The 2026 Tour de France started on Saturday 4 July, with 184 riders grouped into 23 teams setting off from Barcelona to contest the greatest bike race on the globe. Over the next three weeks, these riders will race along a route that’s 3,320km (2,063.4 miles) long, tackling almost 50,000 metres of ascent in the process.
But not everyone will make it to the streets of Paris to ride around the Montmartre circuit. We might not have seen the almost Hunger Games-rate of attrition that was on show at the Giro d’Italia this year, but there haven’t been any significant crashes so far, despite .
And, as the Tour goes on, and the mercury keeps creeping north in the south of France, to the point where spectators were told to stay away from certain sections due to the strain being placed on emergency services dealing with wildfires – some riders are beginning to fail and bail, before they can be caught by the broomwagon.
Clément Berthet from Groupama-FDJ United was the first to fall, with the climber failing to start stage two, withdrawing from the race after sustaining an injury in a crash with teammate Guillaume Martin halfway through the 19.6km time trial on day one.
Lotto-Intermarché’s Arnaud De Lie was the next to throw the towel in. While young Mexican sensation Isaac del Toro nailed a near-perfect ride to take victory on stage two, De Lie visibly struggled with illness throughout the day and finished last. As the route passed from Spain into France on long-and-lumpy stage three, amid a heatwave, it was no surprise to see the 24-year-old Belgian sprinter withdrawing from the race, although he soldiered on to within 10km of the finish line.
On stage four, when Mads Pedersen from Lidl-Trek sprinted to victory and fellow Scandinavian Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) grabbed the yellow jersey, Kelland O’Brien from Jayco AlUla was unable to cope with the heat, and crossed the line a few minutes after the imposed cut-off, meaning he is out of the race.
Riders who have abandoned the 2026 Tour de France
- Clément Berthet (Groupama-FDJ United) – DNS stage 2 after crashing on stage 1
- Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) – Abandoned during stage 3 with illness
- Kelland O’Brien (Jayco AlUla) – Missed cut-off on stage 4
