The long-term effects of the pandemic are still being reckoned with, particularly the damage done to young people’s sense of security by the abrupt revelation that the adult world could be so capricious and flimsy. One of that awful period’s small consolations, however, was the number of people who discovered the pleasures of roaming the great outdoors through video games: the neighbourly idyll of Animal Crossing, the rollicking frontier of Red Dead Redemption 2, even the satisfaction in Stardew Valley of simply growing a carrot. Tour de France 2026 belongs comfortably among those games. It presents players with hundreds of miles of sun-baked European road, winding through sleepy French villages, climbing into the thin alpine air, then plunging down the other side in long, perilous descents.
A cycling holiday simulator would, for me, be enough of a draw. But understandably, the French developer Cyanide Studio has built the game around the world’s most famous bicycle race, infusing those miles of open road with competition and strategy. You assume the role of a rider on a professional team, jostling within a crowded peloton over long, winding stages, some of which take more than half an hour to complete. Alongside the Tour de France are less celebrated races such as the Circuit Grand Est and the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, as well as the option to devise a tour of your own, arranging flat, hilly or mountain stages in whatever order you prefer.
There is plenty to entertain dabblers, such as the simple satisfaction of negotiating an easy corner without shedding too much speed, the whoosh of passing a parked Citroën
There is plenty to entertain dabblers, such as the simple satisfaction of negotiating an easy corner without shedding too much speed, the whoosh of passing a parked Citroën
Aside from steering your rider through bends, braking gently into corners, and avoiding crashes, most of the strategy lies – as it does in the real race – in managing energy. It is possible, of course, to sprint away from the start line, join a small breakaway of hopefuls and, for the first 30 or so miles (50 km), feel as though everything is sewn up. Soon, however, your stamina begins to drain, and your rider risks a “blow-up”; the moment your legs fail you, your pulse pounds in your ears and colour leaches away from the screen leaches as you watch – helplessly – your rivals stream past.
This is a game designed to accommodate enthusiasts and cycling nerds: people who understand how to fold into a TT (time trial) position, or what a wet road does to an elite racing tyre. But there is also plenty to entertain dabblers, such as the simple satisfaction of negotiating an easy corner without shedding too much speed, the whoosh of passing a parked Citroën, kicking up leaves in your wake, or the surprisingly rousing effect of a Frenchman shouting: “Allez! Allez!” from the roadside as you strain to take the lead.
Photograph by Cyanide Studio
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