Finally, the Barcelonians say “About Time!” The capital of Catalonia has hosted a stage of the Tour de France three times in 1957, 1965, and 2009, but has never given the starting signal, which will finally materialize on July 4th when the 23 teams set off for a 19-kilometer team time trial to the foot of the Olympic Stadium at Montjuïc where the first yellow jersey of the 113th edition will be awarded.
“We are all looking forward to welcoming the Tour. We already had it in 2009, and I was in the peloton back then. But a Grand Départ is something else entirely. It’s going to be a party for days. It’s going to be fabulous,” explains former Spanish rider Juan Antonio Flecha, who won a stage in 2003 in Toulouse.
“More significant event after the Olympics”
As every year, ASO organizers marked the event at a ceremony on Thursday evening under the red brick Arc de Triomphe on Passeig Lluís Companys in the presence of the city’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, and Tour director Christian Prudhomme. “Barcelona has dreamed of the Tour for a long time,” emphasized Prudhomme. “When we came in 2009, the mayor at the time, Jordi Hereu, already had this Grand Départ project. But he was defeated in the following elections.”
The arrival in 2023 at Barcelona City Hall made the dream that Barcelona had been pursuing for more than ten years come true. The city will become the first city to have hosted a FIFA World Cup (in 1982), Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 1992), an America’s Cup (in 2024), and now “the biggest cycling race in the world.”
“It’s simple: after the 1992 Olympics, it’s the most important sporting event that Barcelona has ever hosted. It will be a great celebration of sports for the entire city,” said David Escudé, the city’s sports councilor.
This will be the fourth time in the last five years that the Tour de France will start from abroad after Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023, and Florence in 2024. A choice consistently claimed by the Tour director to “showcase France” through an event broadcasted in 190 countries.
Since foreign cities pay a hefty price for the ‘honor’ of hosting a Grand Départ that extends festivities for several days, the allure of Barcelona for the Tour organizers lies in the city’s prestige, beauty, seaside location, and hills that allow for selective first stages, according to Christian Prudhomme.
“Looking ahead, imagining”
The 2026 Tour will begin with a team time trial, a feature not seen in the Grande Boucle since 2019 in Brussels, passing by the Sagrada Familia before an explosive finish.
The second stage on Sunday between Tarragona and Barcelona will feature a triple ascent of the steep Montjuic castle climb for a new finish in front of the Olympic Stadium. The third stage will start from Granollers, in the outskirts of Barcelona, heading to France until Gavarnie circus via Tourmalet.
Thursday night’s J-100 festivities, a tradition since 2010 and the Rotterdam start, allowed people to “get a taste of the Tour de France, to look ahead, to imagine,” stated the Tour director. “It helps build excitement,” added Juan Antonio Flecha, “and remind everyone what awaits us in 100 days. The Tour de France is the world’s greatest race.”
