The 2026 Tour will start in Barcelona with a team time trial and will have 3 stages in Catalonia

It had been rumored that it could happen and has just been confirmed by ASO. Barcelona joins San Sebastián, in 1992, and Bilbao just two editions ago in hosting the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2026 with the dispute of the first three stages in Catalan lands of which, ASO revealed the route of the first two after making this announcement.

A team time trial and the traditional Montjuic circuit, stages of the start of the Tour 2026

It is not the first time that the Tour de France has Barcelona as a stage as the race already passed through these lands in the 1957, 1965, and 2009 editions, but it will be the first time that the Tour de France chooses Barcelona as the starting point of the 20226 edition of the race.

A Tour de France 2026 that will start on July 4 with a 19.7-kilometer team time trial, a discipline that seemed forgotten by the French race and that is recovered on an atypical route for this type of effort. It is a purely urban time trial, hopefully at normal hours to avoid controversy over the lack of light that accompanied the last time trial held in Barcelona as the start of La Vuelta 2023.

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The starting point will be located at the Barcelona Forum, running in its first 15 kilometers through major avenues, minimizing complicated turns and passing through some iconic landmarks such as the Olympic Port or the Sagrada Familia. As a dessert to this time trial, the teams will have to climb the Montjuic mountain through the traditional circuit, with a first ascent almost to the finish line, a small descent, and a final steep slope, 800 m at 7% average gradient, to reach the finish at the foot of the Olympic Stadium of Montjuic.

The second day, in line, will have a route of 178.4 kilometers that will start in Tarragona to run in its first 84 kilometers along the coast. From there, the race will head inland to seek more rugged terrain, with the port of Begues and the Santa Creu d'Olorda. From this last climb, the race will arrive in Barcelona to do 3 laps around the Montjuic circuit with the incentive, as the Volta a Catalunya has been doing in its recent editions, of including the tough climb to the Castell de Montjuic, 1.6 km at 9.3% and whose final stretch is almost 500 m at over 13%.

The Tour de France 2026 will bid farewell to Catalonia with a third stage that will start in Granollers although we still do not know the destination where this stage will head, only that it is a town in France, something that practically rules out the Tour heading towards Andorra as La Vuelta 2023 did two years ago.