Women’s La Vuelta cycling competition to start in Barcelona with time trial

Female cycling aficionados in Catalonia will have something to look forward to when this year’s edition of the Femenine La Vuelta cycling competition kicks off on May 4.

The first stage of the race will be an 8 km-long team time trial beginning and ending at the iconic modernist Antoni Gaudí building Casa Milà, on the central Passeig de Gràcia, moving upwards to the Diagonal Avenue towards the Pedrables Palace before returning to the city center.

The second stage, on May 5, will begin in Molins de Rei and end in Sant Boi de Llobregat, with riders having to cover a total of 99 km.

The Vuelta will then continue through Aragon, then Castile and León, before finishing in Asturias.

The route was presented on Monday evening in Barcelona.  
The presentation was attended by Mayor Jaume Collboni, the Catalan Minister of Sport, Bernardo Álvarez Merino, and the general director of the Vuelta de España, Javier Guillén.

During the presentation, Collboni said it was “an honor” to have the Vuelta take off in the Catalan capital, a city that “loves the bike”, adding that it was a step towards “creating female role models in cycling.” 

From 2015 to 2017, the race was a one-day event held in Madrid, but since 2018 it has grown to a multi-day event in multiple Autonomous Communities. 

The 2025 edition will have seven stages and cover 748 km. 

Although it's the first time the Women's Vuelta visits Barcelona, it's not the first time that Barcelona has hosted a female cycling competition, as reminded by the mayor during the presentation. 

“We’re proud to have hosted the first female cycling competition in 1932 in the Ciutadella Park,” he said, while Javier Guillén noted that the Women's Vuelta "was here to stay."

Barcelona also provided the backdrop for the beginning of the 2023 Vuelta a España, with many of the world's most famous cyclists kicking off their tour on the beach of the Catalan capital.

Next year, Barcelona will host the Grand Depárt of the Tour de France.