Four weeks to the Tour de France. Twenty-six days, to be precise.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now-or-never for Tadej Poga\u010dar, Jonas Vingeagaard, Paul Seixas, and Remco Evenepoel as they chase the final watts that might win them the maillot jaune.<\/em><\/p>\n And each one of this Big 4 has chosen very different ways to put the cherry on their Tour de France form.<\/p>\n Vingegaard is polishing his Trofeo Senza Fine <\/em>before he heads to altitude.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar is planning a little legacy-building at the Tour de Suisse.<\/p>\n Evenepoel is embracing Monk Mode in a 68-day \u201cRemco Regimen.\u201d<\/p>\n And Seixas is stirring just a little more hype in his role as favorite at the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 (aka Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4nes-Alpes).<\/p>\n A lot can go right but a lot can go wrong in the next month for the Big 4 before they toe the line at the grand d\u00e9part<\/em> on July 4.<\/p>\n Crashes could be disastrous. Niggles and sniffles must be avoided like \u2026 the plague.<\/p>\n On the flip side, a peak in form might be only a few workouts or race efforts away.<\/p>\n And that makes the Big 4\u2019s divergent paths all the more intriguing.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what the Tour de France favorites are doing now to prepare for the yellow jersey prize-fight.<\/p>\n The Tour de France stakes: <\/strong>Becoming the youngest Tour de France winner in history and the first French champion in 41 years. Daily coverage in L\u2019Equipe<\/em> \u2018til death.<\/p>\n Last race: <\/strong>Seixas set all of France into a fluster when he romped across the Basque Country, up the Mur de Huuy, and ended up second behind Poga\u010dar at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge in late April. This was the coming-out party that proved young Paul could be a Pog-slayer.<\/p>\n What he\u2019s doing now: <\/strong>Turn on your TV, you might see Seixas doing his thing right now.<\/p>\n The 19-year-old is the only one of the Big 4 to take the \u201ctraditional\u201d route to the grand d\u00e9part<\/em> by making this week\u2019s Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 [Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4nes-Alpes] his sharpening tool for the Tour.<\/p>\n Seixas is favorite over a who\u2019s-who of Tour de France hopefuls for the prestigious 8-day race \u2013 and after a slightly insane training block, he\u2019s got the swag to say he plans to win it. Oh la la.<\/em><\/p>\n After the Dauphin\u00e9, Seixas will hit one last block of altitude training in the Alps.<\/p>\n Next race:<\/strong> The Tour de France.<\/p>\n Seixas is racing the Dauphin\u00e9 as a full dress rehearsal for the Tour de France.<\/p>\n Same teammates, same nutrition and recovery protocol, a prototype Van Rysel bike built for the Tour, the lot.<\/p>\n How he performs in the Rh\u00f4nes-Alpes will shape the narratives that follow.<\/p>\n If Seixas does as everybody expects and wipes the floor with Isaac del Toro and Juan Ayuso, then the already raging whirlwind of hype will spin faster into the Tour de France.<\/p>\n If he shows any hint of fallibility or error, expect a chorus of \u201cIs he ready?\u201d<\/p>\n But at 19, Seixas cannot lose either way.<\/p>\n Learning how to prepare for and race the Tour de France now will inform more than a decade of racing to come.<\/p>\n The biggest peril for Seixas right now? Letting the hype \u2013 particularly from fans at home \u2013 weigh too heavily.<\/p>\n But that might not be a problem \u2013 his director at Decathlon CMA CGM, Luke Rowe, recently suggested on his Watts\u00a0<\/em>Occurring<\/i>\u00a0podcast that Seixas is naive to the true rigors of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n In which case, ignorance might be bliss.<\/p>\n The Tour de France stakes: <\/strong>Leveling Poga\u010dar in winning both the Giro d\u2019Italia and Tour de France in one year, and becoming only the ninth rider to have ever done so. Completing a unique streak of three grand tour victories having also won the 2025 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n Last race: <\/strong>The Giro d\u2019Italia, which only finished on May 31.<\/p>\n In case you weren\u2019t paying attention, Vingegaard was close to untouchable at the corsa rosa<\/em>.<\/p>\n OK, so his romp across Bulgaria and Italy wasn\u2019t as destructive as Poga\u010dar\u2019s utter obliteration of the race for pink in 2024, but it was hugely impressive. Five stage wins and a 5-minute GC victory suggested Vingegaard might be back to his vintage best \u2013 the one that won him two Tours de France in two years.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a caveat. We\u2019ll explore what that is below.<\/p>\n What he\u2019s doing now: <\/strong>Vingegaard spent the last week at home framing his pink jersey and spending time with his family.