2026 Tour de France Competition: FINAL STANDINGS

[Cowboy Dan]

Stage 20 - Carapaz

[Evan R]

My Stage 20 “experience”

Stage 20 - all 171km and 5450m of climbing also mirrors (with a few tweaks), the route for an amateur event - La Marmotte. I did the Marmotte event 7 years ago aged 52.
4 major climbs incl One Cat 1 and Three HC (beyond categorisation). Glandon, Telegraph, Galibier (2700m) and Alpe d”Huez.

Following was my “experience”

Myself and two friends (one recovering from injury) flew into Lyon on the Thursday before the Saturday event, rented a van and got ourselves and our bikes to Bourg. This was our base at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez. Did a light spin on Friday which involved doing the top 6km of Galibier from both sides.

We were unsupported (looking after ourselves) and my self and injured friend left our start pen at 0730 on Saturday. Our third member was in a different pen, 30 mins ahead.
Started with 2 spare tubes (this becomes relevant). I punctured back tyre going up Glandon, the first climb. Repaired it and my friend who was abandoning at the top of Glandon due to his injury gave me one of his spare tubes. Then I punctured front tyre descending Glandon at speed (back down to 1 spare tube).

Made my way up and over Telegraph with no drama but punctured for the third time at the bottom of Galibier. Now I had no spare tubes. Galibier is a 35km climb so reckless to go ahead without spare tubes. I rode back a km to a guy I’d noticed who was supporting a tour group. Shared my tale of woe and this kind Dutch mechanic sold me 2 tubes for €20. I was back in business. Will never have a bad word said about Dutch mechanics.

My fuelling had got screwed up with all the stop start. Made my way up Galibier. It’s a beast and temps were 35 degrees Celsius.
3km from the summit I started emptying. There was a corner with a grass bank and 50 + cyclists were sitting/lying on the bank/road. Decided to dismount, get a bar and gel into me and push for the top. Nobody was talking and it was a somewhat apocalyptic scene. Sat down but started falling asleep. When your body goes above 2000m, it starts doing funny things. Knew I was in trouble and got on the bike, a guy gave me a push and I managed to get over the top to start a very fast descent. It was magnificent. Breathtaking.

Got to the bottom of Alpe at which stage I was totally empty with 155km and 4500m in the legs. Alpe is 14km, averages 8% with 21 numbered hairpins, with number 1 at the top.
I was “pedalling squares” but managed to get through the first few hairpins. Paired up with another guy who was in the same state as me. We couldn’t talk apart from the occasional grunt, but we managed to pull each other up the mountain. It was the slowest countdown I've endured to get from 21 to 1.

Crossed the line after 10 and a half hours in the saddle. Distance, climbing, altitude, temp, mechanicals and fuelling all played their part in making it proper hard. The closest I have come to not finishing an event, but I did finish (and get to share the experience).

The competitors today will make this look like another day at the office. Respect.

Epic journey! 3 punctures is insane haha. Glad you got through it all though and now have a great story to share!

[Evan R]

A very interesting and eventful Queen Stage saw another early break away of strong climbers, much like yesterday's stage. Sepp Kuss rode brilliantly, eventually going away solo from the main break group on the Col de Sarenne, but crashed twice on the descent (the second of which he was terrifyingly close to going over a massively steep mountain side ) allowing Richard Carapaz to pass him and stay clear to the finish line for his second stage win of this year's tour, while also securing KOM. Meanwhile, Tadej eschewed going for the stage win and rather paced (erm, dragged) teammate Isaac Del Toro up the difficult climbs today, effectively securing third place on the podium and the White Jersey for the young Del Toro. Also of note- Mads Pedersen was able to grind through the intermediate sprints earning enough points to secure the Green Jersey. So barring something very unusual, all the major awards for the tour are wrapped up, including the Podium finish as we head to Paris for the final stage.

