The Paula Blasi phenomenon and Marianne Vos’s return rise expectations ahead of the 3rd women’s Volta a Catalunya
June 18 th 2026 - 16:07 [GMT + 2]
The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya is about to kick off the third edition of its women’s stage race, which this year has seen heightened expectations ahead of its three days of competition between Santa Susanna and Barcelona on 19, 20 and 21 June. The home appearance of Catalan rider Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ), the standout revelation of a season that has catapulted her to second place in the UCI World Ranking, and the return of a former winner, the veteran Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) – a true legend of international women’s cycling who opened the new format of the Catalan race with a victory in 2024 – alongside other top-level contenders, are the major sporting highlights of a competition featuring a demanding route, with a key day comprising a major mountain stage finishing at La Molina.
A peloton of more than 140 cyclists spread across 21 teams will gather this Friday in the coastal town of Santa Susanna to kick off the edition with the highest number of participants in the history of the women’s Volta a Catalunya, which will seek to build on its spectacular list of winners, featuring two major names in women’s cycling: Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering, the most recent champion. The presence of five UCI WorldTeams (AG Insurance-Soudal, FDJ United-Suez, Movistar Team, Team Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team ADQ) leads a high-calibre field in which Catalan representation will be unprecedented..
Blasi and Benito, local heroes in front of strong contenders
The season of Catalan star Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) – who in recent months has won the Vuelta a España, a renowned classic at Amstel Gold Race, and, most recently, the Tour of the Pyrenees – has been the big sensation in the international cycling scene. The cyclist from Esplugues de Llobregat, aged 23, has catapulted herself into the world elite with a spectacular rise that places her among the top favourites for victory, just two years after her debut at the Volta in 2024 – her first ever cycling competition in cycling. Blasi will face some top-class rivals.
Two years after becoming the first-ever champion of the women’s Volta a Catalunya, Dutch legend Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) will return to the race with high ambitions on her path to the Tour de France, accompanied by a top-class second-in-command in the form of the young French rider Marion Bunel, who finished third in the last edition of the Volta and also secured a podium place at the recent Vuelta a España, where she demonstrated her climbing talent. Her compatriot Évita Muzic (FDJ United-Suez) will also be a force to be reckoned with in the mountains, having won mountain stages in the Giro and the Vuelta and recently finishing second in the Vuelta a Burgos, where the Catalan rider Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal) also demonstrated her excellent form with a fourth place in the final general classification. The rider from Llorenç del Penedès, a three-time Spanish time trial champion, also returns to her home race after two years having established herself as a key figure in the international peloton and forming a powerful duo alongside her team-mate Ashleigh Moolman Pasio.
Strong ambitions to fight for the stages
FDJ United-Suez will also play a major role in the fight for stages with New Zealand sprinter Ally Wollaston, a two-time stage winner at the 2024 Volta a Catalunya, and the young French rider Célia Gery, who recently won a stage at the Giro d’Italia. They will face rivals such as Nienke Veenhoven (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), a pure sprinter who will be riding alongside Marianne Vos herself – also a contender for stage wins thanks to her speed – as well as the Italians Silvia Persico and Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), who finished third in the Milan–San Remo, the Dutch rider Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels), recent winner of the GP Morbihan and a stage of the Tour of the Pyrenees, and the young British rider Carys Lloyd (Movistar Team), winner of a top-tier race such as the Tour of Bruges this March.
The Volta a Catalunya will also provide a stage to see promising talents such as Paula Ostiz (Movistar Team), the junior world champion, ahead of other leading riders of her generation such as Norway’s Oda Aune Gissinger (Hitec Products) and Canada’s Sidney Swierenga (Team Jayco-AlUla), who have already achieved good results in their first few months in the peloton. This demonstrates the Volta a Catalunya’s commitment to developing young talent. Amongst its 21 participating teams they figure three local structures: Massi Baix Ter, where Paula Blasi made her debut two years ago and which last year secured the best Catalan rider’s jersey with Laura Gómez; EC Mataró-Skoda Mogadealer; and the Catalan national team, rounding off an expected line-up of around fifteen Catalan riders alongside other familiar faces in the race such as Mireia Trias and Íngrid Ruiz (Team Farto-BTC).
From Santa Susanna to Barcelona, with La Molina as a key point
This third edition of the Volta a Catalunya as a stage race, which is becoming increasingly established on the international calendar as a UCI 2.1 event, will feature three days of competition, offering opportunities for a variety of rider profiles. The race gets underway this Friday with the opening stage, starting and finishing in the town of Santa Susanna, which is making its debut as a host town for the Volta. Covering a distance of 91.9 kilometres, the stage will venture into the Montnegre i el Corredor Nature Park, where riders will tackle the 3rd-category mountain climbs of Coll del Pollastre and Alt de Collsacreu, before tackling a less demanding second half of the race before returning to Santa Susanna, where the race’s first leader will be decided.
On Saturday, the real mountains will once again play a key role in deciding the overall winner of the Volta a Catalunya, taking centre stage on the second stage. It will be a gruelling stage covering 130 kilometres with over 3,300 metres of elevation gain, starting from Sant Vicenç de Castellet and finishing at the La Molina mountain resort – the very place where the race was decided two years ago in favour of Marianne Vos – where the race’s top climbers will play a major role. In this case, the approach to the Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat de Cataluña station will present the challenges of the Coll de la Batallola (3rd category) and, in particular, the seemingly endless Coll de la Creueta, a special category climb, which, with over 21 kilometres of ascent culminating within the final ten kilometres of the stage, is sure to prove a gruelling test that will break up the peloton before the descent towards the final slopes at La Molina.
Finally, on Sunday, the final stage of this Volta a Catalunya will take place, crowning its third female champion in the city of Barcelona after a 111.4-kilometre stage starting from the town of Mataró, which will once again take centre stage in this year’s Volta three months after the men’s race, marking the centenary of Esport Ciclista Mataró. It will be a gruelling final stage, beginning with the climb up the Coll de Parpers (3rd category), whilst the central section of the stage through the Vallès and Baix Llobregat regions will continue over undulating terrain before the final kilometres leading to the finish on the iconic Avinguda Maria Cristina, which has seen stage victories decided in sprints over the last two years.
Three days of spectacular racing featuring top-class riders, which can be followed live on television on Televisió de Catalunya (Esport3 on Friday, TV3 on Saturday and Sunday, and on the 3Cat digital platform), on RTVE (Teledeporte and the RTVE Play platform), and on Eurosport’s digital channels..