Vuelta a España Vuelta 2026 route rumours

[Armchair Cyclist]

Angliru lies like 600km from the closest point in the route we currently know.

Cyclists of an earlier era say "And... ?"

 

[OlavEH]

For the mountains in Albacete, the climbs that could be ranked as cat1 (Borriqueta and Monte Ardal) are around the town of Yeste, but we might get a stage full of cat2 and cat3 climbs somewhere else.
We also now that all the provinces in Andalucia will host a stage, so that opens the possibility of having something in the Calar Alto/Velefique area in Almería.
Some fans in forums are also in disbilief about yesterday's news of stage 20, which would not include Sierra Nevada. Maybe that's kept for the last day?

Monte Ardal sounds like a very typical Vuelta finish.....

So the biggest questions that remains are what will happen on the last stage, that is if Sierra Nevada is used, what will happen on a Almeria stage and what the will be the profile on the Andorra stage.....

 

[ice&fire]

Of which we know like 6 stages? I'd be surprised if they used it again this year but they'd have gotten something by now.

We know the regions that will host more than 2/3 of the race (in brackets my best guess to fill large gaps between consecutive stages):
Monaco
2 stages in France
Andorra
(transition stage in Catalunya)
Ebro Delta region
Valdelinares
(transition stage in Valencia?)
Aitana
(I'd guess we have here the first rest day)
2 stages in Albacete
Stages in all the 8 provinces of Andalucía, from which we know there will be finishes at La Pandera, Córdoba, Huelva, ITT in the province of Cádiz, Peñas Blancas, Loja and Granada. Still missing here stages in the provinces of Sevilla and Almería to cover all provinces.

That accounts for 5 regions in Spain, so there's one missing according to the AS article that reported 6 regions hosting the race. That's most likely Murcia, which could go either before or after the stages in Albacete.

Asturias has no borders with any of those regions, and is physically far from all of them.

 

[vappaxbipmv]

If the Tour and Giro presentations are anything to go by, you can get up at 9:30am and miss nothing: these are really not highly entertaining events.

I agree but to me it sounds like op wants to watch it live, in which case you can usually skip the 1st hour

 

[ice&fire]

We've got our missing stage in Almeria, starting from Murcia

Confirmado: La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2026 tendrá una etapa en Almería

Mañana, la provincia también será protagonista en la presentación de la carrera, en Mónaco

www.lavozdealmeria.com

No details on the route other than recalling the last time the race visited the province with a lone victory by Damiano Caruso.

 

[Netserk]

so 8 stage finishes in andalucia, huh

 

[ice&fire]

so 8 stage finishes in andalucia, huh

I wasn't joking when I wrote about the Vuelta a Andalucía Summer Edition

 

[ice&fire]

AS confirms Calar Alto will be in the race.

La Vuelta 2026 ve la luz hoy en Mónaco: dureza, final en Granada...

Las 21 etapas del recorrido, que partirá de Mónaco, se revelan hoy (19:00) en el Principado. Andalucía, protagonista en una dura edición con cuatro países.

as.com

That's probably the mountain stage before the second rest day.

 

[gavia88]

what time is the presentation?

 

[ice&fire]

what time is the presentation?

19:00 CET

 

[OlavEH]

AS confirms Calar Alto will be in the race.

La Vuelta 2026 ve la luz hoy en Mónaco: dureza, final en Granada...

Las 21 etapas del recorrido, que partirá de Mónaco, se revelan hoy (19:00) en el Principado. Andalucía, protagonista en una dura edición con cuatro países.

as.com

That's probably the mountain stage before the second rest day.

Almeria start and Calar Alto finish?

Hope we'll see something like the 2005 stage.

 

[gavia88]

Almeria start and Calar Alto finish?

Hope we'll see something like the 2005 stage.

 

[ice&fire]

Almeria start and Calar Alto finish?

Hope we'll see something like the 2005 stage.

I believe the rumour was that the stage departure would be in the neighbour region of Murcia.
They can start at Puerto Lumbreras as they did in 2021 and do the 2017 combo with Velefique S + Calar Alto from Bácares or Velefique N + Castro de Filabres + Calar Alto S and still be below 180km.

Not the best place to finish a stage in the Sierra de Albacete. Unipublic once again picking a choice far from the best.

https://www.latribunadealbacete.es/noticia/z041cea8d-bcef-4ca5-9393c4f266d29709/202512/elche-de-la-sierra-sera-meta-de-una-etapa-de-la-vuelta-2026

 

[Netserk]

I believe the rumour was that the stage departure would be in the neighbour region of Murcia.
They can start at Puerto Lumbreras as they did in 2021 and do the 2017 combo with Velefique S + Calar Alto from Bácares or Velefique N + Castro de Filabres + Calar Alto S and still be below 180km.

