Tour de France Stage 3 Predictions: 13/8 Pogacar and 20/1 Remco the Pyrenean picks

Stage 3 of the Tour de France goes ahead as planned on Monday, with wildfires in the Eastern Pyrenees having come close to forcing a cancellation (live from 10:45am BST on TNT Sports 1, highlights from 7pm on Channel 5).

Sunday’s UAE one-two of Isaac del Toro and Tadej Pogacar helped to push a familiar trio into the podium positions just two days into the 2026 event. My Tour de France Stage 3 predictions follow.

Tour de France Betting Odds

Pogacar is naturally the favourite to collect his first victory after he rode within himself to the finish line in Barcelona on Sunday so that UAE Team Emirates teammate Isaac del Toro could record a first Tour stage win.

It’s 13/8 for the four-time champion to take the flag on Monday, with both Mathieu van der Poel and Mathias Vacek at 12/1. There are four riders on 20/1 in the shape of Del Toro, Remco Evenepoel, Romain Gregoire and Maxim van Gils.

Cycling Odds

It’s the first mountain stage of the year as the race enters France. The 195.9km route from Granollers in Spanish Catalunya to Les Angles in the French Pyrenees takes place with minimal restrictions despite the fires caused by searing temperatures over the weekend.

Team caravans and the general public will be notable by their absence for the French portion of the day’s events, but the route remains unchanged. In a racing sense at least, that’s great news since Monday’s action could give us a real view of how this Tour could shake out.

There are four categorised climb on what should be a full-on GC day, especially as three of those come in the second half of the route. And after the Cat 1 Col de Toses, the altitude never drops by much.

Before arriving in the Pyrenees there is the 7.6km-long Cote de Saint Feliu de Codines, with an average 4.5% of elevation.

Then comes the Toses, a 9.3km climb at 6.5%, around 70km from home, and there are two more Cat 3 spikes still to come after that point.

At 23km from the flag there is the 11.4km Col du Calvaire with an average gradient of 4.1%, then a third Cat 3 to the finish line on the 1.5km 6.5% climb to the ski station at Les Angles.

Tadej Pogacar @ 13/8

If he’d wanted to Pogacar would have collected a 22nd career stage win on Sunday, but with Jonas Vingegaard clearly struggling to catch up to third-placed Remco Evenepoel the Slovenian knew he could allow Del Toro a win and still make up six seconds on his great rival.

Don’t expect the same again on Monday though. Pogacar ought to have more than enough in him to hold off the rest, and he might well take the opportunity to take yellow and build a fair gap.

Even on Sunday he showed how cool he can look in the saddle when all around him are at full gas, and the ride up to Les Angles could go down as the day he took the lead and kept it.

Remco Evenepoel E/W @ 20/1

There’s a big difference between Vingegaard and Evenepoel, and that is that on a day like Sunday the Visma Lease-a-Bike rider can look a bit lost without teammates around him. Evenepoel, though, is comfortable enough finding the wheel of an opponent and seeing what he’s capable of from there.

The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe new signing has that spark of individualism that can keep him in races longer than more team-dependent rivals. And, particularly in Grand Tours, he can spend the first week looking beyond at ease.

I think he’ll be sticking close to Pogacar for most of Stage 3, and it might be enough for him to record another top-three finish as he did on Sunday.