For our purposes- Cowboy Dan and myself both benefited from Sepp's crashes and receive 10 points for correctly selecting Richard Carapaz. Everyone else had Tadej, who finished in 4th for the stage. Cowboy Dan now surges into the lead on 88 points, just ahead of Clacton (85). With one stage to go, either have a chance to win the Daily Stage Winner portion of the contest. I will wait until tomorrow to calculate the pre-race predictions, just in case there is an odd occurance that would change anything.

Stage 21: Thoiry - Paris Champs-Élysées
Date: July 26, 2026
Distance: 88.7km
Start time: 17:50 CET
End time: 19:45 CET



Stage 21 Winner Odds

Mathieu van der Poel
+150
Tadej Pogacar
+280
Mads Pedersen
+410
Remco Evenepoel
+950
Jasper Philipsen
+1200
Quinn Simmons
+2700
Olav Kooij
+3000
Tom Pidcock
+3300
Filippo Ganna
+3300
Jasper Stuyven
+3500
Biniam Girmay
+4500
Matej Mohoric
+6000
Mauro Schmid
+6000
Michael Matthews
+7000
Isaac Del Toro
+8000
Soren Waerenskjold
+8000
Maxim Van Gils
+8000

[Evan R]

Stage 21 selections-
Evan R- van der Poel
John R- van der Poel

[Cowboy Dan]

Stage 21 - van der Poel

[Pullhard]

van der Poel - Stage 21

[Finnatic]

Stage 21 - Van der Poel

[marie67]

Stage 21 Kooij

[Pullhard]

Cycling needs to borrow from horse racing and add a few kilos to Pogecar’s bike to even things up.

[Pullhard]

Great stage
Last 40km were superb.
Hardcore racing

[Clacton White]

Really enjoyed this tour . Great finish.

[Finnatic]

The last few stages have been incredible.
After JV retired injured at the beginning of the week, I was half expecting a so-so finish to the tour apart from a bunched sprint in Paris - it was anything but!

Thanks for the comp, Evan

[Pullhard]

The last few stages have been incredible.
After JV retired injured at the beginning of the week, I was half expecting a so-so finish to the tour apart from a bunched sprint in Paris - it was anything but!

Thanks for the comp, Evan

Yes, even though the GC was probably over after Stage 6, the sub plots for the other jerseys ran all the way. Individual stages were equally bonkers at times.
It was great.
Wonder if Pog will appear at the Vuelta.

[Evan R]

Firstly- I'd like to thank everyone for participating. When I initially had the idea to come up with a competition of sorts, I wasn't sure if there would even be enough interest. And then once there was, I thought "Ok, well I better figure something out now" So I appreciate the patience as I navigated through this first go. I think there are certainly ways to improve upon it, maybe changing the scoring in some way? Should I have not made the podium and team classification portions "exact placing" specific? Perhaps also awarding points for 2nd and 3rd on the KOM, Green, White poritions? Please let me know if you have any ideas for next year, provided there is enough interest to run it back.

What a fantastic final stage! In what could have been a snoozer, we instead saw an exciting stage culminating in a massive attack from van der Poel and Pogacar on the ascent of the cobbled Côte de la Butte Montmartre, about 11km out. The two riders took turns pulling while narrowly holding off the chasing sprint group before MVDP launched a long distance sprint about 700m out from the finish line. Tadej could not match his final acceleration and the chase group almost caught up to the Flying Dutchman, but he just narrowly edged out Alpecin teammate Jasper Philpsen and Mads Pedersen on the line to secure his second stage win of this year's tour as well as the glory of winning on the Champs-Élysées. Absolutely brilliant finish in what turned out to be a really enjoyable renewal of the Tour de France, considering how early on the GC was wrapped up. At age 27, Tadej becomes the fifth rider to win 5 tours, joining elite company: Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain, and of course the great Eddy Merckx.

For our purposes- all but Marie correctly selected Mathieu van der Poel and received 10 points, giving Cowboy Dan the honors of Daily Stage Winner Champion with a total of 98 points!

But it was Finnatic who had the most overall points (400) narrowly besting Cowboy Dan (393), with a total of 85 for the Daily portion and 315 points for the pre-race predicions. Well done, Finn!

