Isaac del Toro conquered Montjuïc, Pogačar second, and Vingegaard remained in yellow at the 2026 Tour de France
Isaac del Toro won the second stage of the 2026 Tour de France, ridden on Sunday, July 5, from Tarragona to Barcelona, giving UAE Team Emirates XRG a double triumph on the final Montjuïc climb. According to the official classification of the Tour de France organizers, the Mexican rider completed the 168.5-kilometre stage in 3:40:01, ahead of team leader Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel, while Jonas Vingegaard crossed the finish line fourth in the same time and retained the yellow jersey.
The outcome in Barcelona was one of the first major tactical moments of the 113th edition of the Tour de France. UAE Team Emirates XRG did not only take the stage victory, but in the finale showed that, alongside Pogačar, it also has an extremely dangerous second option in Del Toro, a 22-year-old debutant at the Tour. On the other hand, Team Visma | Lease a Bike defended the most important symbol of the race: Vingegaard remained the leader in the overall standings after his team had opened the race the previous day with victory in the team time trial in Barcelona. That gave the second stage a double meaning: it was a major UAE victory in the day’s contest, but also confirmation that Visma is, for now, controlling the top of the general classification.
The official Tour de France report states that Del Toro and Pogačar completed the final uphill section side by side, after UAE gradually took control of the race during the second part of the stage. In the final metres, according to the organizers’ report, Pogačar controlled the movements of Evenepoel and Vingegaard behind him, while Del Toro crossed the finish line first at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. The stage victory also brought him 10 bonus seconds, while Pogačar received six seconds for second place and Evenepoel four. Vingegaard did not win a bonus, but retained the overall lead, which was reduced to six seconds over Pogačar.
UAE made use of the demanding finale in Barcelona
The second stage was designed as a profile that gradually changes character. According to the official stage page, the route started from Tarragona at 13:45 local time and first followed coastal roads, before becoming significantly more demanding in the second part. The key transition was the Côte de Begues climb at kilometre 94.2, 6.1 kilometres long with an average gradient of 6.5 percent, categorized as a second-category climb. After entering Barcelona, the final circuit on Montjuïc followed, with three passages over the Côte du Château de Montjuïc, a climb 1.6 kilometres long with an average gradient of 9.3 percent.
Such a profile did not suit classic sprinters, but rather riders who can survive the selection on short and steep climbs and then react explosively in the finale. In the stage preview, the organizers emphasized that the final circuit around Montjuïc combines technical corners, short descents, and repeated climbs, and those very elements ultimately determined the winner. UAE used the depth of its team in those conditions. Brandon McNulty and Adam Yates, according to the official report, increased the tempo at moments when the peloton had already been reduced, thereby preparing the ground for Pogačar and Del Toro.
The early phase of the race had the expected pattern with a breakaway that the peloton kept under control. The Tour de France states that Felix Engelhardt launched the real breakaway at the fourth kilometre, and Frank van den Broek and Alex Molenaar joined him. According to the official report, the advantage grew to 3:55 at kilometre 27, but the teams with ambitions for the stage victory did not allow the breakaway to become a serious threat. Molenaar at one point virtually took the yellow jersey and won points on the Côte de Begues climb, but the leaders’ advantage began to fall as soon as UAE raised the rhythm behind them.
As the race approached the final circuit in Barcelona, the breakaway lost strength, and the main group was reduced to a group of victory contenders and riders targeting the general classification. According to the official Tour report, the remaining escapees were caught 32 kilometres before the finish, just before entering the decisive part of the route. The race then moved from a phase of control into a phase of open competition. Each new passage over Montjuïc reduced the number of riders who could follow the pace, while the short descents and corners between the climbs provided room for attacks and counterattacks.
Del Toro passed Skjelmose in the final 700 metres
The decisive moves came after the final passage over the Montjuïc climb. The official race report states that Mattias Skjelmose of the Lidl-Trek team tried to use the descent and attacked inside the final two kilometres. That move opened the finale, but did not break UAE’s control. Del Toro closed down Skjelmose’s attempt and then accelerated in the final 700 metres, where the road once again climbed toward the finish. Pogačar stayed behind him and at the same time monitored Evenepoel and Vingegaard, thereby leaving his young teammate space for the victory.
