Tour de France in Barcelona. We get into the team's plan to hunt stages instead of riding for GC, Michael Matthews' comeback from two broken wrists, Mauro Schmid's move to Q36.5, and why Bates thinks nobody can stop Pogačar this July.

He also opens up on managing Ben O'Connor after a huge 2024, how Jayco keeps its Australian DNA while becoming a truly international team, the stage 1 team time trial, and why they will happily pat a departing rider on the back rather than leave him at home.

Damiano Caruso is riding his eighth and final Tour de France. Before the start, he joins us to talk about Paul Seixas' reported €13 million contract, why he thinks it puts unfair pressure on a 19-year-old, and why he'd always choose a team that feels like family over a bigger paycheck.

We also cover Bahrain Victorious' chaotic run to the pink jersey at this year's Giro d'Italia, his prediction for Pogačar vs. Vingegaard, and why, heading into retirement and a new role as directeur sportif, all he wants is to arrive in Paris without any regrets.

On Saturday the 113th Tour de France rolls out of Barcelona: 21 stages, 3,333 kilometres to Paris, opening with a team time trial for the first time since 1971. For the sixth year running it comes down to Tadej Pogačar against Jonas Vingegaard, and this time the Dane arrives off a crushing Giro win with his cleanest run-in since 2023. 

But two new faces are forcing their way into the picture: 19-year-old Paul Seixas, France's biggest home hope in decades, and a rebooted Remco Evenepoel at Red Bull.

In this big preview episode we go through all 21 stages one by one, from the Barcelona team time trial and the explosive Montjuïc finishes, through the early Pyrenean double of the Tourmalet and Gavarnie-Gèdre, the Bastille Day return to Le Lioran, the new summit finish at Plateau de Solaison and the Lake Geneva time trial, to the brutal Alpine double-header that ends on Alpe d'Huez twice. 

We talk through the green jersey rule changes and why they hand Tim Merlier a real shot, the Seixas pressure and that reported €13.5m contract talk, and Pogačar's chase for a record-equalling fifth title.

We then work through the start lists team by team, UAE, Visma, Lidl-Trek, Decathlon and Red Bull, including the Affini fitness question, Lidl-Trek's crowded leadership, and Red Bull's two-leader puzzle with Evenepoel and Lipowitz. 

We finish with our predictions for the GC podium, the surprise names and breakaway riders to watch for three weeks, and our picks for yellow, green, polka dot and white.

Tour de France 2026: Saturday 4 July to Sunday 26 July. Barcelona to Paris, 3,333 km, 54,450 m of climbing, 21 stages, rest days on 13 and 20 July. Five summit finishes, with Alpe d'Huez featuring twice in the final week.

We're also launching Domestique Predict for the first time at this Tour. Pick one rider each day to win the stage, you can only pick each rider once, and we run it as a GC, so the rider's time counts, not their position. The overall winner takes home a Santini Tour de France yellow skinsuit. Sign up at debate.domestiquecycling.com/predict

Read all our previews on domestiquecycling.com:

Route, stage-by-stage guide: https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/features/tour-de-france-2026-stage-by-stage-guide/
Analysing the 2026 favourites:
https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/news/analysing-the-2026-tour-de-france-favourites/
Full team-by-team guide:
https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/cycling-races/tour-de-france/2026/news/

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Subscribe for race previews, reviews and analysis every week, and drop your yellow, green, white and KOM jersey picks in the comments. We love reading them, and sometimes making fun of them.

Three-stage races, one clear message: the Tour de France is coming, and the favorites are flying.

Tadej Pogačar turned his Tour de Suisse debut into a public training camp - a 69 km solo on stage 1, a time trial win by four-hundredths of a second over Mathieu van der Poel, and a mountain win to finish. Three stages, the overall, and not a rival within six minutes. We break down the stage-1 "glitch", Narváez's 90 km breakaway raid in a thunderstorm, Van der Poel's surprising time-trial form, and what Primož Roglič's quiet week says about the twilight of his career.

In Slovenia, Red Bull ran the show - Florian Lipowitz taking the overall and two stages, Laurence Pithie two more, in a near-perfect rehearsal 12 days before Lipowitz chases another Tour podium. And in Belgium, the Tour's sprinters sharpened their knives: four bunch sprints, four different winners (Girmay, Merlier, Kooij, and Philipsen), with Philipsen climbing well, walking off with the overall, and looking like the early green-jersey favorite under the new points rules.

Then the big one: Wout van Aert is out of the Tour, and the morning's press points to a surprise replacement at Visma. We react to the Piganzoli reports, why Bram still wishes it were Ben Tulett, the back-to-back Grand Tour burnout question, and what it all means for Vingegaard's bid to chase down Pogačar.

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The Critérium du Dauphiné is done, and a 22-year-old just announced himself to the world. Bram and Ethan break down Isaac Del Toro's back-to-back summit wins on the Grand Colombier and Plateau de Solaison, Paul Seixas' brave ride and painful final-morning abandon, and what it all means for the Tour de France.

Is Del Toro already a better climber than Remco Evenepoel? We think so. We also dig into the soaking-wet Copenhagen Sprint that ended in carnage and handed Jasper Philipsen a big confidence boost before the Tour, and ask whether he can take green in 2026.

Then it's countdown time. Tadej Pogačar finally makes his Tour de Suisse debut (good luck, everyone else), Roglič and Carapaz line up too, and Red Bull brings a Grand Tour-worthy squad to the Tour of Slovenia. Plus: what on earth is going on with Matthew Brennan and Arnaud De Lie's seasons?

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Michael Storer has just delivered the best Grand Tour result of his career, finishing seventh overall at the Giro d’Italia for Tudor Pro Cycling. In this conversation, the Australian reflects on the race, explains why Jonas Vingegaard could beat Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France, and offers a different perspective on cycling’s safety debate.

We start with the Giro. Storer discusses the breakaway that reshaped the general classification, the crash that ended Adam Yates’ challenge, his strongest WorldTour time trial performance yet, and why sitting at the back of the peloton can sometimes be the safest tactical decision.

From there, we go deep into rider safety. Storer questions the UCI’s proposed restrictions on cycling computer sizes, calls for greater transparency around the research behind new regulations, and explains why better roads, street sweepers, clearer warnings, and the removal of dangerous road furniture could have a much greater impact.

Then comes an unexpected idea. Rather than limiting the salaries of cycling’s biggest stars, Storer believes the sport should raise its minimum salary. He explains how low pay and short contracts can encourage riders to take greater risks, why two-year contracts could offer more security, and how reducing financial pressure may ultimately make racing safer.

Storer also takes us inside life at a Grand Tour, from time trial recon and long hours on the team bus to reading Pride and Prejudice, watching Gossip Girl, and managing the mental fatigue of potentially racing the Giro and Tour de France back to back.

And finally, his Tour prediction: based on what he saw firsthand at the Giro, Storer is backing Jonas Vingegaard to beat Tadej Pogačar this July.

The Critérium du Dauphiné 2026 (now the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) is wide open, and 19-year-old Paul Seixas arrives as the favourite ahead of Isaac del Toro. Two days in, the breakaway has won both stages by method of Alex Baudin and Anthon Charmig while the GC men wait. 

We break down stages 1 and 2, why João Almeida is out of the Tour de France, the team time trial, and the brutal mountain finale on the Grand Colombier and Plateau de Solaison.

Plus: Demi Vollering's stunning comeback to win the Giro d'Italia Women 2026, becoming only the second rider ever to complete all three women's Grand Tours.

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