Cycling in Yorkshire & Beyond
Cycling in Yorkshire & Beyond
Stage 2 of the Tour de France 2026 is a 182km road race from Tarragona to Barcelona.
The first half of the route follows the flat coast road through beach resorts including Sitges. The second half is hilly, starting with the Côte de Begues climb.
Back in Barcelona there's a finishing circuit, to be ridden three times, which includes climbs of the Côte du Château de Montjuïc and Côte du Stade Olympique.
Christian Prudhomme says that this is the traditional finale of the Tour of Catalonia, and suits a puncheur or GC rider. Evenepoel, Pogacar and Roglic have all won here.
Race Details | Poll | Map & Profile | Timings | Videos | Food & Drink | Route Notes | Favourites
| Date | Sunday 5th July 2026 |
|---|---|
| Stage classification | Hilly |
| Distance | 182km |
| Intermediate sprint | TBC |
| Climbs | Côte de Begues Côte de Santa Creu d'Olorda Côte du Château de Montjuïc Côte du Stade Olympique Côte du Château de Montjuïc Côte du Stade Olympique Côte du Château de Montjuïc Côte du Stade Olympique |
| Total climbing | TBC |
Vote for one of the main contenders to win Stage 2 (to be added later).
This is a map of the route of Stage 2, Tour de France 2026.
This is a zoom-able map of the route of Stage 2 of the 2026 Tour de France.
Note: this routemap was produced a long time in advance of the race, and could be subject to changes.
This is the profile of Stage 2 Tour de France 2026.
| Caravan | Fast Schedule | Slow Schedule | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start Time (départ fictif) | |||
| Start Time (départ réel) | |||
| Intermediate Sprint | |||
| Climb | |||
| Climb | |||
| Finish Line (182km) |
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This is a video of the route of Stage 2 Tour de France 2026.
These are highlights of the final stage of the Volta a Catalunya, on a Montjuïc circuit.
Stage 2 finishes in Barcelona.
Food in Barcelona includes fresh fish and shellfish. Among the seafood dishes is suquet de peix, a fish and shellfish soup, sarsuela, a fish stew, and graellada de peix, a mixed grill of fish.
Desserts include flan, and crema catalana (egg custard with caramalised sugar on top).
Cava, a sparkling white wine that use the méthode Champenoise, is made in Catalonia. Much of it comes from Penedès.
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The stage starts in Tarragona (départ fictif).
Tarragona is the capital of the Tarragona province. It's on the Costa Daurada.
It was an important Roman town on the main coastal road. There was a fortress designed to fend off the Carthaginians.
The Vandals and the Visigoths followed the Romans, before the Arab conquest of Spain in 714.
In 1117 Tarragona became part of the County of Barcelona, and its history thereafter is largely a shared one with Barcelona (see Barcelona).
The Roman ruins of Tarragona are a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are the remains of a Palace of Augustus and of an amphitheatre. Outside the town there is the Ferreres Aqueduct and the Tower of the Scipios.
PortAvenutura World is the most-visited theme park in Spain.
Other popular attractions are a model of Roman Tarraco, the central market of Tarragona, the Rambla Nova shopping street, El Serrallo fishing village, and the Cathedral.
Tarragona has a large port, and many of the cars built in Spain are exported from here.
Chemical production is also a major industry. There's a University too.
Chartreuse liqueur was made by monks in Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse and nearby Voiron, in the French Alps, but when the monks were expelled they moved here. The liqueur was distilled in Tarragona from 1903 to 1989. It is now made in Voiron again.
Stage 2 heads east north east up the coast to a tiny place called Monnars, on via La Móra, and to Torredembarra.
Torredembarra is a coastal town with beaches and a port. It's a staging point on the GR92 long-distance footpath.
There's a lighthouse - the newest one in Spain - which you can visit.
In an automatically translated comment about the lighthouse on Tripadvisor, bolico says, 'Very dirty landscape but worth seeing. It's a shame'.
The stage continues on the N340 via Creixell and Costa Daurada, on the coast, to El Vendrell, inland.
El Vendrell is in the wine-growing country of Penedès. Vendrell is frequently a Catalan surname, and it indicates that the family originated here.
The nearby beaches are at Coma-ruga
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Back by the coast, the stage continues via Calafell, Cunit and Cubelles to Vilanova i la Geltrú.
Vilanova i la Geltrú is the capital of the Garraf comarca.
