UAE Team Emirates-XRG Maintain Control as Tour de France Reaches Second Rest Day

• Tadej Pogačar extends General Classification lead heading into final week.
• UAE Team Emirates-XRG close second week with two stages wins, Maillot Jaune, and Maillot Blanc

News | Team –20th July 2026

Tadej Pogačar wins atge 14 of the 2026 Tour de France

UAE Team Emirates-XRG arrive at the second rest day of the 2026 Tour de France with a week of animated racing behind them and plenty to show for it. Two more stage wins, a firm grip on the Yellow Jersey, and Isaac Del Toro back in the White Jersey all point to a team still very much dictating terms on the French roads.

The week opened with a hilly stage that had breakaway written all over it, until Decathlon CMA CGM Team decided otherwise. With home favourite Paul Seixas feeling strong on Bastille Day, they pushed the pace and turned it into a GC affair. UAE Team Emirates-XRG answered the call, Adam Yates setting the tempo before Pogačar struck with 15.5km to go, bridging to race leader Carapaz and sailing straight past hm. A third stage win for Pogačar, delivered on Bastille Day as a mark of respect to the jersey he is holding.

Stages 11 and 12 offered the peloton some breathing room after that effort, with flat finishes bringing the sprinters back into play ahead of the mountains. Pogačar and his team stayed well the way of the nervy finishes as Uno-X Mobility’s Søren Wærenskjold took the stage. Normality resumed for the sprint stages on Stage 13 as Soudal Quick-Step’s Tim Merlier claimed his third win of the 2026 Tour de France.

Stage 13 was left to the break. With the GC teams content to let the right names go up the road, it turned into a quieter day for the overall contenders. Jayco AlUla’s Mauro Schmid proved strongest, denying a battling Tim Wellens and Brandon McNulty their shot at the win.

Two punishing days closed out the second week. Stage 14 saw nearly 40 riders go clear early, leaving UAE Team Emirates-XRG to do the chasing. Felix Großschartner set the tone on the Ballon d’Alsace, dragging the gap under two minutes, before Brandon McNulty carried Pogačar into the final climb as Decathlon and Visma Lease-a-Bike piled on the pressure. With 1.6km left to climb, Pogačar went again, immediately putting distance into the group. Seixas and Vingegaard seemed to be the best of the rest, but Del Toro, riding at his own rhythm, clawed his way back to the front, sprinting home second behind Pogačar for the squad’s second one-two of this Tour.

Stage 15 kept the gradient brutal. On a climb when he’d won before at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, UAE Team Emirates-XRG set about lifting Del Toro up the standings. A peloton crash forced Pogačar’s chief rival Jonas Vingegaard to abandon, and once Red Bull BORA-hansgrohe took over the pace making, the Yellow Jersey turned domestique. With 8km remaining, Pogačar drove to the front and towed Del Toro up the mountain, shedding everyone but Remco Evenepoel. Both riders were spent by the finish, and the Olympic champion took the win, but the mission was accomplished: Pogačar closed the week in Yellow, with Del Toro third overall and back in white.

The race resumes with a 26.1km time trial carrying a category 2 climb through its middle section, a course shaped to reward the strongest GC riders rather than pure specialists, and one UAE Team Emirates-XRG will be targeting closely. Stage 17 looks like the last realistic chance for the sprinters before the terrain turns decisively uphill again onstage 18. Stages 19 and 20 then bring back the legendary Alpe d’Huez, with its switchbacks and roadside crowds sure to add another layer of drama as the GC battle reaches its sharpest point. The Tour finishes as it did in 2025, on the Champs-Élysées, over the same closing circuit that saw Wout van Aert pipping Pogačar to the line, a result the Slovenian will be keen to avenge.

With the Yellow Jersey firmly in their grasp, UAE Team Emirates-XRG head into the final week of the 2026 Tour de France full of confidence and determination, as their hunt for a third successive title reaches its decisive stage.