Cycling: 2026 Tour de France to begin with team time trial in Barcelona

The 2026 Tour de France will begin with a team time trial in the heart of Barcelona, ​​organizers and the city announced at a press conference Tuesday in the Catalan capital. It will be the first time since 2019 in Brussels - and the first time in history for a first stage - that a team time trial will be on the menu of the Tour, whose 113th edition will start on Saturday, July 4, 2026 from Barcelona for the 26th start from abroad, the fourth in five years.

As has been the case in Paris-Nice for the past two years, the team time trial ranking will be based on the time of the first rider in each formation, but times will be recorded individually for the overall ranking. The 19.7 km course is set out in the heart of Barcelona , ​​which has already hosted the Tour three times in 1957, 1965 and 2009 but never a "grand départ".

The time trial will include a round trip along the seaside, a passage at the foot of the Sagrada Familia and a lively finale with the Montjuic hill (1.1 km at 5.1%) and that of the Olympic Stadium (800 m at 7%) where the finish will be judged and the first yellow jersey awarded. A famous finish since it is also that of the Tour of Catalonia.

The second stage, also unveiled on Tuesday, will start in Tarragona and finish in Barcelona after 178 km and a triple ascent of the Montjuic castle climb (1.6 km including 600 m at 13%). The next day, the peloton will set off from Granollers, on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​to head towards France and a finish city that will not be revealed until October with the rest of the route.

This will be the 26th foreign start, the fourth in five years after Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023 and Florence in 2024, while the 2025 edition will start in Lille. The director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme , claims that these international starts contribute to the influence of the event, knowing that they also bring a significant financial windfall.