This article was produced in collaboration with the Catalan Tourism Board
When the peloton rolls out for the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Barcelona – the capital of Catalonia – the city will become the backdrop for what could be the beginning of a historic edition. If the script of recent seasons holds, it may also mark the opening chapter in Tadej Pogačar’s quest for a fifth Tour victory. Few places offer such an exceptional setting: Mediterranean light, smooth roads, and the sudden hills that rise above the sea. Over three stages, the race reveals the many faces of Catalonia – from the explosive climbs of Montjuïc to the long roads that follow the coastline and the landscapes that begin to point towards the Pyrenees – inviting fans not only to watch the Tour, but to ride the landscape themselves.
Stage 1: “À la ville de… Barcelona”
Stage type: Team Time Trial
Distance: 19km
Elevation gain: 231m
On 17 October 1987, the then President of the International Olympic Committee, Joan Antoni Samaranch, uttered a phrase that would be forever etched into the collective memory of the city: “À la ville de… Barcelona.” With those words, it was confirmed that Barcelona would host the 1992 Olympic Games, an event that definitively placed the city on the world map and profoundly transformed it.
Those Games were not merely a sporting celebration. They were also a city project. A model of urban transformation that reshaped Barcelona forever, with enthusiastic supporters and equally convinced critics. The city turned its gaze towards the sea, redesigned its coastline, built the ring roads, transformed the Poblenou district with the Olympic Village and restored prominence to the “magic mountain” of Montjuïc. In short, it was an urban reinvention that still shapes the way the city is lived in and explored today.
Decades later, that Olympic spirit resonates again with another major sporting event: the Tour de France. The Grand Départ from Barcelona, in some ways, echoes that transformation. The route of the opening time trial cannot be fully understood without that city which redrew itself at the end of the twentieth century: a city open to the sea, connected by broad avenues and crowned by a hill that always seems destined for cycling.
It will be the first time the Tour departs from Barcelona, although the race has visited the city on three previous occasions. The first was in 1957, when the peloton arrived from Perpignan to finish the stage at the stadium on Montjuïc, long before the word “Olympic” became part of its destiny. The second visit came in 1965, in a stage that today could be described, without much exaggeration, as Pogačar-like. On that day, the Cantabrian rider José Pérez Francés launched an extraordinary 221-kilometre breakaway that ended on the ramps of Montjuïc – an epic gesture from another era of cycling. The third stop of the Tour in the Catalan capital came in the post-Olympic era, in 2009. And as if cycling followed an unwritten tradition, the stage once again finished on the “magic mountain”, where the Norwegian Thor Hushovd took the victory.
Montjuïc never fails when cycling comes knocking at Barcelona’s door. Nor does it in the Volta a Catalunya, the oldest stage race on the calendar after the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, which concludes each year with its traditional circuit there. The mountain also hosted the 1973 UCI Road World Championships, contested on its explosive climbs and descents, where Felice Gimondi triumphed ahead of Freddy Maertens, Luis Ocaña and Eddy Merckx.
Some mountains tell the story of a city. And in Barcelona, when cycling looks for a stage where it feels at home, it always ends up looking towards Montjuïc. As for the stage itself, it is a 19-kilometre team time trial with two important asterisks: the stage classification will be determined by the time of the first rider of each team, while for the overall standings times will be recorded individually. A regulatory nuance that introduces an additional tactical dimension.
The start is located at the Parc del Fòrum, a vast open space facing the Mediterranean where the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures was held. Over time, the site has become one of the city’s major cultural venues, hosting international music festivals such as Primavera Sound. From there, the route crosses Barcelona from northeast to south, linking wide avenues and long straight roads. More than a simple time trial, the stage becomes a journey past some of the city’s most recognisable architectural landmarks.
The teams will ride past the unmistakable silhouette of the Sagrada Família, one of the masterpieces of Antoni Gaudí and one of the most recognisable buildings in the world. Still under construction, the basilica forms part of a UNESCO-protected heritage site and is arguably Barcelona’s most universal symbol. The calendar also brings a remarkable coincidence: in 2026 the completion of the Tower of Jesus Christ is expected, coinciding with the centenary of Gaudí’s death and a visit from the Pope. The route then continues along the elegant Passeig de Gràcia, where riders pass two more of Gaudí’s modernist jewels: Casa Batlló and La Pedrera.
