Caja Rural is first and UAE is last: schedules, route, and favorites for an unprecedented team time trial in the Tour

The Tour de France 2026 begins this Saturday July 4 with a stage that breaks many of the race's traditions. Barcelona will host a team time trial of 19.6 kilometers that will award the first yellow jersey, and although the effort will be collective, the battle for the general classification will start from the very first meter. Here are the schedules 

The Tour de France kicks off in Barcelona: schedules, route, and favorites for an unprecedented team time trial

After several years without a team time trial in the Tour, the organization is bringing back this specialty to inaugurate the race, but with a modern format in which each rider will obtain their own individual time. This makes the day a particularly delicate test for the favorites, who will have to combine teamwork with the need not to lose contact with their direct rivals.

A fast route… until Montjuïc appears

The start will be located in the Parc del Fòrum and the teams will cover a large part of Barcelona's waterfront before entering the city's wide avenues.

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During the first kilometers, the course clearly favors the most powerful and coordinated squads. It will be terrain for great rollers and time trial specialists capable of maintaining very high speeds in formation.

However, the route changes completely in the final stretch. The climb to Montjuïc and the subsequent ascent to the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium will introduce a very different demand than that of a conventional time trial.

The last kilometers include a climb of approximately 1.1 kilometers at 5.1%, followed by a final effort of about 800 meters with gradients close to 7%. An ending sufficient for the most explosive leaders to make a difference even against their own teammates.

The first test for Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel

Although the stage barely exceeds 19 kilometers, the teams of the big favorites arrive under the spotlight.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG will be the last to start, at 18:55, and will do so with a lineup full of specialists like Brandon McNulty, Nils Politt, Florian Vermeersch, or Tim Wellens, in addition to Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro.

Five minutes earlier, Team Visma Lease a Bike will start, probably the strongest block on paper for this type of exercise, with riders like Edoardo Affini, Victor Campenaerts, Bruno Armirail, or Matteo Jorgenson at the service of Jonas Vingegaard.

Between them will be Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe (18:45), with Remco Evenepoel as the main individual reference in a stage that combines power and climbing ability.

We should also keep an eye on Netcompany INEOS, with specialists like Filippo Ganna and Joshua Tarling, and Lidl-Trek, which presents a very balanced formation around Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose.

Stage 1 start times