It’s official now. After years of negotiations, the 2026 Tour de France will start in the city of Barcelona. This was confirmed this Tuesday by the mayor of the city, Jaume Collboni, at an event at the Saló de Cent. “It is a great day for Barcelona, for sport and for cycling, and surely for all citizens,” said the president.
In this sense, the mayor announced that “I am proud to announce excellent news, which is that Barcelona will host the grand start of the Tour de France in 2026. It confirms Barcelona’s role as the capital of sport, for the benefit of Catalonia, Spain and of Europe”.
On May 14, The Councilor for Sports, David Escudé, explained that Barcelona was in the “final sprint”to host the start of the 2026 edition of the gala round, although then the last details remained. This Tuesday it has already been confirmed and the Tour organization has also made it official. Therefore, the Catalan capital will take over from Florence, which will host the start of the Tour in the 2024 edition, and from Lille, where the race will start in 2025.
The director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, assured EFE that Barcelona has “all the ingredients to be a great start to the race” in 2026, with its “sports geography”, between Montjuïc and the sea, its Olympic past and the support “of one of the great countries in world cycling. In addition, it will mark the growing proximity with Spain”, which was already reflected last year with the beginning in Bilbao.
It must be remembered that Barcelona hosted a stage of the Tour de France on several occasions, the last of which was in 2009. Then two days were held in Barcelona on July 9 and 10, with the end of the sixth stage between Girona and Barcelona and the start of the seventh stage, ending in Andorra.
