This 4th of July, Barcelona becomes the center of the sports world. The 2026 Tour de France starts here, with the most anticipated Grand Départ in recent years in our country. If you watch the long-distance race on television but have never quite understood what it is about, this is the time to catch up. Because this summer the Tour is not in France: it is at home.
What is the Tour de France and why is everyone talking about it in July?
The Tour de France is the most important cycling race in the world, and one of the great summer sports events along with the Soccer World Cup or the Olympic Games. Celebrated every year in July, it lasts three weeks and runs for miles through towns, mountains and roads closed for the occasion. What began in 1903 as an advertising campaign to sell newspapers is today, in its 113th edition, the sporting event with the largest annual television audience in Europe.
You don’t have to be a cycling fan to get hooked. The race has something of a collective epic: teams working for a leader, stages that are decided in the last meters of a climb, cyclists who fall and get back up. This year, with the start in Barcelona, there are even more reasons not to miss it.
The four jerseys that explain everything
The key to following the Tour without missing anything are the four colored jerseys worn by the leaders of each classification:
- yellow jersey: It is taken by whoever is winning in total time. The most coveted of all. If you see that someone stands out in yellow, that is the favorite to win the race.
- green jersey: For the most consistent sprinter. You win on flat finishes and intermediate sprints. The cyclists chasing him are the fastest on the straights.
- Red polka dot leotard: For the best escalator, King of the Mountain. That of the Pyrenees and the Alps. The one who attacks first when the road starts to climb.
- white jersey: Young talent. It is taken by the minor under 26 years old with the best overall classification. Many times it is the name that everyone talks about the following year.
The same cyclist can wear more than one at a time. And at any stage four different battles could be happening at the same time, on the same road.
Tour de France 2026: when does it start and what happens in Barcelona
The 2026 Tour de France begins on Saturday, July 4 in Barcelona and ends on Sunday, July 26 in Paris. There are 21 stages, 3,338 kilometers and more than 54,000 meters of elevation gain. A route that includes seven flat stages, eight mountain stages and five high finishes, with the Alps as the setting for the last week.
Barcelona is the host city of the Great exitthe official start of the race. It is the fourth time that the city hosts the Tour (it was also in 1957, 1965 and 2009) and only the third time in history that the race starts in Spain, after San Sebastián in 1992 and Bilbao in 2023.
There is a historical fact that deserves attention: the first stage is a team time trial, something that had never happened at the beginning of the Tour. It is not just a Grand Départ, it is an unprecedented staging.
The three stages that pass through Spain
Stage 1: Saturday, July 4: Barcelona → Barcelona (19.7 km, team time trial)
The race begins with all the teams leaving from the Port Olímpic and visiting the most iconic points of the city: Diagonal Avenue, the promenade, the Sagrada Familia. The arrival is at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium. The first leader of the race will be decided by the timers of this inaugural stage.
Stage 2: Sunday, July 5: Tarragona → Barcelona (178 km)
The most colorful stage of the Spanish ones. Sold from Tarragona, it runs along the coast and arrives in Barcelona after three climbs to Montjuïc, with a slope that reaches 13% in the most demanding sections. The arrival is again at the Olympic Stadium. If you are in Barcelona that Sunday, the mountain closes to traffic at 1:30 p.m. and the peloton arrives at 3:00 p.m. It is one of the most spectacular images of the last years of the race.
Stage 3: Monday, July 6: Granollers → Les Angles, France (196 km)
The race leaves Spain from Granollers, near the Circuit de Catalunya, and heads towards the Pyrenees. It is the first real mountain stage of the race and the peloton’s farewell to Spanish territory.
Where to see the Tour de France 2026?
In Spain, the Tour can be followed in RTVE through La 1, La 2, Teledeporte and RTVE Play in free streaming. Also in Eurosportavailable through Movistar, DAZN, Vodafone and Orange, and on maximum HBO to see the complete stages without interruptions.
The Effect Tour
They happen every year. July begins, the Tour arrives, and suddenly the bicycle is everywhere. In the conversation at work, in the networks, in the windows of bars with the TV on. There is something about watching those cyclists climb impossible climbs at more than 25 km/h that awakens something. A mixture of admiration and «I want to move too.»
This year that effect is more intense. The Tour starts in Barcelona. The Pyrenees that appear in the third stage are the same ones that can be seen from many cities in northern Spain. The connection is more direct, more physical. And that moves.
You don’t have to start training for the Vuelta to take advantage of that momentum. Just get on a bike.
Pedaling at home: The cardio that suits you
The exercise bike is one of the best options for cardio at home. Unlike running, it requires no impact on the joints, making it accessible to almost any fitness level and age. It’s quiet, doesn’t take up much space and can be done at any time. And if you want to know how many calories you burn in a 30 or 45 minute session, the numbers are higher than you imagine.
What makes indoor cycling especially effective is that you can adjust it completely to your own pace: start easy, increase the intensity when you feel like it, do intervals if you have a day with more energy or maintain a constant pace if what you need is to disconnect. There is no external pressure, there is no need to follow anyone.
The officially licensed bicycle of the Tour de France.
If the connection with the race matters beyond the aesthetic, among the indoor bikes with screen high-end there is one that takes that connection to the next level. The NordicTrack Indoor Bike Tour de France It is an officially licensed product of the Tour de France, it is not a design nod, it is a real collaboration with the race organization, and what it offers is designed to genuinely transfer the experience from the road to home.
Three things that differentiate it from the rest:
- You ride in the same places where the pros train. Through the iFIT platform, you can travel the routes used by professional teams to prepare for the season, including the roads of Mallorca. The bike automatically adjusts resistance and incline based on the actual terrain on the map. It is not a generic simulation: the profile of the road marks what you feel in your legs.
- Elite cycling coaches on screen, in your living room. Kevin Poulton, one of the most accomplished trainers in professional European cycling, designed an exclusive program for iFIT accessible only from this bike. And beyond that: with the subscription you can pedal in tandem with cyclists like Bradley Wiggins (2012 Tour champion) or Nicholas Roche, who will guide you through specific training sessions.
- The 24″ screen rotates. It’s not just for cycling. The HD touch screen rotates 180° so you can also do yoga, Pilates or strength training when you get off the bike. For those who want a complete training space at home, without accumulating more machines, that detail changes many things.
The bicycle is available for €1,799, with financing options in up to 24 installments.
Julio arrives with him Tour in Barcelonawith the heat, with the desire to move. Sometimes all you need is a excuse to start.