According to the official classification, the first four finished in the same time of 3:40:01, which shows how tight the finale was, but also how important the bonus seconds were for the overall standings. Del Toro took the stage victory and the maximum bonus, Pogačar reduced his deficit to Vingegaard with second place, and Evenepoel remained in the immediate circle of contenders with third place. Behind them, three seconds back, finished Skjelmose, Tobias Johannessen, Romain Grégoire, Lenny Martinez, Paul Seixas, Tom Pidcock, and other riders from the first group of contenders and puncheurs.
For Del Toro, the victory had a historic dimension. The Tour de France organizers highlighted that he became only the second Mexican stage winner in the history of the race, after Raúl Alcalá, who won stages in 1989 and 1990. At the same time, according to the official report, it was the first time that UAE Team Emirates XRG took the first two places on a Tour stage. In sporting terms, the result confirms that Del Toro is not only a helper in Pogačar’s squad, but a rider who, in the right circumstances, can decide stages himself at the highest level.
After the finish, according to a Tour de France post, Del Toro emphasized that the victory means an enormous amount to him and that it is the realization of a dream in the biggest race. The organizers convey his assessment that the opportunity was rare and that the team had anticipated the possibility of such an outcome in advance. The Mexican rider described the finale as a moment in which he had to react according to how the race developed, after initially not being in an ideal position at the top of the climb. His statement that everything was “just insane” summed up well the emotional tone of the victory, but also the breadth of the result for Mexican cycling.
Vingegaard lost seconds, but not control of the standings
Although UAE dominated the stage, the most important jersey remained in the hands of Jonas Vingegaard. According to the official report, the Danish rider of Team Visma | Lease a Bike retained the yellow jersey after finishing fourth in Barcelona, with an advantage of six seconds over Pogačar. That fact gives a more realistic picture of the second stage: through bonuses, Pogačar recovered part of the deficit from the team time trial, but he did not take the overall lead. Vingegaard was therefore due to start the third stage on Monday, July 6, as the race leader.
In a statement published on the official Tour website, Vingegaard said that he was satisfied to remain in the yellow jersey, especially because the final circuit in Barcelona is not the terrain that suits him best. The Danish rider also acknowledged that UAE has a “very strong duo,” thereby clearly identifying a new tactical threat: Pogačar is not the only rider from that team whom Visma must follow. Such a dynamic could mark the early phase of the race, especially on stages with short, steep climbs, where UAE can open up multiple scenarios and force rivals into quick decisions.
For Pogačar, second place had two kinds of value. On the one hand, he missed the opportunity for his own stage victory, but he delivered the maximum sporting effect for the team: a victory for Del Toro, second place for himself, and a reduction of the gap in the general classification. On the other hand, the public image of the finale further emphasized his role as a leader who, in the early phase of the Tour, can also work for the team, not only for his personal result. In a three-week race, such moves can have a psychological effect, because they show the team’s confidence and spread responsibility beyond one rider.
Evenepoel’s third place was also not insignificant. According to the official classification, the rider of Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe took four bonus seconds and remained among the fastest in a finale that demanded explosiveness, positioning, and the ability to repeat efforts. Although most of the attention focused on the duel between UAE and Visma, Evenepoel’s placing confirms that the Belgian rider can react in stages that are neither pure time trials nor high mountains. In the context of the overall standings, his third place in Barcelona keeps pressure on the two biggest favourites.
Barcelona offered an early picture of the fight for the Tour
The second stage was the first road stage of the 2026 Tour de France after the race opened with a team time trial in Barcelona. The organizers had previously announced that the 113th edition of the Tour would be ridden from July 4 to July 26, 2026, with the Grand Départ in Barcelona and the finish in Paris. In that context, the route through Tarragona, the Costa Daurada coast, the Begues area, and the final circuit on Montjuïc was not only a local promotion of Catalonia, but also a sportingly ambitious introduction to the race. Already on the second day of competition, it could be seen that differences in the standings can also arise on stages that are not marked as major mountain tests.
