Wildfire threatens Tour de France stage in southern France

A wildfire that has already burned more than 1,500 hectares in the Pyrenees-Orientales was threatening the Tour de France’s third stage, a 195.9-kilometre mountain ride from Granollers to Les Angles scheduled for Monday, July 6. The finish lies in the Les Angles ski area after a final uphill section, and the blaze was about 60 kilometres away.

Local authorities planned to decide by the end of Sunday whether the stage could go ahead as scheduled. Race director Christian Prudhomme said the route could be adapted if needed, and organizers also discussed restricting access along the final stretch as wildfire conditions worsened.

Firefighters were fighting an 18-kilometre fire front with about 750 personnel, 200 vehicles and nine water-bombing helicopters and aircraft. Two people, one firefighter and one resident, were in critical condition, while crews worked to keep the flames from spreading toward the Têt river and the hard-to-reach Aspres mountain region.

Southern France was already under severe strain from heat and fire. Meteo France classified seven departments in the region as having a very high fire risk on Sunday, and nearly 3,000 people were evacuated earlier in the week in southwestern France as blazes spread during a record-breaking heatwave.

The Tour opened in Barcelona on Saturday, July 4, with the first two stages crossing Catalonia, where another wildfire burned about 2,200 hectares before being stabilised. Officials there said a worker using a circular saw near a road may have sparked that fire.

Stage 3 is set to be the race’s first Pyrenean summit finish of the 2026 edition, with 3,850 metres of climbing and a neutralised start at 12:10 local time. The official route lists an expected arrival at 16:54.