The stage concludes on the slopes of Montjuïc, with an intriguing uphill double section in the final kilometres. The finish line, set in front of the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, completes a route that connects cycling with two of the city’s great narratives: its architecture and its Olympic memory.
Stage 2: From Tarraco to Barcino
Departure: Tarragona
Arrival: Barcelona
Distance: 182km
Elevation gain: 2,391m
The second stage of the Tour departs from Tarragona, the only Catalan city declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is no coincidence that the peloton begins from the ancient Roman Tarraco: few cities combine history, landscape and Mediterranean culture so effectively.
From there, the Tour heads north on an 182-kilometre stage with a broken profile – the kind of terrain that invites tactical imagination. It is favourable ground for a selective breakaway, although it would not be surprising if the general classification riders sense an opportunity and decide to play their cards.
The passage through Vilanova i la Geltrú, hometown of one of the most recognisable Catalan riders in today’s peloton, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), introduces the peloton to one of the most popular cycling areas around the Barcelona metropolitan region. The Garraf Coast has long been a favourite training road for cyclists – a true balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, with winding terrain and constant undulations, although also with significant traffic.
Later comes the climb to Begues, a second-category ascent that forms part of the local cycling map. At weekends the road fills with cycling groups who, almost unknowingly, recreate the same route the Tour will follow that day. Something similar happens with the climb to Santa Creu d’Olorda, another deeply cycling-friendly road within the Collserola Natural Park, the great green lung of Barcelona. It is a beloved climb among local riders: little traffic, a steady gradient and the feeling of pedalling in nature, even though the city lies only a few kilometres away.
The descent via La Rabassada – another local classic – after passing the slopes of Tibidabo, opens the gateway to the city. From there the peloton enters the streets of Barcelona before heading towards the inevitable finale: Montjuïc. It is there that the decisive circuit of the stage will unfold. It will not be exactly the same one that traditionally closes the Volta a Catalunya, but it will retain that nervous, short and explosive character that makes Montjuïc one of the most unpredictable urban finishes in cycling – and a true celebration of the bicycle. It is also a perfect spot to watch the race pass and enjoy the spectacle.
Stage 3 Towards the Pyrenees
Departure: Granollers
Arrival: Les Angles
Distance: 196km
Elevation gain: 3,906m
Catalonia is one of those territories where, within little more than 150 kilometres, the landscape changes dramatically. You move from sea level to peaks rising above 2,000 metres. This geographical diversity is clearly felt in the third stage of the Tour de France.
The stage starts in Granollers, on the outskirts of Barcelona – a city that also holds a special place in sporting history as the birthplace of Spanish handball. From there, the peloton embarks on a long journey northwards, crossing the border to finish at the ski resort of Les Angles in France. It is a hard and long stage with almost 4,000 metres of climbing, with an ascending profile for most of the day.
From a cyclotourism perspective, it is a stage that would be difficult to ride in its entirety, partly because some sections follow high roads, but if divided into segments and through small roads, it reveals its true richness – and becomes far more enjoyable.
One of the first symbolic points is the passage through Sant Miquel del Fai, a site suspended between cliffs and waterfalls where the landscape seems to hang above the valley. The route then continues towards Vic, a historic centre of inland Catalonia. Located at the heart of the territory, Vic acts as a natural hinge between a rolling central plain and the first glimpses of the Pyrenees.
Another landmark along the way is the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, one of the country’s great cultural symbols. Founded in 879, it was for centuries a centre of knowledge and literary production, as well as a symbolic gateway to the Pyrenees. For the peloton, its presence also marks the definitive change of landscape: the big mountains are near.
The first real contact with them arrives at La Molina, a historic ski resort in the Pyrenees, where the road toughens and the terrain offers little respite. Shortly afterwards comes Puigcerdà, the last major Catalan town before crossing the border. Located on the wide plain of La Cerdanya, it is an ideal destination for cycling, with routes branching out in every direction and one of the professional peloton’s favourite places to train throughout the year.
After leaving Puigcerdà, the stage heads definitively towards Les Angles, in the French Pyrenees. At 1,800 metres above sea level, the ski resort marks the finish of a long and demanding day in the saddle.
