• Wildfires in eastern Pyrenees had put stage in doubt

• Isaac del Toro lands debut stage win in Montjuic

The third stage of the Tour de France to Les Angles will go ahead, despite the threat posed by wildfires ­raging in the eastern Pyrenees, but without spectators.

“The setup will be limited to the passage of the riders only and the vehicles essential to organising the event,” Pierre Regnault de la Mothe, the prefect of the Eastern Pyrenees, said.

• Vingegaard leads Visma–Lease a Bike to stage one win

• Ganna second for Ineos; Pogacar third for Emirates

Jonas Vingegaard stunned Tadej Pogacar, the defending champion, by taking the first yellow jersey of the 2026 Tour de France after his Visma-Lease a Bike team won the opening stage of this year’s race, a 19.6km team time trial in Barcelona.

Two years after a life-threatening crash, Vingegaard, who won this year’s Giro d’Italia, looks back to his best. “It feels amazing to have the yellow jersey again,” said the Dane, the Tour champion in 2022 and 2023. “It’s been three years and it’s one of the most beautiful jerseys in cycling. It’s the perfect start for our race.”

Teenage sensation is a fearless racer but taking on Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard is setting the bar very high

Paul Seixas may be the youngest Tour de France debutant since 1937, but he is not lacking in confidence. Reminded of the scale of the challenge facing him, in hoping to usurp the dominant four-time champion, Tadej Pogacar, he said calmly: “There are different ways to win a cycling race.”

Seixas fever is running high in Barcelona on the eve of the Tour, even if the 19-year-old says that he “won’t take risks for anything other than the general classification.”

• ‘It’s very much on our mind’: Tour’s technical director

• Extreme weather could affect the peloton on Sunday

The 2026 Tour de France, which starts in Barcelona on Saturday, is steeling itself for climate change disruption with another extreme heatwave predicted to return to Europe in the coming days which could lead to stages being cancelled.

“It’s something that’s very much on our mind,” said Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour’s technical director. “It’s not the first time we have faced this, but this time it’s worse because of what we have already experienced in May and June.”