A Volta a Catalunya full of ambitions reveals all the details of its 2026 editions
February 5 th 2026 - 20:29 [GMT + 1]
This Thursday 5th February, the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya held the official presentation of its men's and women's races, which will be once again key events in the world’s cycling scene. This 2026 season, the 105th edition of the men's Volta will take place between 23 and 29 March, with the announced participation of an impressive list of stars led by Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock, amongst others, while the 3rd edition of the women's race will take place on 19, 20 and 21 June, hoping to consolidate the level that has led to the crowning in its first two editions of two icons, Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering.
The Catalan cycling race, a benchmark in the international cycling calendar, has released all the details of the route for its two events at the official presentation ceremony held at the Atrium Theatre in Viladecans. Ten days of competition throughout Catalunya, comprising seven stages for the men and three for the women races, were presented today at an event attended by various authorities, including the Minister for Sport of the Government of Catalonia, Berni Álvarez, and Rubèn Peris, president of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, together with numerous deputies, mayors, councillors, institutions, bodies and sponsors who support the historic Catalan organisation.
Olga Morales, Mayor of Viladecans, welcomed everyone to the event, while David Escudé, Deputy for Sports at the Barcelona Provincial Council and Councillor for Sports at Barcelona City Council, gave the opening speech, followed by Rubèn Peris, the event's director: "The Volta a Catalunya is a top-level sporting event that brings images of our region to the whole world. It is a precious treasure that we are able to maintain thanks to our track record and experience, and the trust of our partners, volunteers and the institutions that support us", he said.
A third edition of the women's stage race to continue aiming high
The presentation of the route for the Volta a Catalunya women's race, which will hold its third edition on the cycling calendar as a UCI 2.1 international category event from 19 to 21 June, marked the first phase of the event. Patrícia Ortega, the race's sporting director, presented all the details of a route that will begin with a Grand Start from the town of Santa Susanna, in the Maresme region, represented at the event by its mayor, Joan Campolier.
The route for this first day will cover a total of 92.1 kilometres, starting and finishing in Santa Susanna, and will decide the first leader of the competition after overcoming two mountain passes in the Montnegre i el Corredor Natural Park. The long climbs will be the protagonist on the second day, with a 130-kilometre route starting in Sant Vicenç de Castellet and featuring the special category climb of Coll de la Creueta as the main mountain difficulty before the finish in La Molina, which decided the winner of the 2024 edition. Finally, the race will conclude with a 110.8-kilometre stage starting in Mataró and finishing on Avinguda Maria Cristina in Barcelona, which will crown the third champion in the history of the Volta after the victories in the last two seasons of two icons such as Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering.
The event was also attended by cyclists Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) and Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ), the two leading figures in Catalan professional cycling nowadays, whose teams are among the five UCI Women's WorldTeams that have confirmed their participation in the Volta.
Three mountain finishes and an stellar start-list: Vingegaard, Evenepoel...
After unveiling the official posters for the two editions of the 2026 Volta a Catalunya, designed by the painter Xavier Mateo, the men's race was presented. The 105th edition, which will take place between 23 and 29 March, is firmly established as one of the major events on the world's top-tier circuit, the UCI WorldTour. The race director, Rubèn Peris, presented the official jerseys for the competition and introduced all the new features of the route, which, with seven stages between Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Barcelona, will once again have the mountains as its main feature. In total, there will be three extremely tough stages with mountain finishes (Vallter, La Molina/Coll de Pal and Queralt), which will be a major test for cyclists such as two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, Olympic and world champion Remco Evenepoel, and other international stars such as Tom Pidcock, Joao Almeida, Florian Lipowitz, Enric Mas, Sepp Kuss, Marc Soler and Mikel Landa, who have already confirmed the Volta in their calendars.
Carles Motas, mayor of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, the town hosting the Grand Depart for the fifth consecutive year; Enric Adell, president of the Tarragona Provincial Council Tourism Board; Jordi Camps, vice-president and deputy for culture of the Girona Provincial Council, and Òscar Martínez, councillor for Public Health and Sports of the Lleida Provincial Council, shared their views before revealing the details of the stages in which the cyclists will seek to be the following names names on a palmares where Slovenians Primoz Roglic (2025 and 2023) and Tadej Pogacar (2024) became the last winners. The route has a total elevation gain of over 20,000 metres and has been assessed by cyclists such as Jaume Guardeño (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), who was present at the event, Sepp Kuss (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) and Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek).