Official information from the City of Barcelona about the second stage emphasized that the first part of the route passed along the coast, while the second part, from the Begues area toward Barcelona, was more uneven and more demanding. The final circuit around Montjuïc brought three passages over the climb toward the castle, including sections with a gradient of up to 13 percent according to the description by local organizers. Such a finish explained why general classification riders, and not sprint teams, became involved in the fight. The road was hard enough to create selection, but short and explosive enough to allow tactical outmanoeuvring all the way to the finish.
From a sporting point of view, the stage early exposed two major themes of the race. The first is the relationship between Pogačar and Vingegaard, a rivalry that remains the central axis of the race even after changes in the day’s results. The second is the depth of UAE Team Emirates XRG, because Del Toro’s victory shows that opponents cannot direct all their defence only toward Pogačar. If Del Toro continues to ride at the level shown in Barcelona, UAE can use the tactical advantage of a double threat, especially on stages in which short climbs come before the finish or are repeated in the closing circuits.
At the same time, Visma showed that even under pressure it does not lose its fundamental stability. Vingegaard, on terrain that, according to his own statement to the Tour de France, is not his favourite, stayed with the best and preserved the yellow jersey. In the first days of the Tour, that is an important sign for a team that opened the race strongly with the team time trial. Their task is now different: instead of the attacking surprise from the first stage, they must defend the lead against a team that demonstrated attacking breadth in Barcelona.
The third stage under special measures because of fires in the Pyrenees
The day after the finale in Barcelona, the Tour was due to continue with the third stage from Granollers to Les Angles. But the sporting context also gained a serious security dimension. According to a joint statement by the prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales department and Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, conditions for the French part of the third stage were adjusted because of a major forest fire in Pyrénées-Orientales. The statement says that the priority is the protection of people, property, and natural areas, and that public resources must be directed toward rescue and firefighting.
The organizers announced that the promotional caravan would not pass through the French part of the route, that the event would be limited to the passage of riders and essential organizational vehicles, and that the public was being asked not to gather along the route or at the finish. The statement also warns that the situation may change and that further adjustments are possible. Thus, already in its first days, the Tour received a reminder that major sporting competitions are increasingly taking place in conditions in which safety, traffic organization, and extraordinary weather or environmental circumstances can directly affect the format of the race.
For the riders, such a development means a transition from the explosive, urban finale in Barcelona toward a more demanding and logistically more complex day on the border between Spain and France. For the standings, however, the picture after the second stage remains clear: Del Toro wrote the first major story of this Tour, Pogačar reduced the deficit and confirmed UAE’s strength, Evenepoel remained near the top of the stage contest, and Vingegaard, despite the pressure, continues the race in the yellow jersey. The early days of the 2026 Tour de France have thus already offered what makes the race watched globally: a combination of team tactics, individual class, and an unpredictable context beyond the road itself.
Sources:
- Tour de France / A.S.O. – official classification of the second stage and riders’ standings after the Tarragona - Barcelona stage (link)
- Tour de France / A.S.O. – official stage report “Pogacar gifts Montjuïc to Del Toro” with a description of the key attacks and outcome (link)
- Tour de France / A.S.O. – official profile of the second stage, schedule, climbs, and bonuses (link)
- Barcelona City Council / Grand Départ Tour de France Barcelona 2026 – description of the Tarragona - Barcelona route and the final circuit on Montjuïc (link)
- Tour de France / A.S.O. – Isaac del Toro’s statement after victory in the second stage (link)
- Tour de France / A.S.O. – Jonas Vingegaard’s statement about the yellow jersey and UAE’s strength after the second stage (link)
- Tour de France / A.S.O. – joint statement on adjustments to the third stage due to fires in the Pyrénées-Orientales department (link)