Barcelona 'ready to host' Tour de France Grand Départ 2026

The Barcelona mayor, Jaume Collboni, said that the Catalan capital is "ready to host" next year's Tour de France Grand Départ, scheduled for July 4.

Collboni spoke to media outlets from Paris, coinciding with the last stage of the 2025 edition of the world's famous bicycle competition.

Barcelona is "very excited and honored" to be the starting point of the upcoming edition.

"We are working hard to welcome this sporting event that we have been dreaming of for years," he added.

The city had "already hosted three different stages during the last years, but we had never hosted the Grand Départ," Collboni added.

The mayor attended the final stage in the French capital and received the trophy by French politicians Christian Poiret and Antoine Sillani.

During his media attention, Collboni praised that the bike is a "strong" mobility option in Barcelona.

Next year, the Grand Départ will be a 19.7-kilometer time trial going from Parc del Fòrum to Montjuïc mountain.

Collboni highlighted that next year's Grand Départ will have "a lot of sea presence, as we are a Mediterranean city, but there will also be a little bit of mountain, as the first stage will take place in the Montjuïc mountain, a lot of culture, and many city monuments."

Barcelona follows the other international cities, outside of France, who have hosted the Grand Départ such as Copenhagen in Denmark, Bilbao in Spain, and Florence in Italy.

Aside from Barcelona, the Tour de France 2026 will also see cyclists leaving Tarragona on the Stage 2 and reaching the Catalan capital in a 178-kilometer route, and leaving Granollers and reaching the French border on Stage 3.