The Return to Catalonia 2026 It has been disputed since this Monday with the Danish Jonas Vingegaard (Visma) as a favorite and high-level cyclists who promise emotions in the seven stages of a very mountainous race.
Vingegaard made his debut last week by winning the Paris-Nice and will want to expand his record of became addicted with another of the races that are missing, the Volta, in which in fact he is going to do su debut.
In any case, the double winner of the Tour de France will want to continue improving his form ahead of his first big goal of the season, the Giro from Italy. Furthermore, in the Volta he will have at his side some of the men on whom he will also have to rely on. pink ride like Sepp Kuss and Bart Lemmen.
The other big star of the peloton that will meet on the Catalan roads is the Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull), which will seek to get even of the 2023 edition, when he lost the race by a narrow margin against Primoz Roglic, in one of the best duels in memory of this round, which is in its 105th edition.
Now Evenepoel will try to ensure that Roglic’s reign – who also won last year – remains in the ranks of the Red Bull in the absence of the Slovenian.
Young and old
And at this second level we must also place João Almeidawhich will act as UAE leader. The Portuguese has not yet raised his arms so far in 2026, but he knows the Catalan roads well and will want to take a step forward to claim his place in Tadej Pogacar’s almighty formation. In the Emirati eight there will also be one of the pearls of Spanish cycling, Adrià Pericas.
In total, 17 WorldTeams participate in this Volta, the first level teams with Movistar included – the Dutch Picnic does not – in addition to six ProTeams, including the four Spanish ones. Burgos, Caja Rural, Kern Pharma and Euskaltelas well as Tom Pidcock’s Pinarello and the new American formation Modern Adventure.
It is also worth highlighting the participation of other established cyclists who have the Giro as their next goal, such as the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (EF) or the Spanish Enrique Mas (Movistar) and Mikel Landa (Soudal).
Ineos, which seems to be re-emerging little by little, also presents an interesting squad with the British Oscar Onley, the Spanish Carlos Rodriguez or the Colombian Egan Bernal.
Three high finishes
Map with the route of the Volta a Catalunya 2026 voltacatalunya.cat
The race will have three different blocks. The first three stages do not have great difficulties, but they are not “flat”, as the route book catalogs them, since they are around 2,000 m of accumulated positive slope in all cases and in all of them you pass mountain passes. half mountain. Thus, they can be resolved in a sprint in a small group or they can be the ideal scenario for adventurers.
Afterwards, three days of high mountains arrive, at first with increasing difficulty. The first, ending in Vallter station at more than 2,100 meters altitude. Then, on Friday, the runners will have to chain five climbs from the unprecedented Colldarnat –which fans have nicknamed the Catalan Stelvio through the emblematic curves that its ascent draws– until the finish line in the Coll de Pal (special category), with 17 kilometers of ascent at 7% average gradient.
And the culmination will be the stage of Berguedà –which left such a good memory in 2024 and which had to be cut last year due to the wind–. 158 kilometers that promise to be explosive with the Coll de Pradell as the highlight (special category) and the arrival at the Queralt sanctuary.
Pogacar wins the sixth stage and Bernal takes the podium | Volta 2024
Furthermore, the Volta will comply with the tradition and will conclude with the Montjuic circuit stagewhich always brings a great show.
However, we will have to pay attention once again to the weather, especially in the mountains.
The end of all the days can be seen live on Teledeporte and RTVE Play with narration by Carlos de Andrés.
