"I sometimes think it shows the race off at its worst" - Ned Boulting disappointed with double Alpe d'Huez, lack of time trialing and novelty in 2026 Tour route

Ned Boulting is one of the most iconic voices of the Tour de France and also one of the most honest, and upon seeing the route reveal, he was not happy with it. According to the British pundit the route lacks the time trialing and the novelty whilst featuring terrain that is already well known and isn't the most spectacle-inducing.

"It sounds really counter-intuitive, after years of railing against exactly this but I now yearn for the time when you had a sort of 50, 60-kilometre flat individual time trial," Boulting said in the Never Strays Far podcast. The race features only 27 kilometers of individual time trialing and it's a very hilly one, which does not make room for the specialists to make difference. That will be a turn off for Remco Evenepoel who will move to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe but finds a route that is against what he thrives in.

"And I think Remco Evenepoel will be rightfully pretty disappointed that he hasn't been thrown an incentive to come to the Tour de France and ride for the victory, because the sort of rider who's going to thrive on that individual time trial is called Tadej, and Pogacar". There very much isn't a route where Pogacar won't be the favourite to win, but Boulting believes there's little room to surprise either in 2026. 

"I mean, it does look like a course that, even if he turns up half-fit, he can't lose. There's no cobblestones, no obvious crosswind stages, and no gravel. That's three things that we've grown accustomed to over the last 15 years. They have denuded this year, and that feels a little bit disappointing as well," he argues.

"I understand it's central to the way that the Tour de France markets itself to the world, but it doesn't necessarily produce great racing. And I sometimes think it shows the race off at its worst. To do it twice seems a bit much," he said of the Alpe d'Huez, next year's big bet by the race organizers.

Stage 19 will be short and feature the entire famous ascent whilst stage 20 will only finish up the ski station, at the end of one of the most difficult stages in recent years which will also feature the ascents of the Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier and Col de Sarenne.

"It's the fact it's not just this 13-kilometre climb. You've got a little right-hand turn that brings you on to the last few kilometers of the climb. But you've got a descent before that, and a bit of a plateau. And before that the Sarenne climb, which itself isn't hard once you've been over the Galibier," he says of the final mountain stage, which he does not criticize directly.

"So it's just, it's more interesting. And if, if a small group gets over the Galibier together, then we've got a really good battle on our hands, potentially for the stage win."

On the finale in Paris, which will feature one ascent of Montmartre but will be better adapted to the sprinters, he is a fan of: "I'm pleased that they've altered it slightly just to put it slightly back in the balance as to whether or not a sprinter could win it".