La Vuelta 2026 set to start in Monaco with 184 riders lining up for a historic Gran Salida

Photo: Vuelta La Vuelta 26 is ready to get underway in Monaco, with 184 riders set to line up on Saturday for a historic Gran Salida. The Principality will become the first city in the world to have hosted the start of all three Grand Tours, following the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. The opening stage will be a 9.4-kilometre individual time trial on a fast and highly technical urban course featuring several iconic sections of the Monaco Formula 1 circuit. For the seventh time in its history, and the fourth time in the past five years, La Vuelta will begin outside Spain. Previous international starts have taken place in Lisbon, Assen, Nîmes, Utrecht and Venaria Reale. This year, the race comes to Monaco for the first time. According to Kiko García, technical director of La Vuelta 26, the course is “very urban, very technical, with plenty of speed and changes of pace”. A total of 184 riders representing 23 teams will start La Vuelta 26. The race covers 3,299.2 kilometres across 21 stages and four countries: Monaco, France, Andorra and Spain. The peloton represents 29 nationalities, with Spanish riders forming the largest group with 30 participants, followed by France with 23 and Belgium with 18. Steven Kruijswijk, aged 39, will be the oldest rider in the race. At the other end of the age spectrum is 20-year-old Slovenian Jakub Omrzel, the only rider born in 2006. The start list also includes two former winners of the overall classification: Primož Roglič, who won La Vuelta four times, in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024, and Sepp Kuss, the 2023 winner.The post La Vuelta 2026 set to start in Monaco with 184 riders lining up for a historic Gran Salida first appeared on All PYRENEES.