Not the best place to finish a stage in the Sierra de Albacete. Unipublic once again picking a choice far from the best.

https://www.latribunadealbacete.es/noticia/z041cea8d-bcef-4ca5-9393c4f266d29709/202512/elche-de-la-sierra-sera-meta-de-una-etapa-de-la-vuelta-2026

i think it could be double calar alto, no velefique

 

[gavia88]

i think it could be double calar alto, no velefique

We can hope for a Calar Alto - Velefique - Calar Alto (or is that to much to ask?)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

We can hope for a Calar Alto - Velefique - Calar Alto (or is that to much to ask?)

If so it'd be Venta Luisa the first time, going all the way to the observatory the first time and then a huge long gradual descent rather than the Gérgal side with the route through to Velefique would be a big waste.

From Almería you could do like, Enix, Santillana, Calar Alto from Gérgal; or Enix, Santillana, Velefique, Calar Alto from Tijola (but joining partway up like in 2004); Enix, Santillana, Escúllar, Calar Alto from Serón would also be possible but mean you have a pretty significant amount of short low-gradient grinding at the end.

A possibility using Calar Alto only would be to climb the Tijola side as far as Collado del Ramal with the final 5km at 9%, descend from there back to Serón, then return to Tijola, climb all the way to Calar Alto, then descend the Aulago side and climb the Gérgal side to finish.

PRC have explored the area a couple of times, with this set all about Calar Alto itself and this set about Escúllar that can show you a bit about how stages connecting Calar Alto and Escúllar to the likes of Enix and Santillana would look for a genuine queen stage type.

I did a Berja - Calar Alto stage back in 2016 which went over Santillana, Escúllar, Calar Alto from Tijola and then Calar Alto from Gérgal in 238km, but sadly it was hosted on a dead image site and the original site was lost in the Cronoescalada wipe when they got hacked. I can easily remake it as the distance and the climbs makes the route pretty easy to figure out what I had done, but such things are far from priority status, shall we say...

 

[ice&fire]

We can hope for a Calar Alto - Velefique - Calar Alto (or is that to much to ask?)

That would be too long if they are starting from Murcia as the rumour says

 

[gavia88]

If so it'd be Venta Luisa the first time, going all the way to the observatory the first time and then a huge long gradual descent rather than the Gérgal side with the route through to Velefique would be a big waste.

From Almería you could do like, Enix, Santillana, Calar Alto from Gérgal; or Enix, Santillana, Velefique, Calar Alto from Tijola (but joining partway up like in 2004); Enix, Santillana, Escúllar, Calar Alto from Serón would also be possible but mean you have a pretty significant amount of short low-gradient grinding at the end.

A possibility using Calar Alto only would be to climb the Tijola side as far as Collado del Ramal with the final 5km at 9%, descend from there back to Serón, then return to Tijola, climb all the way to Calar Alto, then descend the Aulago side and climb the Gérgal side to finish.

PRC have explored the area a couple of times, with this set all about Calar Alto itself and this set about Escúllar that can show you a bit about how stages connecting Calar Alto and Escúllar to the likes of Enix and Santillana would look for a genuine queen stage type.

I did a Berja - Calar Alto stage back in 2016 which went over Santillana, Escúllar, Calar Alto from Tijola and then Calar Alto from Gérgal in 238km, but sadly it was hosted on a dead image site and the original site was lost in the Cronoescalada wipe when they got hacked. I can easily remake it as the distance and the climbs makes the route pretty easy to figure out what I had done, but such things are far from priority status, shall we say...

I know the work of PRC, a pity Unipublic/ASO is using their dosier with possible stages and climbs so badly.

 

[gavia88]

That would be too long if they are starting from Murcia as the rumour says

so the maximum we can expect is Calar Alto / Venta Luisa + Velefique or Velefique + Calar Alto or just double Calar Alto you say?

 

[ice&fire]

so the maximum we can expect is Calar Alto / Venta Luisa + Velefique or Velefique + Calar Alto or just double Calar Alto you say?

Yes. Any combination of two climbs is around 180km. Adding a third climb gets the distance close to 210km at least in the shortest combination: Venta Luisa N + Velefique S + Calar Alto from Bácares. They'd be breaking their own mold if they do that.

 

[gavia88]

Yes. Any combination of two climbs is around 180km. Adding a third climb gets the distance close to 210km at least in the shortest combination: Venta Luisa N + Velefique S + Calar Alto from Bácares. They'd be breaking their own mold if they do that.

only Peyragudes in 2013 I guess?

 

[ice&fire]

only Peyragudes in 2013 I guess?

Yes, they may break their rules when they go abroad. It must be some kind of psychological condition.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Here's the link;

https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/directo/ciclismo-presentacion-vuelta-espana-2026/

 

[gavia88]

ok, I see some nice surprises in that quick overview

 

[Tim Cahill]

They've got Nico Roche and Victor Langellotti on as special guests to present this years Tour of Monaco and Southern Spain!!!

Giro had Simon Yates and Nibali, money must be tight.