<\/p>\n He\u2019s expected to head to Tignes any day now, where he\u2019ll plow through one last block of altitude training. He\u2019ll be joined by key Tour de France henchmen like Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert next week after they finish the Dauphin\u00e9.<\/p>\n Next race:<\/strong> The Tour de France.<\/p>\n Vingegaard cruised to victory at the Giro d\u2019Italia. The Dane looked like he barely broke zone 2 as he swatted away his floundering rivals.<\/p>\n So, what to make of such an emphatic win, and where does this version of Vingegaard stand vs. Poga\u010dar? That\u2019s what we\u2019re all debating right now, and the answer isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n Is Vingegaard in the best shape since 2022 and 2023?<\/p>\n Or does his maglia rosa<\/em> flatter to deceive? The GC field was \u2013 no offense \u2013 not exactly A-Tier.<\/p>\n However good Vingegaard was last<\/em> month at the Giro, it\u2019s this<\/em> month that will define the dynamic of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no room for illness, missed sessions, or lingering injuries in Vingegaard\u2019s 5-week transition between the two grand tours.<\/p>\n If Visma-Lease a Bike gets it right and Vingegaard can hold or even improve his form, Poga\u010dar might have a problem.<\/p>\n The other hot topic?<\/p>\n Will Visma-Lease a Bike be wounded by the shock exit of its head of racing, Grischa Niermann?<\/p>\n The grizzled German was part of all the team\u2019s grand tour wins but will watch the Tour de France from the bench before he leaves for Lidl-Trek in August.<\/p>\n Niermann\u2019s successor Marc Reef knows how to win grand tours. He pulled the strings on Vingegaard and Simon Yates\u2019 wins at the Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n But the Tour is the Tour. It\u2019s a different beast altogether.<\/p>\n The Tour de France stakes: <\/strong>A place alongside only four others to have won the yellow jersey five times. A little more of a grip on cycling immortality.<\/p>\n Last race:\u00a0<\/strong>Poga\u010dar won four stages and the overall at the Tour de Romandie last month while he was nose-breathing. It was ruthless, efficient, and a rare glimpse of Pogi in eco mode.<\/p>\n What he\u2019s doing now: <\/strong>Poga\u010dar has been on top of Sierra Nevada for the past three weeks and is expected to return to sea level any day now.<\/p>\n The super-Slovenian has been sharing reels of himself cranking high-altitude kilometers on the time trial bike and japing around with teammate Isaac del Toro.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also, according to Red Bull racer Maxim Van Gils, looking very fast, and very thin.<\/p>\n After racing the Tour de Suisse [see below<\/em>], Poga\u010dar will head to Isola 2000 for one last top-up of thin air.<\/p>\n Next race:<\/strong> Tour de Suisse, starting June 17.<\/p>\n The startlist for Suisse is threadbare. Everybody went to the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 instead!<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar\u2019s only genuine \u201crivals\u201d for the five-day race are Lenny Martinez and Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d. And even then, to call them \u201crivals\u201d might be generous. Tom Pidcock and Enric Mas will be fighting for whatever\u2019s left behind the carnage.<\/p>\n Anything less than a Pog-bliteration of Suisse will be a shock.<\/p>\n One trivia nugget?<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar has never raced Tour de Suisse. Victory next week would fill one of the few remaining gaps on his stupidly full palmar\u00e8s<\/em>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to see Poga\u010dar being anything other than imperious at the Tour de Suisse.<\/p>\n In which case, one of the most intriguing Pogi-plotlines will be who from UAE Emirates-XRG joins him for the Tour de France.<\/p>\n The Emirati megateam has been beaten down by sickness and injury since January, and many of Poga\u010dar\u2019s most important lieutenants have fallen victim to the UAE curse.<\/p>\n Adam Yates, Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez, Jay Vine, and Marc Soler are all in the infirmary and scrambling to be ready for the grand d\u00e9part<\/em>. Jo\u00e3o Almeida has ruled himself out of the Tour de France after being set back by a mystery underlying illness.<\/p>\n According to team brass, the UAE 8 won\u2019t be confirmed until just days before the Tour de France rolls out of Barcelona.<\/p>\n UAE Emirates-XRG has a deep enough bench \u2013 and Poga\u010dar has enough watts \u2013 to absorb the blow of losing a few A-tier domestiques.<\/p>\n But Visma-Lease a Bike is on a winning warpath right now. A weakened team would be a sucker-punch before the bell has even sounded for UAE Emirates-XRG in its super team brawl.<\/p>\n Oh, and if Poga\u010dar doesn\u2019t win Tour de Suisse?<\/p>\n It\u2019s almost too hard to comprehend the headlines.<\/p>\n The Tour de France stakes:<\/strong> Proving wrong the doubters who think he can\u2019t race GC. Earning his king-size contract with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Becoming the first Belgian yellow jersey in 30 years.<\/p>\n Last race:<\/strong> A frustrated third behind Poga\u010dar and Seixas at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge in late April. \u201cBest of the rest\u201d at a race he won twice seemed like a downer finale to his rollercoaster start with Red Bull.<\/p>\n What he\u2019s doing now: <\/strong>Evenepoel just completed a long block of altitude training on Sierra Nevada as Part 1 of his radically redesigned road to the Tour. He\u2019s now back home in Calpe, enjoying a little sofa time before one last push toward the Tour\u2019s \u201cbig start.\u201d<\/p>\n Intriguingly, Evenepoel won\u2019t return to altitude for Part 2 of his TDF roadmap.<\/p>\n He and his Red Bull entourage will travel to a low-lying base in the Haute-Savoie to dovetail training with some crucial Tour de France reconnaissance missions.<\/p>\n Next race:<\/strong> The Tour de France.<\/p>\n Evenepoel finished the spring classics physically and mentally charred.<\/p>\n He was in such need of a reset after Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge that Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe decided it would be counterproductive for Remco to race the Dauphin\u00e9, as planned.<\/p>\n But according to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, that may be a blessing in disguise.<\/p>\n Evenpoel can instead devote himself to a 68-day Remco Regimen free of the travel, risk, and fatigue that comes with racing.<\/p>\n He can pile his spare energies into solving his climbing problems and reconning key climbs in the Alps.<\/p>\n Will two months of training like a madman and living like a monk be enough to put Evenepoel level with Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard? Or will he end up serving bottles to Red Bull\u2019s metronomically consistent co-leader Florian Lipowitz?<\/p>\n Evenepoel\u2019s stage-racing start with Red Bull was inconsistent and unconvincing. He\u2019s done little to suggest a career-matching third-place in Paris is a possibility.<\/p>\n But a lot can change in 68 days.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll find out just how much<\/em> when the Tour de France peloton hits its first proper mountains on Stage 6 through the Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/tour-de-france-countdown-what-pogacar-and-rivals-are-doing\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Z8A_9427.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated June 8, 2026 11:43AM Four weeks to the Tour de France. Twenty-six days, to be precise. It\u2019s now-or-never for Tadej Poga\u010dar, Jonas Vingeagaard, Paul Seixas, and Remco Evenepoel as they chase the final watts that might win them the maillot jaune. And each one of this Big 4 has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1980235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1980235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1980235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1980235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1980235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Paul Seixas, 19 (Decathlon CMA CGM)<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2280290261.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Seixas: The narrative for the month before the Tour de France<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Z8D_7819-2-1-1200x791.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Jonas Vingegaard, 29 (Visma-Lease a Bike)<\/h2>\n
![\"Vingegaard](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Giro-dItalia-2026-Stage-21-HarryTalbot-7565-1200x801.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Vingegaard: The narrative for the month before the Tour de France<\/h3>\n
![\"Vingegaard](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Giro-dItalia-2026-Stage-16-HarryTalbot-8405-2-1200x812.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Tadej Poga\u010dar, 27 (UAE Emirates-XRG)<\/h2>\n
![\"Poga\u010dar](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Z8B_4567-1200x896.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Poga\u010dar: The narrative for the month before the Tour de France<\/h3>\n
![\"Poga\u010dar](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Z8D_0016-2-1-1200x936.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Remco Evenepoel, 26 (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)<\/h2>\n
![\"Evenepoel's](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2272063785.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Evenepoel: The narrative for the month before the Tour de France<\/h3>\n
![\"Evenepoel](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269011418.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")