La Geltrú is a Medieval town that was within walls, and Vilanova was the new village outside.
Many of the buildings in Plaça de la Vila were financed by a textile magnate called Ventosa Soler in the 1800s.
Today the main industries are metals, textiles and chemicals. There's also a fishing port.
Vilanovins are said to 'always have a leg in the air', which is a reference to the large number of festivals held here. This includes the Festa Major in early August.
Stage 2 heads on along the coast to Sitges.
Sitges gets its name from the Old Catalan for underground grain silos.
It is home to artists, that tradition having being started by Santiago Rusinõl who took up residence in the late 1800s. There's also an LGBT community and there are gay beaches.
It became a centre for counterculture in the 1960s under Franco. It's now known as 'Ibiza in miniature' or the Saint-Tropez of Spain.
It celebrates Carnival, and it has a film festival. That and other events, plus the beaches, attract visitors. Among the residents, 35% of them are non-Spanish Europeans, from the Netherlands, the UK, France and Scandinavia.
Now Stage 2 continues along the coast, going through Garraf and Ratpenat to Castelldefels.
Next the parcours turns away from the Mediterranean and heads towards Viladecans, which is more or less a suburb of Barcelona.
Viladecans is the launchpad towards the first categorised climb, the Côte de Begues.
The climb of the Côte de Begues is 6.1km at an average gradient of 6.5%.
The descent is to Olesa de Bonesvalls, before a further uncategorised ramp to El Pla de Pèlag.
The riders then descend via Vallirana and Cervelló to Molins de Rei. Here, the race crosses the Llobregat river.
Soon the next categorised climb begins, the Côte de Santa Creu d'Olorda.
The Côte de Santa Creu d'Olorda is 8.4km at an average 4.5%.
There's a castle at the top.
The descent is via Sarrià to Barcelona. There, the riders take Carrer d'Arago then Carrer de Tarragona to reach Plaça d'Espanya.
Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina then leads to the Font Màgica de Montjuïc.
Here the race turns left on Avinguda de Rius i Taulet. This is the start of a finishing circuit.
On the finishing circuit, the riders go east along the Avinguda del Parallel, then south on Carrer de Palaudariès.
Next, the riders climb to the Château de Montjuïc.
The Côte du Château de Montjuïc climb is 1.6km at an average 9.3%.
The race continues along Carrer del Castell, Passeig del Migdia, and Passeig Olimpic, to the top of the Cote du Stade Olympique. It is 600m at 7%.
The riders cross the finish line for the first time here.
Then it's along Avinguda de l'Estadi, Carrer dels Jocs del 92, Carrer del Foc, and Passeig de la Zona Franca. They continue along Carrer del Segura and Avinguda de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia.
This brings the race back to the magic fountain and the start of the circuit.
They now do two more laps.
Barcelona is a city in Catalonia, north eastern Spain, with a population of 1.6 million. It is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe.
It stands between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, on the Mediterranean coast. To the west is the Serra de Collserola mountain range.
Barcelona is said to have been founded by either the Phoenicians or the Carthaginians. It could possibly be named after the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who is said to have founded the city in the 3rd century BC.
The Romans had a military camp here, which became a colony.
Barcelona came under Visigoth control from the early 400s, and it was captured by Charlemagne's son Louis in 801.
In 1137 it became the capital of the County of Aragon, then the most important city in the Kingdom of Aragon.
In 1516, the Crown of Aragon merged with the Crown of Castile.
In the 1700s, Barcelona became one of the key mercantile centres in the western Mediterranean, with a thriving port.
In the mid-1850s the city expanded outside its Medieval walls. A civil engineer called Ildefons Cerdà proposed a plan for a new district called Eixample. He built octagonal superblocks with wide streets, gardens in the centre of each street block, and integration of rich and poor.
In 1931, Barcelona became the capital of autonomous Catalonia within the second Spanish Republic. In 1939, the city fell to the dictator Franco, who ruled until he died in 1975.
Today Barcelona is an important cultural centre and a tourist destination.
It's famous for the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluis Domènech i Montaner.
It has two prestigious universities, and is the main biotech hub in Spain.
Stage 2 of the 2026 Tour de France looks like one for Classics riders and puncheurs. That might include Roglic, Pogacar, Evenepoel or Mathieu van der Poel.
Who do you think will win Stage 2 of the 2026 Tour de France?
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