Why is the Tour de France starting in Barcelona? Everything you need to know about overseas Grand Tour starts
It's not the first time the Tour has started abroad, and it likely won't be the last
It’s time to say bonjour, or rather hola, to the final men’s Grand Tour of the year. That's right, the 113th edition of the Tour de France does not begin in France itself, but in Catalonia or Spain, specifically Barcelona.
It is the 27th time the French race has started abroad, and the fourth time in five years, after Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023, and Florence in 2024. It's the third time the Tour has started in Spain, although it has crossed France's southern border more often.
Stages one and two will take place wholly in Catalonia, with stage one a team time trial around Barcelona, and two a lumpy finish in the Catalan capital. Stage three then starts in Spain, but finishes in France, after an early visit to the Pyrenees. Read our full route guide for more.
It should all make for very exciting racing. But why is the Tour de France – a race with France in its very name – starting in Spain?
For decades, Grand Tours have offered out their opening stages, also known as Grands Départs, to other countries. The deals come as an opportunity to gain international exposure, as well as boosted income for the race organisers, who earn a fee for ‘selling’ the event.
According to the organisers of the Barcelona Grand Départ: "This historic event will place it at the heart of world cycling and reaffirm its reputation as a sports city that organises major events while remaining connected to local communities.
"Together with Tarragona, Granollers and other Catalan towns and cities, it’ll take centre stage for the start of a race that will showcase the diversity of the landscape, as well as Catalonia’s culture and track record when it comes to organising events."
The Tour's director, Christian Prudhomme, said: "It started as a mutual wish, expressed in 2009, as the Tour last passed through Barcelona. A wish respoken by Jaume Collboni Cuadrado ten years later, when he became First Deputy Mayor of the city, then expressed more firmly in 2023 with his election as Mayor.
"Barcelona wanted the Tour… and the Tour fell under the charm of Barcelona. A great Catalan city, offering the prestige, appeal and beating heart necessary for a Grand Départ."
The first time the Tour began away from France was in 1954, when it started in the Netherlands.
Both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, the other men's Grand Tours, have also made a thing of foreign starts, with the Giro starting in Bulgaria this year, and the Vuelta last year in Turin, Italy, last year.
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift has also got in on the foreign Grand Départ act, with the 2024 race beginning in the Netherlands, and this summer's edition starting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The Netherlands is very popular with all the Grand Tours, hosting the four above on 10 separate occasions.
The fees for hosting a Grand Tour start vary depending on place and plans. It was reported that the deal for last year’s Vuelta Grand Départ was around €7 million, while this year's start in Bulgaria for the Giro netted RCS Sport about €10 million. Historically, these costs have ballooned, once extra measures like security, road works, and other logistics have been accounted for.
For a previous Giro foreign start in 2022, for example, the Hungarian government put aside €24 million to host the race. These costs can end up even more expensive for the more well-known Tour de France; in 2014, the UK’s Tour Grand Départ rose from an initial £4.2 million fee paid to the organiser ASO up to £29.4 million for the hosts.
There is no formal bidding process for countries who wish to host a Grand Départ. Unlike the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics, where countries file bids and the host is decided in a vote, preparing a pitch for a Grand Tour start is more informal.
Typically, a country’s national body will reach out to the race organiser – RCS Sport for the Giro d'Italia, ASO for the Tour de France, and for the Vuelta a España, Unipublic – to open discussions.
Plans are then laid out for the stages, and if the organiser finds the idea convincing enough, a fee will be decided. This can be particularly lucrative for organisers, who in the case of all three men’s Grand Tours, are independent event management companies.
To help facilitate foreign starts, cycling’s governing body, the UCI, allows an extra ‘travel day’ at a Grand Tour every four years.
This year's Giro haf an extra travel day for the second year in a row – so those rules might be for show – to get the teams, riders, and all their equipment to the south of Italy for stage three.
Riders, typically, will fly from one country to another to minimise time spent travelling. Team buses and logistics trucks, such as those carrying barriers and start-finish gantries, might spend an entire day driving from one place to another.
One of the furthest-flung Grands Départs in history was when the Giro began in Israel in 2018. The event marked the first Grand Tour start outside of Europe, and required an extensive logistical operation, with a Boeing 747 cargo plane booked to carry bikes more than 2,000km from Israel back to Italy.
The Soudal Quick-Step riders of the 2022 Vuelta a España travel by boat to the team presentation in Utrecht, the Netherlands
The Tour de France has made more of a habit of starting abroad than the other two men's Grand Tours, although the first didn't happen until 1954, the 41st edition. Here is where it has started outside of L'Hexagone.
1954 - Netherlands
1958 - Belgium
1965 - West Germany
1973 - Netherlands
1975 - Belgium
1978 - Netherlands
1980 - West Germany
1982 - Switzerland
1987 - West Germany
1989 - Luxembourg
1992 - Spain
1996 - Netherlands
1998 - Ireland
2002 - Luxembourg
2004 - Belgium
2007 - United Kingdom
2009 - Monaco
2010 - Netherlands
2012 - Belgium
2014 - United Kingdom
2015 - Netherlands
2017 - Germany
2019 - Belgium
2022 - Denmark
2023 - Spain
2024 - Italy
2026 – Spain
This year is the 16th time in the history of the Giro d’Italia that the race has begun outside of Italy. Here are the other countries that have hosted the Grand Tour:
1965 - San Marino
1966 - Monaco
1973 - Belgium
1974 - Vatican City
1996 - Greece
1998 - France
2002 - Netherlands
2006 - Belgium
2010 - Netherlands
2012 - Denmark
2014 - Northern Ireland
2016 - Netherlands
2018 - Israel
2022 - Hungary
2025 - Albania
This year is just the sixth time the Vuelta a España has started abroad. Here are the occasions it has had a foreign Grand Départ.
1997 - Portugal
2009 - Netherlands
2017 - France
2022 - Netherlands
2024 - Portugal
2025 - Italy
The modern women's Tour de France, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, has only started abroad once so far in its short existence, although there are more scheduled.
2024 - Netherlands
2026 - Switzerland