---
title: "Pogacar Chases a Record Fifth Tour de France as the Race Rolls Out of Barcelona"
description: "The 2026 Tour de France begins Saturday in Barcelona with Tadej Pogacar the clear favorite to win a fifth title — a mark that would tie the sport's all-time greats and, at 27, make him the youngest rider ever to reach it."
category: "Sports"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/sports
author: "Elias Rosen"
published: 2026-07-02T06:07:10.000Z
updated: 2026-07-02T06:07:10.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/pogacar-chases-a-record-fifth-tour-de-france-as-the-race-rolls-out-of-barcelona
tags: ["cycling", "Tour de France", "Tadej Pogacar", "Jonas Vingegaard", "sports"]
---
# Pogacar Chases a Record Fifth Tour de France as the Race Rolls Out of Barcelona

The 2026 Tour de France begins Saturday in Barcelona with Tadej Pogacar the clear favorite to win a fifth title — a mark that would tie the sport's all-time greats and, at 27, make him the youngest rider ever to reach it.

Tadej Pogacar begins the 2026 Tour de France one victory from cycling's most exclusive club — and, unusually for a rider chasing history, still in his prime.

## A shot at five

The race starts Saturday, July 4, with a stage in Barcelona and runs to July 26, [per race details](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Tour_de_France). Pogacar arrives as defending champion with four Tour titles — in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025 — and a fifth would tie the record shared by Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, [NBC Sports notes](https://www.nbcsports.com/cycling/news/tour-de-france-2026-preview-tadej-pogacar-jonas-vingegaard-remco-evenepoel). Each of those four was at least 29 when he won his fifth; Pogacar is 27, which would make him the youngest ever to get there.

His recent dominance is the backdrop. He won the 2025 Tour comfortably, capping a run of success across cycling's biggest races, [as Yahoo Sports recounted](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/pogacar-man-beat-eyes-piece-054122841.html) — the kind of form that has made rivals and analysts alike treat him as the man to beat.

## The challengers

He will not have it to himself. Jonas Vingegaard, the Danish rider who won the Tour in 2022 and 2023, comes in strong after a standout spring, though he is reported to be without one of his key teammates, the all-rounder Wout van Aert, because of injury — a notable loss given van Aert's ability to shape a race. Belgium's Remco Evenepoel, a former podium finisher and a specialist against the clock, looms as another threat, and a crop of younger riders is pushing up behind them.

## A course that suits him

This year's route leans toward the mountains, with several summit finishes and only a short distance of individual time trialing — a profile that traditionally rewards aggressive climbers rather than time-trial specialists. That, broadly, describes Pogacar's strengths, and it is part of why he is favored so heavily.

## The caveat

Three weeks of racing rarely go to script. Crashes, illness, a bad day in the mountains or a well-timed move by a rival can undo even the strongest favorite, and Pogacar himself has shown he can be beaten in one-day races. But as the peloton leaves Barcelona, the question hanging over the Tour is less whether Pogacar can win than whether anyone can stop him from making history.

## Sources

- [Pogacar one Tour de France win from history in 2026](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/pogacar-man-beat-eyes-piece-054122841.html)
- [Tour de France 2026 preview: Pogacar eyes record; Vingegaard, Evenepoel chase](https://www.nbcsports.com/cycling/news/tour-de-france-2026-preview-tadej-pogacar-jonas-vingegaard-remco-evenepoel)
- [2026 Tour de France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Tour_de_France)