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Lyne Lamoureux

Tour de France 2026 stage 5 preview - Sprinters target push into Pau as first opportunity at podium in first week

PAU, FRANCE - JULY 12: (L-R) Stage winner Jasper Philipsen of Belgium and Team Alpecin - Deceuninck, Wout Van Aert of Belgium and Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Pascal Ackermann of Germany and Team Israel - Premier Tech and Biniam Girmay of Eritrea and Team Intermarche - Wanty - Green Sprint Jersey sprint at finish line during the 111th Tour de France 2024, Stage 13 a 165.3km stage from Agen to Pau / #UCIWT / on July 12, 2024 in Pau, France. (Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images).
  • Stage 5: Lannemezan - Pau
  • Date: July 8, 2026
  • Distance: 158.3km
  • Start time: 14:05 CET
  • Finish time: 17:46 CET

Starting in the Hautes-Pyrénées village of Lannemezan for a sixth time, the Tour de France offers a straightforward affair across 158.3km to Pau for stage 5. It's set up for a charge among the sprinters, who have yet found flat territory to flash their speed. In fact, only twice in the last three decades, 2015 and 1992, has the Tour made it past stage 4 without a bunch sprint.

  • Points at finish : 70-50-40-35-30-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2

Riders won't find any bonus points on offer for the first 113.5 kilometres until the one intermediate sprint finally arrives at Vic-en-Bigorre. Then 29km later there is a one-kilometre categorised climb at Côte de Baleix, with a punchy 8.8% incline.

There is no major drop-off from the crest of the climb, just rolling terrain for 25 kilometres to the finish for the sprinters' teams to wind up and unleash their torpedoes at Place de Verdun.

This is the 77th time the Tour has visited Pau, the third most visited city on the route with a dense population and strategic location for climbing in the Pyrenees. Sprinters typically get a chance to flourish on the flat roads, with Jasper Philipsen the most recent winner in 2024.

Mountains

  • Côte de Baleix (cat. 3, 1 km at 8.8%), km. 132.7
    • 2-1 pts

Sprints

  • Vic-en-Bigorre, km. 113.5
    • 25-20-16-14-12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 pts

Time limit

Est. Speed

Est. Winner Time

Limit %

Max Time Cut

46 km/h

3:26:29

9%

0:18:35

45 km/h

3:31:04

9%

0:19:00

44 km/h

3:35:52

8%

0:17:16

43 km/h

3:40:53

8%

0:17:40

42 km/h

3:46:09

7%

0:15:50

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