
Reigning champion Tadej Pogačar won the third stage of the Tour de France 2026 on Monday to snatch the "special" leader's yellow jersey from rival Jonas Vingegaard.
The world champion and Vingegaard are dead level on time, but Pogacar took over the race lead by virtue of his better finishing positions in the opening three stages.
It was Pogacar's 22nd Tour stage victory and his 10th in the Pyrenees.
The 27-year-old Slovenian finished two seconds ahead of the Dane and also earned four more bonus seconds than Vingegaard to wipe out his six-second deficit from the start of the day.
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"Of course, to take the yellow jersey is the dream for any cyclist of any age," Pogačar said. "For me it's, I don't know which time already, but every time I can get it again on my shoulders, it feels really special."
Past Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz came past French teenage prodigy Paul Seixas to take third place in the same time as Vingegaard at the end of a 196-kilometer stage, which started in Granollers, Spain, and finished in Les Angles in the French Pyrenees.
Despite a plea from organizers for fans to stay away because of raging wildfires just 70 kilometers away from the finish, there were plenty of people by the side of the roads in France.
Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel was eighth at four seconds and remains third overall, but he fell to 23 seconds off the lead.
Sunday's Stage 2 winner Isaac del Toro is fourth overall at 24 seconds after finishing eighth, with Spaniard Juan Ayuso (27 seconds) and Seixas (48 seconds) rounding out the top 6.
After Pogačar let his UAE Team Emirates teammate Del Toro take the victory on Sunday's finish on the Montjuic hill in Barcelona, this time it was the Mexican who led out his team leader for a decisive sprint to the line.
Pogačar left no doubt that he had his eyes on both the stage victory and the yellow jersey with a dominant win.
"It's because of Isaac today (that) I got some extra power in the final," Pogačar said. "He committed more than 100% in the final climb, and all the team, actually. In the middle of the stage, we decided that it's possible to go for the stage win, and I'm really, really happy that we started the Tour like this."
No Scraps For Anyone At Tour de France 2026
On a day that looked ideally suited to a breakaway, UAE left no scraps for anyone else, leading to some complaints from other teams and commentators that they were killing the spectacle with their domination.
UAE Sporting Director Mauro Gianetti said the stage was too tough for a breakaway to stay away.
"It was an unfavorable route (for the breakaway) because it was very demanding, there was more than 4,000-metres of elevation gain," said the Italian. "I'm sorry... we're doing our job."
An 18-man breakaway finally formed after 70 kilometers and stretched out a maximum lead of three minutes.
At that point, UAE took over the pace-setting responsibilities.
"Tadej said he feels good, and then Florian (Vermeersch) just started to pull," said UAE's Austrian rider Felix Grossschartner. "I think the breakaway didn't cooperate, so well... so we could decrease the gap quite a lot there. I think this was really a main factor that we finally decided to go for the stage."
UAE had reduced the gap by half by the time the break reached the 9.3-kilometer Category 1 Col de Toses climb, just over halfway through the stage.
The break thinned out to a six-man group by the top, and then with 34 kilometers left, French pair Alex Baudin and Nicolas Prodhomme set off alone.
Prodhomme lasted only another 8 kilometers. Baudin, who had done enough to claim the polka-dot 'King of the Mountains' jersey, was caught 12 kilometers from home.
UAE controlled the race until the final short climb to Les Angles, and Pogačar did the rest.
It was a miserable day for Belgian sprinter Arnaud De Lie, though, as he pulled out of the Tour.
He had been suffering since the opening stage Saturday, and when it became clear that he was not going to make Monday's time limit, he decided to abandon the race.
Tour de France 2026 Stage 3 Results – Top 25
- Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) – 4:45:11 (B10)
- Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) – 4:45:13 (B6)
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost) – 4:45:13 (B4)
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) – 4:45:13
- Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) – 4:45:15
- Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché) – 4:45:15
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) – 4:45:15
- Isaac del Toro (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) – 4:45:15
- Remco Evenepoel (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) – 4:45:15
- Juan Ayuso (Lidl - Trek) – 4:45:15
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl - Trek) – 4:45:21
- Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step) – 4:45:23
- Lenny Martinez (Bahrain - Victorious) – 4:45:23
- Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) – 4:45:23
- Tom Pidcock (XDS Astana Team) – 4:45:29
- Sergio Higuita (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) – 4:45:29
- Egan Bernal (Netcompany INEOS) – 4:45:29
- Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) – 4:45:38
- Thymen Arensman (Netcompany INEOS) – 4:45:38
- Davide Piganzoli (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) – 4:45:44
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain - Victorious) – 4:45:53
- Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin - Premier Tech) – 4:45:59
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) – 4:46:01
- Sepp Kuss (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) – 4:46:01
- Harold Tejada (XDS Astana Team) – 4:46:08
Tour de France 2026 Overall Standings – Top 25 After Stage 3
- Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) – 8:46:55 (B16)
- Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) – 8:46:55 (B6)
- Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) – 8:47:18 (B4)
- Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) – 8:47:19 (B10)
- Juan Ayuso (Lidl - Trek) – 8:47:22
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) – 8:47:43
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) – 8:47:48
- Tobias Halland Johannessen (Bahrain - Victorious) – 8:48:04
- Lenny Martinez (Uno-X Mobility) – 8:48:06
- Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step) – 8:48:12
- Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) – 8:48:17
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost) – 8:48:40 (B4)
- Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché) – 8:48:42
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl - Trek) – 8:48:45
- Davide Piganzoli (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) – 8:49:10
- Thymen Arensman (Netcompany INEOS) – 8:49:14
- Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) – 8:49:23
- Sergio Higuita (XDS Astana Team) – 8:50:18
- Yannis Voisard (Movistar Team) – 8:50:19
- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) – 8:50:45
- Egan Bernal (Netcompany INEOS) – 8:51:10
- José Félix Parra (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) – 8:51:16
- Harold Tejada (XDS Astana Team) – 8:51:33
- Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) – 8:52:01
- Alex Baudin (EF Education - EasyPost) – 8:52:14
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