The Inner Ring | Tour de France Mountains Competition Contenders

You know it’s July when you see the polka dot jersey. He’s a look at the riders who might be sporting it soon.

The maths
Points are awarded as follows:

- hors catégorie (6 in total): 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-2 points
- Category 1 climbs (13): 10-8-6-4-2-1 points
- Category 2 (11) 5-3-2-1 points
- Category 3 (21): 2-1 points
- Category 4 (18): 1 point

This is different to recent years where the highest climb of the race got double points, eg the Galibier or Loze saw 40-30-24 points etc to the first over. Before that the final HC climb of the day got double points. None of this happens in 2026, all HC climbs are equal.

The route
The competition should be lively from the start as the first week is a high-scoring one compared to the norm as there are plenty of climbs, including the Category 1 climb of the Collada de Toses on Stage 3 and the HC-rated Tourmalet on Stage 6 and this way whoever has the jersey at the end of the first week won’t have it accidentally because of a breakaway.

Stage 20 will settle things and is illustrative of several stages where the breakaway can go clear and score points even if they face being reeled in before the finish.

How to win?
There are two routes to the polka dot jersey. One is accidental where the GC contenders pick it up by virtue of being on the attack in the mountains for stage wins and time without really making it a priority, we’ve seen Tadej Pogačar (2020, 2021, 2025) and Jonas Vingegaard win the competition this way (2022), typically winning a mountain stage late in the third week to take over the lead.

The other is the deliberate mountain raid from a climber who will go in the breakaway in the mountains and score on the first climbs and hope the move sticks to contest the stage but if not they can try a raid again and rack up points. We’ve seen Giulio Ciccone (2023) and Richard Carapaz (2024) win the competition this way.

The points system for 2026 tilts things more towards the latter scenario, including as many HC-rated climbs en route as there are at the stage finish. So score big on HC climbs early in a stage and here and there elsewhere in the race and a rider could have a cushion on Pogačar. Note “tilt” and the conditional tense, if Pogačar wakes up wanting to win a stage and mow down the breakaway it’ll happen.

Contenders
Lenny Martinez (Bahrain) wore the jersey last year and has improved since. This year the goal has been to try riding for GC in week-long stage races but more in dull terms of process, of steadiness and practicing the logistics required. But now at the Tour he’s got more freedom to ride for himself, he wants a stage win or the polka dots and can probably manage both. He’s been an erratic rider in the past but he’s still a few days short of turning 23 but is now rounding out.

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) won in 2024 and says he is in great shape now. His pre-Tour quote adds “the general classification will depend heavily on how the race circumstances unfold. I want to go after stage wins and could try to repeat winning the mountains jersey” which is probably code for saying he knows he can’t match Pogačar and Vingegaard so unless he infiltrates a move and takes time, it’ll be stage wins and polka dots like in 2024. He’ll like the third week especially. Carapaz is illustrative because a rider of his stature still has to pick goals.

You never know what you’ll get with Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) and he’d probably like a stage win and some good finish on GC but these goals risk being in opposition. He’s well-suited to the task of fetching the polka dots, punchy atop a mountain and crafty but does he want it?

Imagine Mikel Landa in the drops as he crests a high mountain pass. Only the cult of landismo is banished for July as he’s not been selected by Soudal-Quickstep. Instead his apprentice can try. One reason Valentin Paret-Peintre left Decathlon was he was getting tired of the team’s focus on sports science and he wanted more freedom to train as he wants and also to learn from Landa. “VPP” is a contender for the jersey and a canny rider but his ultralight build makes sprinting for points harder against beefier rivals.

Netcompany-Ineos don’t come with any obvious GC leaders. If they’re after other forms of success then this competition ought to interest them. Thymen Arensman won two stages last and was fourth in the competition but how to improve, as we saw at the Giro he can climb well but not make darting accelerations. Kévin Vauquelin is faster and suited to this competition but will he try for GC first and so not score on some of the earlier days in the mountains?

If the Aura Tour was practice for the Tour then Clément Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ) gets a mention for winning the mountains competition there but makes his Tour debut and this time winning means scaling higher mountains more often, it’s hard to see him getting the better of Martinez and Carapaz. Tenth in the Tour last year, Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) has missed out on a lot with a knee injury – at times unable to pedal on one leg, once reduced to walking uphill to his home because he could not pedal – but now looks fully recovered and beginning to look consistent too. He’ll have space to move but winning the jersey is a tough ask. Einer Rubio (Movistar) is in the pure climber bracket and has a Lenny Martinez-like craftiness. Michael Storer (Tudor) can climb well at the best of times and maybe needs some stars to align but if they do on the right day he’s a contender too. Harald Tejada (XDS-Astana) is having a good season.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE) especially, and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) get mentions. The central case is that as GC contenders they stand collect the jersey on the way to something bigger; but there’s also the consolation angle where if one is sapped from the Giro or the other is short of form then stage wins and the mountains competition can compensate although it’s hard to see Pogačar folding and settling for polka dots.