La Volta a Catalunya presents 2025 editions of world reference
March 14 th 2025 - 19:30 [GMT + 1]
The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya has celebrated this Friday 14th March the official presentation of the exciting 2025 season that lies ahead with its men's and women's editions. In a 104th men's edition that will be held from 24 to 30 March and that once again attracts the biggest names in world cycling of its generation, as shown by the confirmed participation of the double winner of the Tour de France Jonas Vingegaard, a women's race is added that seeks its consolidation among the best races of the world women's calendar with the celebration of its 2nd edition between 6 and 8 June.
The historic Catalan organisation has presented all the details of its races for the 2025 season at an event held at the Institut Nacional d'Educació Física (INEFC) in Barcelona, which was broadcast live on Esport3. The event was attended by numerous authorities, including the Minister of Sports of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Berni Álvarez, and the President of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya A.E., Rubèn Peris, accompanied by the different deputies, mayors, councillors and authorities of the institutions, bodies and sponsors that support the race.
The Secretary General of the Department of Sport of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Abel García, oversaw opening an event whose main event was the publication of all the details of the routes of this year's two editions of the Volta a Catalunya. Before doing so, Rubèn Peris highlighted the sweet moment that the event is experiencing. ‘We can proudly say that we are coming from a historic year. This season, we are looking to take over from two reigning champions like Tadej Pogacar and Marianne Vos, two cyclists considered by many to be among the best in history, and it is an honour to have them on our list of winners. We are living in a great era for professional cycling, and we are fortunate to have a luxury stage to bring it to them’, said the general director of the event.
A 2nd women's edition of consolidation
The sporting content of the event began with the presentation of the route of the 2nd women's edition of the Volta, which was revealed by the race's sports director, Patrícia Ortega. The Catalan event, which will have three stages on 6, 7 and 8 June, repeats its place in the calendar as an international UCI 2.1 category event and will seek to take over from Marianne Vos with a participation that so far has eighteen confirmed teams, including four UCI Women's World Tour, the world's top category.
This 2nd Volta a Catalunya will start with a first stage from Terres del Ebre to Camp de Tarragona, with 114.3 kilometres between El Perelló and the city of Reus, which will pass through medium mountain terrain in the interior of the Costa Daurada. The high mountains will once again mark the identity of the race, as shown by its second stage, which, with 72.8 kilometres starting from Bagà, will have another very demanding finish at the Coll de Pal (special category, crowned at 2,115 metres) after a stage with three mountain passes. Finally, the race will close with a final stage of 117.9 kilometres starting in Castelldefels and finishing at Avinguda Maria Cristina in Barcelona, which will crown the champion of this Volta for the second year after a final stage with two mountain passes through the interior of the Penedès and Baix Llobregat regions.
A 104th men's edition with identity, novelties and expectation
The presentation of two official posters of the Volta a Catalunya 2025, the work of ‘Sisquillo’, has been the ante room of the presentation of the route of the 104th men's edition, which from 24 to 30 March will once again bring together the best teams and cyclists in the world, consolidated within the UCI WorldTour calendar, the first world category. Its general director, Rubèn Peris, has presented its seven stages, which include the presence for the third consecutive year of three high altitude finishes (La Molina, Montserrat and Queralt), which frames its identity, a fact that one more year combines with novelties of great expectation.
The race will start on Monday 24th March from Sant Feliu de Guíxols, which for the fourth consecutive year will be the starting and finishing point of a nervous stage along the Costa Brava and the Gavarres massif. In this case, repeating the start from the Club Nàutic in the town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols and the finish on the explosive Carretera de Girona, there will be 178.6 kilometres of the route, with two mountain passes in the first half (Coll de Begur and Alt de Santa Pellaia), leaving the terrain open to surprises in an attempt to prevent a strong finisher from taking the first lead of the Volta a Catalunya.
The second stage, starting in Banyoles, will see the Volta return to one of its most visited venues in the history of the race, the city of Figueres, which once again hosts the Catalan race 56 years later. It will do so with a stage of 177.3 kilometres that seems one of the most favourable to play for the victory among the fast men of the Volta, who will cross the finish line twice in the capital of the Alt Empordà, but which will still have the mountain passes of the Coll del Puig de Pení, and especially the monumental Coll de Sant Pere de Rodes (1st category) due to the passage through the Cap de Creus in the central part of the stage.
