Pack detail

Tour de France 2026: Remaining Climbing Profile Against Accumulated Vertical Load

Two linked tables that answer the only question left once the race reaches its second half: how much climbing is still to come, and which riders have already paid for it. The stage table decomposes every remaining stage into its categorised climbs, total vertical gain, the gradient and length of each ascent, the altitude of the high point, and whether the day ends at a summit or descends into a valley finish, because a stage with the same elevation total behaves completely differently depending on where the last climb sits relative to the line. The rider table carries cumulative vertical meters ridden to date, an estimate of time spent above threshold in the mountains, days spent working in a breakaway, and how each rider's accumulated load compares to the field median — the same coming week costs a rider who has climbed well above the median far more than one who has been sheltered in the bunch. The two joined together produce a remaining-load index per rider that is the actual physical constraint on a general classification, and it updates every evening the race finishes a stage. Method: stage profiles are digitised from the published route book and official climb classifications, per-rider vertical load is integrated from stage-by-stage route elevation joined to finishing groups and time gaps, breakaway participation is coded from race communiqués and timing splits, and everything is normalised to a single elevation reference so gains from different profile sources are not double counted.