The starting gun will be fired on Monday 23 March from the Guíxols Arena, marking the start of a 172.7-kilometre stage starting and finishing in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, which will leave the door open to all types of cyclists capable of fighting for the first leader's jersey. The elevation gain will start with the initial climb to Alt de Romanyà (3rd category) before heading to the Guilleries mountains, where the cyclists will tackle the first 1st category mountain pass of the edition, Alt de Sant Hilari Sacalm. Enough efforts before the approach to the explosive finish on Carretera de Girona, which always offers thrilling finishes.
The second stage will cover 167 kilometres between Figueres and Banyoles, reversing the route taken in the last edition. On this occasion, the capital of Alt Empordà will be the starting point for a stage which, despite reaching a cumulative elevation gain of 2,000 metres, will only have one mountain pass (Alt del Purgatori, 3rd category) as a scoring difficulty in its first few kilometres. The race will cross the Empordà region and then head for La Garrotxa, whose volcanic terrain will add to the excitement of a possible sprint finish on the Passeig de Mossèn Constans in Banyoles.
Meanwhile, the third stage will witness the return of the Costa Daurada to the Volta four years after hosting one of the most memorable stages in recent years. With a profile similar in spirit to that stage in 2022, this year's 160-kilometre route between the Josep Florencio Municipal Velodrome in Mont-roig del Camp and Vila-seca will feature three scoring climbs through the Prades and Montsant Mountains. The iconic Alt de La Mussara (1st category), Coll de Capafonts (2nd category) and Coll Roig (3rd category) will mark a mid-mountain route that could bring surprises.
The first of three consecutive mountain stages in this Volta will take place in the fourth day of competition, which will start in Mataró, commemorating 100 years of its club Esport Ciclista Mataró. It will cover 173 kilometres, ending at Vallter ski station, the cycling summit of Catalunya at an altitude of over 2,100 metres. After climbing the Coll de Parpers (3rd category) and Alt de Sant Feliu de Codines (2nd category) in the early part of the parcours, the stage will be decided on a hors category climb which, with 11.4 kilometres of climbing at an average gradient of 7.6%, will lay the cards on the table among the contenders for the overall victory.
The fifth stage will further test the climbing abilities of the participants in this 105th Volta a Catalunya, in a day that will cover 155 kilometres from La Seu d'Urgell and reach a cumulative elevation gain of 4,500 metres, revealing the steepest slopes of Alt Urgell and Berguedà. The debut in Lleida province of Port Colldarnat (1st category), known as ‘the Catalan Stelvio’ due to the iconic curves of its ascent, combined with the gruelling Coll de Josa (2nd category) and the steep gradients of the Coll de Fumanya (1st category) and the Collada Sobirana (1st category), will give the cyclists no respite until the final arrival at the dreaded Coll de Pal (special category), 17 endless kilometres at an average gradient of 7% which decided last year's women's race.
The third and decisive mountain stage, on the penultimate day of the race, will seek to replicate the spectacle that amazed the cycling world in 2024 and which could not be fully enjoyed last season due to weather conditions. After the first contact on the previous day, the full cycling potential of Berguedà can be experienced in its 158 explosive kilometres of route, which include the scoring climbs to Coll de la Batallola (3rd category), the celebrated Coll de Pradell (hors category) and the Collada de Sant Isidre (1st category) before a final climb to Queralt (1st category) that could decide the overall winner of this 105th edition of the Volta.
Finally, the 2026 Volta a Catalunya will conclude with its traditional stage starting and finishing in the city of Barcelona, which in the last two years (Tadej Pogacar in 2024 and Primoz Roglic in 2025) has seen the overall winner of the competition take the stage victory. In an even more explosive route, the stage will cover a total of 95 kilometres, including up to seven climbs to Alt del Castell de Montjuïc (2nd category), one more than in previous years. The cyclists will reach Viladecans and Castelldefels before returning to Barcelona, where the tough slopes of Montjuïc could bring about the final decisive changes in the overall classification in an incomparable festive setting.
The event was closed with a speech by Berni Álvarez, Minister of Sport for the Generalitat de Catalunya. In the final stretch of the presentation, attendees were treated to a live performance of the official song of the 2026 Volta a Catalunya: ‘Addicte a la serotonina’ by Yung Rajola, winner of the iCatVolta contest. Alongside this, the Medals of Honour awarded annually by the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya were also presented. This year, they went to Esport Ciclista Mataró in celebration of its centenary, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, sponsor of the race, EFE Barcelona journalist Paco Ávila, Marisa Jiménez, technician at the Institut Barcelona Esports, Volta collaborator Jordi Roca, and deputy director general of the Servei Català de Trànsit, Lourdes Puigbarraca.
