2026 Vuelta to start with time trial on Monaco Grand Prix circuit

The 2026 Vuelta a España is set to begin with a short individual time trial that will take place partly on the circuit of the Monaco Grand Prix.

When Monaco was named as the host of the 2026 Vuelta start last year, it was flagged that the opening stage would take place entirely within the confines of the principality, which made a time trial an inevitability.

Vuelta director Javier Guillen indicated as much earlier this year, and further details of the likely format arrived in Turin this weekend at a presentation of the 2026 Monaco start.

Spanish news agency EFEreports that the time trial will be between 8 and 12km in length, and that the circuit of the Monaco Grand Prix – 3.3km in length – will make up part of the course. The 2026 Vuelta gets under way in Monaco on August 22.

The second stage of the 2026 Vuelta is a road stage that will start from Monaco and finish in France. Full details of the Monegasque start will be unveiled at a press conference on October 25.

Gary Verity, who was the local organiser for the Yorkshire Grand Départ of the 2014 Tour de France, is part of the Monaco organising committee.

“Monaco will become the first place to have hosted the Grand Départ of all three Grand Tours: the Giro d'Italia in 1966, the Tour de France in 2009, and the Vuelta in 2026,” he said at a reception in Turin on Friday.

Next season will also mark the third time in as many years that the Vuelta has a foreign start after Lisbon in 2024 and Turin this year. 

Monaco previously hosted the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2009. On that occasion, the race began with a 15.5km time trial in the micro-state, won by Fabian Cancellara ahead of eventual Tour winner Alberto Contador. The race crossed into France the next day with a road stage to Brignoles.

Monaco’s first WorldTour professional Victor Langellotti is currently in action at the Vuelta with Ineos Grenadiers, and he has credited the 2009 Grand Départ with a boom in cycling in the country.