"A very good route": Fabian Cancellara hopes Tudor can succeed on the 2026 Tour parcours

For the first time in team history, Tudor Pro Cycling won't have to look left or right with uncertainty about whether they'll get selected for the 2026 Tour de France. As the best of ProTeams on the 2025 UCI ranking (only behind Uno-X Mobility, but the Norewgian team will be promoted to WorldTour), they're guaranteed wildcards for any WorldTour event of their taste and so Tour de France is a natural choice with riders like Julian Alaphilippe in their ranks.

"I think it's a typical Tour de France route," road captain Matteo Trentin analyzes the route for Cyclism'Actu. "There are a lot of sprinter stages, a lot of mountains. This year, the (team) time trial is back on the Tour de France in the first stage. That means it'll be a general classification rider who will take the first yellow jersey or someone who is a good rouleur. It's something good to watch on the first day."

Trentin himself has won three Tour stages, but the latest victory dates back to 2019 while the other two are over a decade old. Looking forward to the 2026 edition, are there any stages that pique the Italian's interest? "There are two or three stages that might be good for me," he analyzes. But there's still one or two climb too many on most days, he feels like. "It's still a pretty mountainous tour."

In recent years, we can note the general trend to make stages as entertaining as the parcours allow. That often means many extra climbing meters which is not something that favors Trentin. But he still doesn't give up on his chances: "It will all depend on what all the climbers do. Each time, they go faster. For us, we can go faster, but not much faster."

The owner of Trentin's team Tudor Pro Cycling, Fabian Cancellara, has been even more successful at the Grande Boucle during his era, winning eight stages and wearing yellow jersey on multiple occasions. That was over a decade ago now and the legendary Swissman will re-live some of those emotions again as his team is guaranteed an invitation for the 2026 edition.

"I think this route is very good," begins the Swissman at Cyclism'Actu microphone. "It's good to be on the other side, because this Tour de France is really tough, but in the end, it's the Tour, long live the Tour! I'm proud that it often passes close to Switzerland. It means even more that our team will be 100% present next year, it's a great opportunity for us."

"With the classification we saw at the end, the general team classification, the points and everything else, it's nice to now have a fixed calendar for next year. As for Pogacar, yes, he will still be terribly difficult to beat, but in the end, it's 21 days of racing, and it's the same for everyone," concludes Cancellara.