The evolution of the Tour of America continues in 2026. After dropping back to 14 stages last year it gets a bump up to HC and mandatory status this year. PCT managers will have to decide if that merits a change in team building or race planning strategies.
The race itself resists easy answers with a balanced parcours. Will the 21k opening TT be decisive given there are only 2 mountain summit finishes? Or will the fact the summit finishes come late in the race (stage 11 and 14) tip things in favor of the mountain goats? Or perhaps the 11k mountain TT will prove decisive. The sprinters won’t care how that works out but maybe they will be excited about the 6 flat-rated stages. And since every PCT team has to be at the race the organizers are hoping to attract the strongest sprint field at the Tour of America in many seasons.
After focusing on the East coast of the North America and Colorado last year the race moves west this year. Generally, the riders will move north to south with an opening in the flat lands of Alberta, a middle section in Southern California and the finish in the Mexican state of Michoacan.
The riders open with a 21k flat time trial in the city of Edmonton (although it does include one categorized climb for some early KOM points). The better TTers among the contenders will want to assert themselves right away.
Stage 2 moves south out of Edmonton and is the first opportunity for the sprinters. From there the riders move west into the Canadian Rockies, although they mostly stick to the valleys. Stage 3 finishes on the climb of Mt Norquay in Banff, and represents the only opportunity in the race for the puncheurs. From there the second flat stage takes the riders further west out of Banff to Brisco. The two stages into and out of Banff featured in the 2018 Tour of America with Adam Yates winner the hilly stage and Tour of America legend Marco Haller taking the win in Brisco. While Haller is no longer active it is possible Yates will be back, although he won’t be a favorite for the stage.
The only true climbing in the Canadian Rockies is on stage 6 as the riders tackle a 10.5k mountain time trial up the slopes of Mt Revelstoke. Mt Revelstoke has featured in road stage a number of times, mostly recently in 2022 when Eddie Stobart’s Salvador Moreno Hernandez won from the break. But this is the climb’s debut as a mountain TT.
Stage 6 sees the peloton move south to California. Since it is California, they have to do things their own way, and the race takes on a North to South direction for these stages. Stage 6 is the third sprint opportunity going from San Diego to San Clemente and stage 7 sees the first mountain road stage. The finish is in Big Bear City but the final climb tops out about 40k from the finish so don’t expect decisive GC gaps.
The second half of the race kicks off with another flat stage, this time a circuit around Long Beach which is followed by the race’s lone medium-mountain stage. With 5 tough climbs this could turn into a GC stage or the GC riders could decide to take it easy and let the break take a win.
Stage 10 is another flat-rated stage but there are some sharp climbs towards the end and the sprint teams might find the chase a challenge. Then finally the mountain specialists get their day with a 145k stage finishing up Sherman Pass (23k at 7%). After Sherman Pass the riders can check out of their California hotels, hopefully, they are allowed to leave.
The race finishes with 3 stages in Mexico. Stage 12 is the 6th and final flat stage going from Morelia to Zamora. The stage features a nasty unpaved climb about halfway home, so the sprinters will need to manage that carefully, if they want to contest the finish. The destination of the points jersey should be determined by the time the riders leave Zamora.
The race finishes with 2 more mountain stages, the first to Aquila will be circled in the road book by the breakaway artists. There isn’t that much climbing, the summit finish is more of hill than a mountain and the peloton will be focused on the Queen stage the next day.
The 2026 edition breaks grand tour tradition by finishing with its hardest stage. The pure climbers will look to finally break the GC stranglehold the TT guys have likely had since the opening stage. The 183k stage finishes with a 2-part climb, the first part is 5.1k at an average of 7.9%, there is then a short descent and the second section is 8k at 9.5%.
Stage 17 of the 2021 Tour of America featured a very similar stage; Fabio Aru won from a 4-man GC group (finishing third that day was 2025 Tour of America winner Sindre Skjostad Lunke, so he has a good omen). In 2021, Yellow Jersey Dominik Nerz, was put under significant pressure on the finishing climb of this stage but managed to limit his losses to 35 seconds. He struck back on the remaining stages to win his second Tour of America by over 3 minutes. There will be no further chances in 2026, the GC leader at top of the climb will be the race winner.
Another fantastic race, congrats and thanks for compiling it. Looks like a good parcours for us, let's hope for a good transfer season to try and capitalize on that.
