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Tour de France Tour de France 2026 route rumours

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The Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, hosted the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, at an official ceremony held this morning to announce that the 113th edition will get under way in the Catalan capital on Saturday, 4 July 2026.
The host city of the 1992 Olympic Games has already rolled out the red carpet for the Tour de France on three occasions (1957, 1965 and 2009). It also provided the backdrop for the opening of the Vuelta in 2023. The 2026 route will feature two stages inside Catalonia and the start of a stage finishing on French soil.

The Catalan capital will host the race from July 4-6, 2026. It’s been reported that stage 1 will be run off completely within the bounds of the city, and that stage 2 will also start and finish in Barcelona. After another start in the city on stage 3, the Tour then heads towards more familiar terrain in France.
Alpe d'Huez and Finestre have been rumoured as well. I think Haag/Grand Ballon is a good bet too. Will the Pyrenees host the last mountain stages of the race again for the first time since 2022?

As Rotterdam/The Hague are rumoured for the 2027 Grand Départ, there's no need for the 2026 edition to go north of Paris.
 
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At times like this... even I am at one with Richard Plugge... why not a circuit race around Parc Güell or Montjuïc?

You know what we're going to get here though... stage 1 TTT (after all, can't have anybody outside the cabal get even the briefest sniff of hope for glory), stage 2 goes up and down the Costa Brava with a couple of hills early and then a dangerous, crash-baiting run-in (they should go with something like the stage 6 2009 finish btw, so not a proper puncheur finish, but a curved slightly uphill drag that reduces the speed of the sprint and moves it to some wider avenidas that mean that the corners and roundabouts are at least sufficiently wide to allow multiple lines through), and then stage 3 will be Unipuerto to Arcalis.

What they need to do, is hand over the designing reins for the Grand Départ to a guy who comes from Barcelona, has a strong history with ASO races including a podium at the Tour de France itself, and has in fact even designed some well-received Grand Tour stages before.

Joaquím Rodríguez, come on down.
 
I can't see it beginning with a TTT, when was the last time the TDF started with one? They could do a road stage then a TTT like Brussels in 2019.
There's potential for a really nice medium mountain stage round Barcelona, and tbf the last two foreign grand departs have been really good IMO (Italy and Basque country).
 
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