Barcelona is passionate about being the starting point of the 2026 Tour

The 2026 Tour de France will start at home, in Barcelona, ​​the finish of the first two stages, and in Catalunya. It will be a weekend, on July 1st next year, full of passion for yellow, the colour of the Tour.

There are 16 months to go until 4 July 2026, but some of that fever was already felt at the Grand Départ presentation ceremony at the Casa de la Llotja de Mar in Barcelona, ​​where cycling champions such as Miguel Indurain, Carlos Sastre, Joaquim Rodríguez, Roberto Heras and Àngel Edo met. “The opportunity to have the best race in the world come to your doorstep is worthy of thanks to those who have achieved it,” confirmed Indurain, winner of five yellow jerseys. He knows what he is talking about, as a cyclist he experienced the start in San Sebastián in 1992 or the finish of the stage in Pamplona in 1996.

The Tour is a unique opportunity to make Catalonia known to the world through sport and landscape. With the union of Catalonia and the Tour, we all win." Salvador Illa President of the Generalitat of Catalonia

Like almost everything in cycling, the start of the Tour de France from Barcelona has been a long-distance, endurance race, with a lot of invisible work. It all started in 2009, when the French round visited the Catalan capital for the last time. Then, the victory, in a watery way, went to Hushvod. That was when a historic agreement began to take shape that took 15 years to crystallize because interest fell out during a couple of terms in office. The insistence has paid off. “Thank you for the trust because Barcelona is a dream for us. You have the prestige of the city, the mountains, the sea and your way of doing things,” confessed the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme.

“In recent years, the Tour has passed through Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Spain. The Tour represents Europe, the Tour is a reflection of diversity and the Tour is a symbol of coexistence and peace, it has been an example of fraternity. The Tour does not understand borders but unites territories, it is an element of union,” said the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, happy about the start from Barcelona. “The Tour is a unique opportunity to make Catalonia known to the world through sport and landscape. With the union of Catalonia and the Tour, we all win,” he celebrated.

The Mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, considered that the start, which will be the fourth visit (1957, 1965 and the aforementioned one in 2009), does justice to the cycling tradition of the city and the country, birthplace of races such as the centenary Volta a Catalunya or the extinct Setmana Catalana and Escalada a Montjuïc. “Today we fulfill a dream that the city has been pursuing for years. We will be the only city in the world that has hosted the Summer Olympic Games (1992), a World Cup (1982), the America's Cup (2024) and now a start of the Tour de France,” he proudly proclaimed, while noting the 270 km of bike lanes that the city has for getting around.

Furthermore, with the route and the profiles of the Catalan stages revealed, no one would be surprised if on 4 or 5 July 2026, Tadej Pogacar or even Jonas Vingegaard, the last two winners, stand on the podium at the finish line in Montjuïc to collect the yellow jersey.

We will be the only city in the world that has hosted the Summer Olympics, the World Cup, the America's Cup and now the start of the Tour de France." Jaume Collboni Mayor of Barcelona

The route that the organisers have designed is one that will be a spectacle from day one. From the very team time trial that will open the Tour, something that has not happened since 1971. The starting ramp for the cyclists will be at the Fòrum and they will have to get to Montjuïc, on a picture-postcard circuit that includes the coast, the Olympic Port, the Sagrada Familia and Gaudí's Casa Batlló, Plaza España and the Venetian towers.

From a sporting point of view, there are two clearly visible differences with the time trial that opened the Vuelta a España in 2023. The first is that the finish will not be on Avenida María Cristina but will go up the Lliure and Paseo Santa Madrona to the Olympic promenade, passing the Palau Sant Jordi. In other words, half of the last four kilometres will be uphill.

Barcelona is a dream for us. You have the prestige of the city, the mountains, the sea and your way of doing things." Christian Prudhomme Director of the Tour de France

The second novelty, and nothing is by chance, is that the usual regulations of this modality will be changed, in which it is the fourth cyclist of each team to cross the finish line who stops the clock. In Barcelona, ​​this will not be the case, but the times will be counted individually. An invention that ASO, the organiser of the Tour, already tested in Paris-Nice in 2023 with success for the Vismas led by Vingegaard.

The excitement will not end here, as on the second day, Sunday 5th, the peloton will leave Tarragona to ride along the coast with summer resorts such as Torredembarra, Coma-ruga, Cunit or Sitges to enter Barcelona via Sarrià after descending through Vallvidrera and ending with a triple climb to the top of Castell de Montjuïc, with 1.6 km at an average of 9.3%, on a busy circuit conducive to guerrilla warfare. "I think they will not make it to the sprint. The race will end up broken," predicted Carlos Sastre, winner of the 2008 Tour.

On Monday, the Tour will continue along Catalan roads with a third stage starting in Granollers and heading to France, most likely with destination Perpignan.