The month of June… in the world of cycling, that means just one thing. The Tour de France is right around the corner!
Are you preparing? Check out the full June race schedule to find out about all the great lead-up races you can watch this month!
It’s pretty easy to argue that cycling in the Alps is some of the best anywhere in the world. For cycling fans, a month of Alpine cycling leads into the most important event of the entire cycling calendar: the Tour de France, which starts on July 4th.
That’s not to say we won’t have any fun along the way until we get there. For the pro riders, June is a month for preparation… and for testing form against the competition once July comes. We’ve seen Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar strut their stuff in the early season, most recently in the Giro d’Italia… but what about the rest of the field? For other competitions like the green jersey or King of the Mountain, we might get a preview of which stars are in their best shape… and which ones might be risking a lackluster performance in France this year.
Recognize all the names on the races for June? You might be thrown off by Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, which is the rebrand of the Criterium du Dauphine. On top of that, the relatively-new Copenhagen Sprint and Tour de Suisse round out the highest-level races for this month, for both men and women.
Read More:
See the May calendar.
At first glance, June’s offerings for both the men’s and women’s pelotons might look sparse. But there are some fantastic contests hiding in those mountains! Which are you most eager to watch this month?
Ready to see what’s happening in June? Keep reading for the full schedule!
How are men’s and women’s pro cycling races categorized?
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) classifies every race by a code that tells you two things: how long it is and how important it is.
The first number in any code tells you the format of the race. 1.X races are one-day (like a classic or a Monument) while 2.X races are multi-day stage races, ranging from a 2-day event to the 21-day men’s Grand Tours.
WorldTour races are the “major leagues” of cycling, where the world’s top teams always show up. 1.UWT & 2.UWT (UCI WorldTour) is the men’s elite level. This includes the Tour de France (2.UWT) and Paris-Roubaix (1.UWT). 1.WWT & 2.WWT (Women’s WorldTour) is the women’s elite level. This includes the Tour de France Femmes (2.WWT) and Strade-Bianche Donne (1.WWT).
Introduced in 2020, the ProSeries category is more like the “AAA” level. These races are still highly prestigious but allow for a mix of top-tier WorldTour teams and second-division ProTeams.
Continental races are also referred to as “Class 1” races. They are slightly less prestigeous than the top-tier races, but make up the backbone of the racing calendar. In these events, up-and-coming talent often gets their first chance to race against WorldTour pros!
Men’s and Women’s Pro Cycling Calendar — June:
WorldTour (1.WWT, 2.WWT, 1.UWT, and 2.UWT)
| Event | Type | Host Country | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 2.UWT | France | June 07 | June 14 |
| Copenhagen Sprint | 1.WWT | Denmark | June 13 | |
| Copenhagen Sprint | 1.UWT | Denmark | June 14 | |
| Tour de Suisse | 2.UWT | Switzerland | June 17 | June 21 |
| Tour de Suisse Women | 2.WWT | Switzerland | June 17 | June 21 |
UCI ProSeries (1.Pro and 2.Pro)
| Event | Type | Host Country | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tour de Wallonie | 2.Pro | Belgium | June 01 | June 05 |
| Brussels Cycling Classic | 1.Pro | Belgium | June 07 | |
| Circuit Franco-Belge | 1.Pro | Belgium | June 10 | |
| Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées | 2.Pro | France | June 12 | June 14 |
| Tour of Slovenia | 2.Pro | Slovenia | June 17 | June 21 |
| Baloise Belgium Tour | 2.Pro | Belgium | June 17 | June 21 |
| Women Cycling Day | 1.Pro | Germany | June 21 |
UCI Continental (1.1 and 2.1)
| Event | Type | Host Country | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercan’tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes | 1.1 | France | June 03 | |
| Tour of Estonia | 2.1 | Estonia | June 04 | June 06 |
| Heistse Pijl | 1.1 | Belgium | June 06 | |
| Alpes Grésivaudan Classic | 1.1 | France | June 07 | |
| Dwars Door De Westhoek | 1.1 | Belgium | June 07 | |
| Dwars Door Het Hageland | 1.1 | Belgium | June 13 | |
| Dwars Door Het Hageland | 1.1 | Belgium | June 13 | |
| Elfstedenronde | 1.1 | Belgium | June 14 | |
| Flanders Diamond Tour | 1.1 | Belgium | June 14 | |
| GP Gippingen | 1.1 | Germany | June 14 | |
| La Route d’Occitanie | 2.1 | France | June 18 | June 20 |
| Vuelta a Catalunya Femenina | 2.1 | Spain | June 19 | June 21 |
| Andorra Classic | 1.1 | Andorra | June 21 |
June’s printable calendar:
The Tour de France’s biggest rivalry is taking different roads to the Grand Depart…
The 2026 Tour de France might just be shaping up as the most interesting in the past few years. The field is deep, but the two men at the center of the GC content have spent the past six months taking different paths to the start line in Barcelona.
Vingegaard made a somewhat surprising decision to race the Giro d’Italia for the first time this year. He sealed the overall victory with another strong mountain performance on Stage 20, attacking on the final ascent of the stage before riding solo to his fifth win of the race. Visma-Lease a Bike might believe he is now on a good track for the Tour, but is it true? Vingegaard himself has said as much. The question is what three weeks of Giro racing might cost him… and how much he held back strategically to compete there. We likely haven’t seen his best form this season. The Danish superstar won’t race any more between now and the Tour de France.
Pogačar, meanwhile, has been efficient this season. He won a whopping four stages and the overall at the Tour de Romandie earlier in May while barely extending himself. He then headed immediately to a Sierra Nevada altitude camp to prepare for the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France. According to reports from UAE Team Emirates, we’ll see him go off to a second altitude camp at Isola 2000 in late June. However, this month, getting through the Tour de Suisse safely without overextending will be his priority.
What’s the verdict, then? Unlike last year, we won’t see these two go head-to-head in June. And we’ll just have to guess at how good they’ll be against each other.
The reality is that on pure performance, Pogi is almost impossible to defeat. But if Vingegaard feels fresh off his Giro victory, carrying that mountain form into July, he might be a little more dangerous than we’re expecting. June will tell us a great deal about how much he has to go up against in his top rival… and whether any new GC contenders are looking strong enough to enter the frame of this two-man show…
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Which races are you looking forward to this month? Let us know in the comments or on social media! ★
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