The route of the 2026 Tour is already becoming clearer, with many ideas from fans and the desire to maintain Montmartre on the program.
The barely completed tour, Thierry Gouvenou’s mailbox overflows. Technical director of La Grande Boucle, the former Bigmat-Auber runner already receives dozens of messages from enthusiasts, each going from his suggestion for the 2026 course.
“When, in the aftermath of the Tour, your mailbox is filled with course proposals, I will not be able to answer everyone, but it is extra that after 112 editions there are discovery opportunities”He has enthusiastically shared on social networks. Ideas from all over France: unpublished coasts, profiles inspired by the Ardennes classics or urban mounted with high potential. Some have already hit the bull’s eye.
In 2025, the spectacular arrival in Toulouse was preceded by the ascent of the coast of Pech David, eight kilometers from the finish. An idea submitted by Sébastien Bosvieux, amateur cyclist, in September 2024. “I was especially hoping to break the monotony of an announced sprint”he confided to The dispatch. ASO confirmed to him that his proposal had influenced the final decision.
The renewed Montmartre hill?
Another novelty praised by the public: the final arrival via Montmartre. The peloton went there three times in a boosted atmosphere. A success that the organizers wish to perpetuate,
Despite the security incidents reported on the sidelines.
“Obviously we want to continue to go through Montmartre”said Pierre-Yves Thouault, deputy director of the Tour, at the Parisian. “Success has exceeded our hopes and, necessarily, the desire to register this new course over time is present. »»
Thierry Gouvenou will officially unveil the layout of the 113rd edition on October 26, at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. By then, the suggestions will undoubtedly continue to flock. But the message is clear: ideas from the field can indeed shape the tour.