FINAL STANDINGS

Finnatic
GC - Pogacar- 100 points
KOM - Carapaz- 75 points
Points - Philipsen- 0 points
Young Rider - Del Toro- 50 points
Team - UAE- 0 points, Visma LB- 0 points, Red Bull H- 20 points
Podium - Pogacar- 50 points, Vingegaard- 0 points, Del Toro- 20 points
Daily total- 85 points
Grand total- 400 points

Cowboy Dan
GC - Pogacar- 100 points
Mountains - Carapaz- 75 points
Points - Philipsen- 0 points
Young rider - Del Toro- 50 points
Team - UAE-0 points, Red Bull- 0 points, Visma- 0 points
Podium- Pog- 50 points, Jonas- 0 points, Del Toro- 20 points
Daily total- 98 points
Grand total- 393 points

John R
GC - Vingegaard- 0 points
KOM - Paret-Peintre- 0 points
Points - van der Poel- 0 points
Young Rider - Seixas- 0 points
Team -Lidl-Trek- 50 points, UAE- 30 points, RBBH- 20 points
Podium - Pogacar- 50 points, Evenepoel- 30 points, Johannessen- 0 points
Daily total- 71 points
Grand total- 322 points

Clacton White
GC- Pogacar- 100 points
Mountains- Pogacar- 0 points
Points- Evenpoel- 0 points
Young rider- Seixas- 0 points
Team- UAE- 0 points , Visma- 0 points , Red Bull Hansgrohe- 20 points
Podium- Pogacar- 50 points , Vinegaard- 0 points ,Lipowitz- 0 points
Daily total- 95 points
Grand total- 265 points

Pullhard
GC - Pogacar- 100 points
KOM - Pogacar- 0 points
Points - Philipsen- 0 points
Young Rider - Seixas- 0 points
Team - UAE- 0 points, Visma LB- 0 points, Red Bull H- 20 points
Podium - Pogacar- 50 points, Vingegaard- 0 points, Seixas- 0 points
Daily total- 75 points
Grand total- 245 points

marie67
GC - Pogacar- 100 points
KOM - Martinez- 0 points
Points - Philipsen- 0 points
Young Rider - Seixas- 0 points
Team - UAE- 0 points, RBBH- 0 points, Ineos- 0 points
Podium - Pogacar- 50 points, Vingegaard- 0 points, Lipowitz- 0 points
Daily total- 76 points
Grand total- 226 points

Evan R
GC - Pogacar- 100 points
KOM - Martinez- 0 points
Points - Merlier- 0 points
Young Rider - Seixas
Team - UAE- 0 points, Ineos- 0 points, RBBH- 20 points
Podium - Pogacar- 50 points, Vingegaard- 0 points, Seixas- 0 points
Daily total- 46 points
Grand total- 216 points

[Pullhard]

Thanks Evan
Really enjoyed the competition and your hard work is appreciated. There was a bit to it.

[Cowboy Dan]

Thanks for running the comp Evan, much appreciated.

[Pullhard]

Congrats to those who made the podium.
Ended up a sprint finish with Finn just having enough.

Re the question on what to change.
-Maybe limit the number of times a cyclist can be selected. For example, you can only select Pog twice or van der Poel twice.
- points for the top 5 in each stage

[marie67]

Thanks for all your hard work running the comp Evan.

[Evan R]

Congrats to those who made the podium.
Ended up a sprint finish with Finn just having enough.

Re the question on what to change.
-Maybe limit the number of times a cyclist can be selected. For example, you can only select Pog twice or van der Poel twice.
- points for the top 5 in each stage

I like both of those ideas. Def need to find a way to "Pog proof" it He's just too good!

[Evan R]

Yes, even though the GC was probably over after Stage 6, the sub plots for the other jerseys ran all the way. Individual stages were equally bonkers at times.
It was great.
Wonder if Pog will appear at the Vuelta.

Based on what we saw this tour, perhaps he will ride the Vuelta in support of Del Toro!