Two days, one climb, twenty-one hairpins twice over - the Tour de France launches its Alpe d'Huez double header with Stage 19, a short but savage 127.9km haul from Gap that could crack the GC battle wide open.
The Alpe d'Huez double header begins on Friday as the Tour de France tackles Stage 19, a 127.9km leg from Gap that squeezes 3,500m of climbing into one of the shortest mountain stages of this year's race. It isn't the official Queen stage - that honour falls to Saturday's monster with the Telegraphe, Croix de Fer and Galibier - but a first ascent of the 21 hairpins still carries huge prestige, and with the GC picture far from settled, the favourites are expected to be racing for real rather than sitting in.
Tadej Pogačar rides into the stage with a 4 minute 32 second cushion over Remco Evenepoel, and already has a stage win to his name this year (Stage 6) along with a near-miss on another summit finish at Stage 15. He'll also be doing it with one fewer lieutenant after Brandon McNulty abandoned on Thursday's stage to Orcières-Merlette, which Richard Carapaz won from the breakaway as Pogačar retained yellow. That leaves questions over how much UAE Team Emirates-XRG can control the front of the race with two Alpe d'Huez finishes still to come.
What time is Tour de France Stage 19?
Stage 19 takes place on Friday, 24 July 2026, running 127.9km from Gap to Alpe d'Huez. It's the shortest of the three Alpine stages but among the most densely packed for climbing, with 3,500m of vertical gain packed into fewer than 130km. The route breaks down as follows:
- Col Bayard (Cat. 2) – 4.7km at 7.2% – starting inside the first 5km
- Col du Noyer (Cat. 1) – 7.2km at 8.5%, with sections touching 10% between the hairpins – reached around the 25km mark
- Col d'Ornon (Cat. 2) – 5.4km at 6.4% – around km 99, followed by a technical descent
- Alpe d'Huez (Cat. 1, summit finish) – 13.8km at an average of 8.1% across the famous 21 hairpin bends
There's no flat run-in to speak of: the stage goes uphill almost from the gun on the Col Bayard, before a long, quieter middle section sets up the finale. It's the first of back-to-back Alpe d'Huez finishes, with Saturday's Stage 20 tackling the climb via the previously untried Col de Sarenne route. Alpe d'Huez was first used by the Tour in 1952, when Fausto Coppi won there, and has since become one of the race's most iconic summit finishes.
How to Watch Tour de France Stage 19 in the UK
As with the rest of this year's race, full live coverage of Stage 19 in the UK sits with TNT Sports and HBO Max rather than free-to-air television.
Free options remain limited but not non-existent:
- Channel 5 shows a daily highlights package, typically broadcast at 19:00.
- S4C carries live Welsh-language coverage of selected stages, including this one, with UK-wide access also available via BBC iPlayer.
Stage 19 gets underway at roughly 1pm BST, with the finish on Alpe d'Huez expected in the late afternoon.
Tour de France Stage 19 Winner Odds
With the GC contenders unlikely to let a summit finish like this pass without a fight — particularly with Evenepoel needing to find time on Pogačar somewhere before Paris — the market has the yellow jersey as a strong favourite rather than an each-way pick this time. Current odds via Oddschecker:
| Rider | Odds |
|---|---|
| Tadej Pogačar | 7/10 |
| Sepp Kuss | 7/1 |
| Richard Carapaz | 9/1 |
| Remco Evenepoel | 18/1 |
| Isaac Del Toro | 25/1 |
| Davide Piganzoli | 33/1 |
| Paul Seixas | 33/1 |
Pogačar's short price reflects both his current form and the scale of his GC lead, with a stage win here also putting him within reach of the four riders - Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain - level with him on Tour titles. Carapaz, fresh off his Stage 18 win, and Kuss, largely freed from GC duties, head the list of alternatives, while Evenepoel's odds suggest bookmakers see him as more likely to be defending time lost than attacking for the stage itself.
Tour de France 2026 Full Schedule
| Stage | Date | Route | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (TTT) | 4 July | Barcelona – Barcelona | 19.6km |
| 2 | 5 July | Tarragona – Barcelona | 168.5km |
| 3 | 6 July | Granollers – Les Angles | 195.9km |
| 4 | 7 July | Carcassonne – Foix | 181.9km |
| 5 | 8 July | Lannemezan – Pau | 158.3km |
| 6 | 9 July | Pau – Gavarnie-Gèdre | 186.2km |
| 7 | 10 July | Hagetmau – Bordeaux | 175.1km |
| 8 | 11 July | Périgueux – Bergerac | 180.4km |
| 9 | 12 July | Malemort – Ussel | 185.5km |
| Rest day | 13 July | Cantal | — |
| 10 | 14 July | Aurillac – Le Lioran | 166.6km |
| 11 | 15 July | Vichy – Nevers | 161.3km |
| 12 | 16 July | Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours – Chalon-sur-Saône | 179.1km |
| 13 | 17 July | Dole – Belfort | 205.8km |
| 14 | 18 July | Mulhouse – Le Markstein Fellering | 155.3km |
| 15 | 19 July | Champagnole – Plateau de Solaison | 183.9km |
| Rest day | 20 July | Haute-Savoie | — |
| 16 (ITT) | 21 July | Évian-les-Bains – Thonon-les-Bains | 26.1km |
| 17 | 22 July | Chambéry – Voiron | 174.7km |
| 18 | 23 July | Voiron – Orcières-Merlette | 185.2km |
| 19 | 24 July | Gap – Alpe d'Huez | 127.9km |
| 20 | 25 July | Le Bourg d'Oisans – Alpe d'Huez | 170.9km |
| 21 | 26 July | Thoiry – Paris Champs-Élysées | 133km |
Saturday's Stage 20 remains the true queen stage of the race, taking in the Telegraphe, Croix de Fer and Galibier - the highest point of this year's Tour at 2,642m - before a first-ever ascent of Alpe d'Huez via the Col de Sarenne.
