The Spanish Road Championship can be watched for free: dates, schedules, and favorites

As every year, the weekend before the start of the Tour de France is reserved by the UCI for the various national championships in European lands, including, of course, the Spanish Championship which this year will take place in Granada and the roads of Sierra Nevada and the region of Guadix as an incomparable setting for the dispute of the different red and yellow jerseys.

Alex Aranburu seeks to defend his title: Favorites to win the Spanish Cycling Championship

Between Friday, June 27 and Sunday, June 29, Granada will host a spectacular Spanish Cycling Championship, if only for the fantastic surroundings of the Andalusian province that takes over from the last two editions held in Madrid.

The time trial will take place on Friday, June 27 with the novelty of being held in a hill climb format, which undoubtedly gives a unique opportunity to defend the title surprisingly won last year by David de la Cruz.

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The Q36.5 cyclist will not have it easy, as he will have to face very fit cyclists, among whom stand out the two top specialists in individual time trials among Spanish cyclists. We are talking about Iván Romeo who has been showing spectacular form in recent weeks and who achieved a brilliant stage victory in the Critérium du Dauphiné, culminating in an escape with top-level cyclists.

The other main contender for the title can only be Raúl García Pierna, who recently won the time trial that marked the start of the Route d'Occitanie.

It will also be interesting to see what Adrià Pericas, the upcoming promise of Spanish cycling, is capable of. He also arrives in great form after competing in the Giro Next where, although he did not achieve any victories, he performed at the level of the best, finishing the race in a commendable 7th place in the general classification.

On Sunday, the 29th, it will be the turn for the road race where Alex Aranburu will try to continue wearing the coveted red and yellow jersey. Fortunately for him, Cofidis has a good representation of Spanish cyclists who will also participate in this race to support him, including names like Jesús Herrada, Ion Izagirre, Jonathan Lastra, and Sergio Samitier.

However, as is customary in the Spanish Championships, the riders of the only World Tour team in this country will be the ones to beat, both for the team's average level and for the numerical superiority that allows them to control the race at will. Among the Movistar cyclists who adapt to the Granada route and who could be in the fight for victory, we must mention some like Iván Romeo, Pablo Castrillo, Pelayo Sánchez, or Carlos Canal.

Other cyclists will have a harder time, not due to lack of quality but due to the numerical disadvantage they will face. In any case, names like Carlos Verona and Juanpe López from Lidl-Trek, and as we mentioned in the time trial, the emerging Adrià Pericas who will surely try to present his credentials in his first participation in the Elite category.

Route of the Spanish Cycling Championship

As mentioned before, the main novelty of this 2025 edition of the Spanish Cycling Championships is that the time trial will be a hill climb. Obviously, being a hill climb means that the distance to be covered is also shorter, exactly 14 kilometers where they will ascend 727 meters of elevation to finish in Sierra Nevada.

A time trial that, despite its climbing nature, takes place on a wide road with a steady and constant slope, so we would not rule out cyclists participating using their time trial bikes and aerodynamic equipment as in any other time trial.

On the other hand, the road race will start and finish in Granada after covering a route of 191 kilometers with a total elevation gain of 3,782 meters. However, the format of the race has been criticized with an initial section that will lead the cyclists from the capital to the region of Guadix through the Blancares pass.

Once this pass is overcome, they will reach the town of La Peza, around which the participants will have to complete 5 laps of a circuit before retracing the initial section back to Granada, crossing the Blancares pass again, after which they will face a completely favorable section of 40 kilometers. A circuit with constant climbs and no rest that will serve on its own to make a significant selection in the peloton for the final stretch of the race where the winner of the Spanish Cycling Championship will be decided.

Where to watch the Spanish Cycling Championship

There will be extensive television coverage of the Spanish Cycling Championship. In addition to the usual options of Eurosport and the Max platform on one side, and Teledeporte and RTVE Play on the other, various regional channels such as Castilla y León TV, La 7 Murcia, Telemadrid, Aragon TV, and Canal Sur will also broadcast the event.

If these options are not enough, there will also be live streaming through the RFEC YouTube channel, allowing us to follow all the events of the 2025 Spanish Cycling Championships.

We can follow the different events that make up the Spanish championships at the following times:

Friday 27

• 8:45 to 16:45 - Time trial for all categories

Saturday 28

• 8:15 to 11:15 - Junior women's road race

• 11:15 to 15:00 - Junior men's road race

• 17:15 to 20:15 - U23 men's road race

Sunday 29

• 10:30 to 12:45 - Elite/U23 women's road race

• 16:45 to 18:45 - UCI elite men's road race