At first, it was revealed that the stage from Granollers to the 2026 edition's first trip to France in Les Angles could be cancelled due to ongoing fires in the Pyrénées-Orientales area, but later confirmed that the stage would instead be adapted.
This means that the last two categorised climbs, the Col du Calvaire (11.4 km at 4.1%) and Les Angles (1.7 km at 6.5%), will be without spectators on the final 44 km out of the planned 196-kilometre route.
"On French territory, the publicity caravan will not be traveling. Its presence will be limited to the passage of only the riders and vehicles essential to the organization of the race," explained Prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe at a press conference, as reported by L'Equipe.
He added that the public was "asked not to go near the route or to the finish area. In other words, and I regret having to announce this, it will be - at least in France - a stage of the Tour de France without spectators", he added to the French publication.
Christian Prudhomme, the Tour race director, told France TV after stage three that the final 44 km of the route would take place as planned but without any spectators, including on the climbs of Col du Calvaire and Les Angles. The publicity caravan would also stop on the French border.
“The teams of the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales and the Tour de France were in contact this afternoon," Prudhomme said.
"I also spoke to the prefect on the phone in the afternoon, and we agreed, given the exceptional and frightening conditions of the fire that reigns in the Pyrénées-Orientales, not to allow the publicity caravan to pass through the last 40km, the final part of the stage in France, to limit the road to only the riders and the essential organisation vehicles. And we ask the public not to come to the roadside or to the finish."
Jonas Vingegaard holds the yellow jersey as the general classification leader of the Tour de France, six seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar