A Volta a Catalunya packed with mountains and star champions
March 21 st 2026 - 11:40 [GMT + 1]
Everything is set for the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya to once again bring together the biggest stars of international cycling for its 105th edition. A peloton comprising 161 riders from the world’s 23 top teams will set off on Monday 23 March from Sant Feliu de Guíxols for seven days of competition in the historic Catalan race, which will conclude on Sunday 29 in Barcelona. Expectations are sky-high thanks to the combination of the gruelling route – which will once again feature three major mountain stages – and the exceptional calibre of the participants. Names such as Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, João Almeida, Tom Pidcock and Florian Lipowitz are just some of the many riders hoping to take the baton from the recent champions of the Catalan race, two generational icons: the Slovenians Primož Roglič (2025 and 2023) and Tadej Pogačar (2024), among a list of participants that includes seven winners of different Grand Tours.
The race debut of Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), a two-time winner of the Tour de France and the most recent Vuelta a España, is one of the major highlights of this year’s Volta a Catalunya, after a crash prevented him from taking part in last year’s edition. The Danish climber, who arrives in fine form for the Catalan event after dominating the recent Paris-Nice, will face stiff competition from the Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), a multiple Olympic and world champion and winner of a Vuelta, and the Portuguese João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), winner of many of the top one-week races on the UCI WorldTour calendar and second in the last Vuelta a España behind Vingegaard. Both have unfinished business with the Catalan race, where they have made their mark in previous appearances by winning stages and finishing on the overall podium, without securing victory.
The presence of all the Pogačar’s rivals who finished in the top five of the latest Tour de France demonstrates the calibre of the field expected at this year’s Volta a Catalunya. Germany’s Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Britain’s Oscar Onley (Ineos Grenadiers) and Austria’s Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) are just some of the highlights on a list of contenders for the overall victory, which includes other star hopefuls such as Britain’s Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36. 5 Pro Cycling), a multiple world and Olympic mountain bike champion who last year cemented his commitment to the Grand Tours by finishing on the final podium of the Vuelta a España alongside Vingegaard and Almeida, whom he will face again in this Volta a Catalunya.
In total, the 105th edition of the Catalan race will feature seven riders who have won different Grand Tours, in addition to Vingegaard and Evenepoel, many of whom have already been key figures in the Volta, such as the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), winner of the Giro d’Italia, a podium finisher in all three Grand Tours and an Olympic champion, the veteran Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team), winner of the 2016 Volta a Catalunya and champion of one Giro and one Vuelta, the American Sepp Kuss (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), winner of a Vuelta a España, and two Giro d’Italia champions such as Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). An endless list of prominent names is rounded off by riders who have also made their mark on the Volta, such as Enric Mas (Movistar Team) and Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), who have both stood on the final podium in Barcelona, the Italian Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and the Australian Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla), winners of major mountain stages in previous editions, Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious), best young rider, and also illustrious debutants such as the Canadian Derek Gee (Lidl-Trek).
Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is another rider who knows what it’s like to step onto the podium at his home race; he will be making his eleventh consecutive appearance, leading the line-up of seven Catalan cyclists on the start line alongside his team-mate Adrià Pericas, who is making his debut in the race, David De Cruz and Marcel Camprubí (Pinarello-Q36. 5), Abel Balderstone, Jan Castellón and Sergi Darder (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). Meanwhile, among the contenders for stage victories, Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling Team), a two-time stage winner at the Volta a Catalunya, will face stiff competition from veterans such as Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Sam Bennett (Pinarello-Q36.5), stage winners in all three Grand Tours, and the Frenchman Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers), recent stage winner at Paris-Nice, some of the fastest men in a peloton that boasts more than 100 stage victories across the Giro, Tour and Vuelta.
An unrivalled triple mountain challenge
The 105th edition of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya will take place between 23 and 29 March, covering more than 1,080 kilometres across seven stages between Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Barcelona, with the mountains stages taking centre. In total, riders will climb over 20,000 metres of elevation gain during a week of competition that will begin with three stages offering opportunities for stage hunters: the opening stage in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, the second between Figueres and Banyoles, and the third through the inland areas of the Costa Daurada, before tackling three high-mountain stages: Mataró-Vallter, La Seu d'Urgell-La Molina/Coll de Pal and Berga-Queralt, which will put the top climbers in the international peloton to the test before the race concludes on the traditional Montjuïc circuit in Barcelona.
The opening stage of the 2026 Volta a Catalunya will once again start and finish in Sant Feliu de Guíxols for the fifth consecutive year, leaving the door open to all types of riders capable of battling it out to become the first leader, thanks to a nerve-wracking route and a demanding finish. Starting from the Guíxols Arena, the stage will cover 172.7 kilometres and feature two mountain passes, one of which is a first-category climb, the Alt de Sant Hilari Sacalm, on the way to the explosive finish on the Carretera de Girona, which in recent years has consistently delivered thrilling finishes with winners such as Michael Matthews, Primož Roglič and, last year, the young Matthew Brennan.
The second stage will cover 167.4 kilometres between Figueres and Banyoles, reversing the route of the stage that, in the last edition, saw British sprinter Ethan Vernon crowned the winner in the city of Dalí. It will be a stage which, despite reaching 2,000 metres of cumulative elevation gain, will feature only a Category 3 climb as a scoring difficulty in its opening kilometres and is likely to favour a potential bunch sprint on the Passeig de Lluís Constans in Banyoles, a town that has previously crowned such iconic sprinters as Erik Zabel, Thor Hushovd, Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi.
The third stage will feature the Costa Daurada as its main attraction, four years on from one of the most memorable stages of recent editions, with the breakaway by Richard Carapaz and Sergio Higuita in 2022. The route will cover 159.5 kilometres between Mont-roig del Camp and Vila-seca, with the Prades Mountains and the Montsant range taking centre stage, featuring three mountain passes, including the iconic first-category Alt de La Mussara. A stage that could favour the adventurers looking to break away on the way to Vila-seca, which last hosted a Volta stage finish in 2019.
The fourth stage will be the first of three consecutive high-mountain stages in this Volta a Catalunya, starting in Mataró and finishing at the Vallter ski resort, the highest point in Catalonia for cycling at over 2,100 metres. On the centenary of Esport Ciclista Mataró, the capital of the Maresme region will kick off a 173-kilometre stage featuring two mountain passes in its early stages before tackling a final climb which, in 2024, witnessed a solo display by Tadej Pogačar and which will force the contenders for the overall victory to lay their cards on the table.
Following the first assault, the fifth stage will put the climbers to an even greater test over a 155.3-kilometre route between La Seu d'Urgell and the dreaded summit of La Molina/Coll de Pal, which will see riders climb nearly 4,500 metres in elevation. Five mountain passes will be conquered, some of them making their debut in the Volta, crossing the Cadí mountains, and the final challenge will be the climb to Coll de Pal, considered one of the most demanding passes in Catalonia. More than 17 seemingly endless kilometres of climbing at an average gradient of 7% from the town of Bagà which, although they were decisive last year in securing Demi Vollering’s victory in the women’s edition of the Volta, have not featured prominently in the men’s race since 1979.
The third and decisive mountain stage of this Volta a Catalunya aims to replicate the spectacle that captivated the cycling world in 2024, showcasing the full cycling potential of the Berguedà region across its 158 explosive kilometres between the town of Berga and the summit of Queralt. There will be four mountain passes in total along the route, including the famous Coll de Pradell, a special category climb, which in previous editions was packed with spectators eager to enjoy yet another display of brilliance from Tadej Pogačar on his way to overall victory. As on that occasion, the climb to the sanctuary of Queralt from Berga could prove decisive in determining the winner of the 105th edition of the Volta, with the final stage still to come. Finally, the 2026 Volta a Catalunya will conclude with its traditional closing party, starting and finishing in the city of Barcelona.
On an even more challenging route, the stage will cover 95 kilometres, starting from Plaça Espanya, and will include an additional climb up to the Alt del Castell de Montjuïc, making a total of seven laps of a circuit that has played such a significant role in the history of the Volta and of cycling, and which has been the race’s finale since 2013. In the last two editions, Barcelona has seen the Volta’s overall classification winners, the Slovenians Primož Roglič (2025) and Tadej Pogačar (2024), win the final stage.
A guaranteed spectacle for a world-class event, which will be broadcast to 190 territories worldwide and can be watched live in Spain on Esport3, Teledeporte and Eurosport, and other more than 40 broadcasters around the world.
