Results Tour de France 2026 Stage 1 - Jonas Vingegaard takes yellow as Visma beat INEOS and UAE in Barcelona team time trial thriller

Jonas Vingegaard is the first yellow jersey of the 2026 Tour de France after Team Visma | Lease a Bike won the opening team time trial in Barcelona. The Dane finished off a dominant ride, with Visma stopping the clock in 21:47.87 to beat Netcompany INEOS by 7.33 seconds.

UAE Team Emirates – XRG completed the provisional podium after Tadej Pogacar went solo in the final metres, finishing third in 21:59.15, 11.28 seconds down on Visma. Lidl-Trek were fourth at 15.27 seconds, while Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe completed the top five at 18.15 seconds after Remco Evenepoel drove their final section.

Visma had started strongly, going third at Carrer de Llull, just 1.05 seconds behind INEOS. By Sagrada Familia, they had moved ahead, clocking 11:01.82 to go 1.96 seconds faster than INEOS and 1.89 seconds quicker than Lidl-Trek.

The gap grew again by Passeig de Santa Madrona. Visma reached the third checkpoint in 16:57.20, 6.09 seconds quicker than INEOS, setting up a direct test of whether they could survive the same Montjuic finale that had already broken several promising rides earlier in the afternoon.

They did more than survive it. Vingegaard remained with Matteo Jorgenson and Davide Piganzoli after the first of the final climbs, with both teammates giving their final turns before the Dane finished the effort in the last few hundred metres. Visma crossed the line in 21:47.87, taking 7.33 seconds out of INEOS and putting Vingegaard into the first yellow jersey of the race.

UAE Team Emirates – XRG were the final squad on the road, but they were already chasing a difficult target before the Montjuic finale. Pogacar’s team were fourth at the opening checkpoint and 13.09 seconds behind Visma by Passeig de Santa Madrona, leaving the Slovenian needing a major final climb to challenge for yellow.

Isaac del Toro and Pogacar were the final two UAE riders left in front as the road kicked up, before Pogacar pushed on alone towards the line. UAE finished third in 21:59.15, 11.28 seconds behind Visma and 3.95 seconds slower than INEOS.

That result gives Vingegaard an immediate advantage over Pogacar on the opening day of the Tour. The gap is not large in the context of a three-week race, but it gives Visma the first tactical and psychological blow of the 2026 edition, delivered on a stage where team strength, pacing and the final climb all mattered.

Before Visma arrived, INEOS had produced the ride that appeared to have cracked the stage open. With Filippo Ganna, Josh Tarling, Tobias Foss and Michal Kwiatkowski in the line-up, they became the first team to go under 5:30 at Carrer de Llull, clocking 5:25.92.

The ride shifted when Kevin Vauquelin suffered a puncture and dropped out of the line. With riders receiving individual times rather than one shared team time, INEOS could still chase the stage victory, but Vauquelin’s yellow jersey chance disappeared behind them.

That left Ganna to complete the job. Foss was the last teammate to lose contact in the final kilometre, leaving the Italian to drive alone towards the Olympic Stadium and stop the clock at 21:55.20.

The time was strong enough to survive Lidl-Trek and Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe, but not Visma. Juan Ayuso and Lidl-Trek had matched INEOS almost perfectly through the checkpoints before fading late and finishing 15.27 seconds behind Visma. Red Bull, after a slower start, came home in 22:06.02, 18.15 seconds down on Vingegaard’s winning time.

Red Bull’s ride was not fast enough to fight for the stage win, but it still left Evenepoel close enough to the front after a difficult start. The Belgian’s team were already 14 seconds down on Visma at Sagrada Familia and 17.8 seconds back by Passeig de Santa Madrona.

Evenepoel pushed on through the final section with Maxim Van Gils and Florian Lipowitz, but the group was splitting by the last 800 metres. Lipowitz lost contact on the final climb, meaning the German conceded a few more seconds than Evenepoel by the end of the opening day.

Lidl-Trek also saw their yellow jersey hopes disappear on Montjuic. Ayuso had been almost level with INEOS at the third split in his home city, helped by a final turn from Mathias Vacek between the two late climbs, but he could not match the best closing sectors and finished fourth overall on the stage.

Before the final favourites arrived, Paul Seixas and Decathlon CMA CGM Team produced one of the standout rides of the day. The French teenager, making his Tour de France debut, finished ahead of Alpecin-Premier Tech by just 0.04 seconds, although both teams were pushed down once the later favourites began to land.

Mathieu van der Poel’s Alpecin-Premier Tech had briefly held the hot seat in 22:26.23 after the Dutchman handled the Montjuic finale strongly. Groupama - FDJ United had earlier set the first serious benchmark in 22:28.82, with Romain Gregoire finishing off their effort on the late climb.

The first major GC setback came from Cian Uijtdebroeks, whose Movistar team were fast through the middle of the course before the Belgian struggled badly on the Montjuic finale. Uijtdebroeks was distanced on the climb, with teammates forced to wait, before losing contact again in the run-in and conceding roughly a minute on the opening day.

The stage had punished disrupted teams from the start. Team Picnic PostNL were fastest at the opening split before their ride unravelled after Warren Barguil was distanced early, while Movistar’s collapse around Uijtdebroeks later showed the same danger for a general classification rider.

Visma were the only team to put together the full ride Barcelona demanded. INEOS had the raw speed, UAE had Pogacar for the final metres, and Lidl-Trek came within striking distance through the middle of the course, but Vingegaard and Visma had the strongest answer from the start ramp to the Olympic Stadium.