The high mountains will arrive in the third stage, the longest of the Volta since 2006. It will be a batch of 218.6 kilometres of route with departure from Viladecans The Style Outlets, four mountain passes and up to 5,000 metres of accumulated positive height gain to the finish line of the first of the three high altitude finishes of the edition, the mountain resort of La Molina, a 1st category pass. The Coll de Estenalles, the Coll de la Batallola, and especially the never-ending Coll de la Creueta (special category) will add wear and tear to a day that will serve as the first test among the candidates for the final victory.
The fourth stage will experience one of the most relevant novelties with the return to Montserrat 30 years later, in an event that the last winner of the magical mountain in 1995, the Frenchman Lauren Jalabert, has recalled through a video. In the celebration of its millennium, the emblematic summit returns to the Volta a Catalunya as the end of a day of 188.7 kilometres without rest through Central Catalonia, starting from Sant Vicenç de Castellet, one of the two unprecedented venues of the edition, and the Turó del Puig as the only scoring port before the final climb.
The Terres de l'Ebre will be the protagonists of the fifth stage, two years after being decisive in the victory of Primoz Roglic in 2023 in a memorable stage finishing in Lo Port. The four regions of the Ebro (Baix Ebre, Ribera de Ebre, Terra Alta and Montsià) will be part of the route of a 172-kilometre stage starting in the town of Paüls, the second unprecedented venue of the edition, and finishing in the city of Amposta. One of the most favourable routes of the edition with only one qualifying pass (the Coll de la Font at the start of the stage) but with the threat of wind in the final stretch along the Ebre Delta.
The expectation will be high in the sixth stage, which will live its third mountain stage repeating the formula of success in the Berguedà of the last 2024. The city of Berga will be the starting point of a 159-kilometre stage that will once again test the cyclists with four mountain passes and a high-altitude finish at the summit of Queralt, where last year Tadej Pogacar finished his exhibition among the public. The Coll de la Batallola, the spectacular Coll de Pradell, which will shine again after making its debut in competition last year at the Volta, and the explosive Collada de Sant Isidre, will add up all the ingredients to see the favourites play for the final victory.
And if not yet decided, the 104th Volta a Catalunya will still have its final party on Sunday 30 March. The city of Barcelona, which has never failed in any edition of the centenary race, will once again host the start and finish of a final stage that will start from the Plaza España and will cover 136.2 kilometres, passing through the Alt de Corbera and, especially, its six laps of the Montjuïc circuit and its Alt del Castell, which will close a week of the best world cycling in Catalonia in a setting that always guarantees an incomparable sporting and public spectacle.
Luxury names for a great competition
All the necessary ingredients for a great spectacle among the world-class names scheduled to take part. Double Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard is scheduled to make his debut in the Catalan race, in an event in which he is in front of the winner of the 2023 edition, Primoz Roglic, outstanding names of the last editions like Mikel Landa, Egan Bernal or Richard Carapaz, former winners like Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana and Sergio Higuita, contenders like Juan Ayuso and Catalan references like Marc Soler, among many others.
Leading names in world cycling will shine for a week on Catalan roads. A fact of great value, as highlighted by the various authorities who participated in the event, such as David Escudé, deputy delegate of Esports, of the Diputació de Barcelona and the councillor of Esports of the Ajuntament de Barcelona, Mireia Borrego, Councillor for Sports and Youth of the Sant Feliu de Guíxols Town Council, Noemi Llauradó, President of the Tarragona Provincial Council, Jordi Masquef, Deputy for Sports of the Girona Provincial Council, and Òscar Martínez, Deputy for Public Health and Sports of the Lleida Provincial Council.
The final part of the event, which closed with a speech by Berni Álvarez, Minister of Sports of the Generalitat de Catalunya, was also the occasion for the live presentation of the official song of the Volta a Catalunya 2025: ‘La que sempre volies’, by Cloe, winner of the #iCatVolta competition. Finally, the Medals of Honour, awarded annually by the organisation, were presented to Santiago Castrillo, head of organisation of the Volta a Catalunya for more than two decades, Òscar Pitarch, former president of the Volta a Catalunya, Montserrat Dot, former president of the Unió Esportiva Sants, sports journalist Josep Margalef, David Fernández, a mechanic in cycling teams who this year will celebrate 25 years covering the Volta a Catalunya, and the former director of promotion and sports events of the Institut Barcelona Esports, Gabriel Arranz.