The stellar Volta a Catalunya prepares for a 104th edition of high expectations
March 22 nd 2025 - 11:06 [GMT + 1]
The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya has activated the countdown to start, this Monday 24 March from Sant Feliu de Guíxols, its 104th edition. Until the arrival in Barcelona on Sunday 30 March, the best teams and cyclists in the world will once again gather in Catalonia to compete in seven varied stages throughout the territory, which have once again attracted a participation worthy of a grand tour, attracted by the three high altitude finishes that make the Catalan race one of the most demanding on the UCI World Tour calendar. Primoz Roglic, Juan Ayuso, Adam Yates, Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz, Mikel Landa or Enric Mas are just some of the names that lead a star line-up in which 14 victories in the big three-week races can be found in their palmarès.
Everything is ready for a peloton of 168 riders from the best teams in the world, a total of 24, to start the 2025 edition of the Volta a Catalunya, which will start this Monday in Sant Feliu de Guíxols with three former winners of the race among its participants: Primoz Roglic (currently with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, 2023), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) and Nairo Quintana (2016, Movistar Team). These are just some of the major attractions of the Catalan UCI World Tour race, the third oldest stage race on the calendar after the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, which once again this year brings together a top-level participation, as demonstrated by the 14 Grand Tours that make up the track record of its participants.
A CV that includes four victories in the Vuelta a España and a Giro d'Italia of the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, who returns to the Volta Catalunya two years after his victory in 2023 and who is one of the great candidates to take over from his compatriot Tadej Pogacar. There will also be two Tour de France winners, both from the Ineos Grenadiers team, such as the Colombian Egan Bernal (winner of a Tour and a Giro, 3rd in the last edition of the Volta), and the Welsh veteran Geraint Thomas, who is facing his last season as a professional, along with former Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Giro d'Italia winner Nairo Quintana (Vuelta and Giro winner), another Giro champion Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), and two Vuelta winners, Sepp Kuss and Simon Yates, who will lead a strong Team Visma-Lease a Bike looking to recover from the last-minute injury loss of Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard.
However, the list of contenders is much longer, led by the young Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), who is one of the big contenders for victory a week after dominating Tirrena-Adriatica with victory. An endless list of world cycling stars including former Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), a major protagonist of the Vuelta 2022 and also a podium finisher in all the Grand Tours, and current cycling stars such as Basque Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), 2nd in the last edition, the Balearic rider Enric Mas (Movistar Team), four times on the podium in the Vuelta España, the Australian Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla), who last year was runner-up in the Vuelta and the World Cup and already knows what it is to win a stage in the Volta, or the best young rider of the last edition, the Frenchman Lenny Martínez (Bahrain-Victorious), who comes from shining in Paris-Niça.
A participation that will also count one more year with a remarkable participation of Catalan cyclists led by the rider from Vilanova Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), who this year reaches his 10th consecutive participation in the Catalan race, accompanied by Antonio Pedrero (Movistar Team), Pau Miquel (Kern Pharma Team), Abel Balderstone and Jan Castellón (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), and will also come with riders who will fight for stage victories such as the Australian, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who has three stage victories in the Volta in his two participations.
A high-altitude Volta to put the best climbers to the test
The presence for the third consecutive year of three mountain finishes (La Molina, Montserrat and Queralt) will unquestionably mark the development of a Volta Catalunya, which once again this year combines familiar territory with new and highly anticipated features in its route.
The race will start on Monday 24th March from Sant Feliu de Guíxols, which for the fourth consecutive year will start with an initial day of nervous cycling along the Costa Brava and the Gavarres massif. Starting once again from the Club Nàutic of the Empordà town and finishing on the explosive Carretera de Girona, the stage will be 178.6 kilometers long and will include two mountain passes in the first half (Coll de Begur and Alt de Santa Pellaia), leaving the terrain open to surprises for the battle in 2023.
The second stage, starting from Banyoles, will return the Volta to one of the most visited venues in the past, the city of Figueres, which will once again host the Catalan race 56 years later. It will do so with a 177.3 kilometer stage that seems to be one of the most favorable to play for the victory among the fast men of the Volta.
The cyclists will pass the finish line twice in the capital of Alt Empordà in the final part of a day with the mountain passes of Coll del Puig de Pení and the monumental Coll de Sant Pere de Rodes (1st category) in the central part of the stage.
The high mountains will arrive in the third stage, the longest of the Volta a Catalunya since 2006, and one of the most demanding with up to 5,000 metres of cumulative positive altitude gain. It will be a day of 218.6 kilometres with a start from Viladecans The Style Outlets and five mountain passes including the finish of the first of the three high altitude finishes of the edition, the mountain resort of La Molina (1st category). The Coll de Estenalles, the Coll de la Batallola, and especially the endless Coll de la Creueta (special category) will add wear and tear to a day that will serve as the first test among the great candidates for the final victory.
The fourth stage will see one of the most important novelties of the edition with the return to Montserrat in the Volta, 30 years after the victory of Frenchman Laurent Jalabert. On the celebration of the Millennium of the magical mountain, the emblematic peak returns to the Volta Catalunya as the end of a day of 188.7 kilometers without rest through Central Catalonia, starting from Sant Vicenç de Castellet, one of the two new venues of the edition, and the Turó del Puig as the only final pass.
The Terres de l'Ebre will be the main protagonists of the fifth stage, two years after being decisive in Roglic's last victory in a memorable stage finish in Lo Port. The four regions of the Delta de l'Ebre (Baix Ebre, Ribera d'Ebre, Terra Alta and Montsià) will be part of the route of a 172-kilometre stage starting in the town of Paüls, the second new venue of the edition, and finishing in the city of Amposta. One of the routes with the least gradient of the edition, with only one qualifying pass, the Coll de la Font at the start of the stage, but with the threat of the wind in the final stretch along the Ebro Delta.
The expectation will be at its highest in the sixth stage, which will be the third mountain stage with a Berguedà on fire after the success of the last 2024. The city of Berga will be the starting point of a 159-kilometre stage that will once again put the cyclists to the test with four mountain passes and a high-altitude finish in the middle of the crowd. The Coll de la Batallola, the spectacular Coll de Pradell (special category), which will shine again after having made its debut in competition last year in the Volta, and the explosive Collada de Sant Isidre, will add all the ingredients to see the favourites playing for the final victory among the Berguedà public.
And there will still be the final party of the 104th Volta a Catalunya in its seventh stage, which will close the race and crown its winner 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 de España and will be 88.2 kilometres long. As it could not be otherwise, its sign of identity will be the 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.
A week of world-class sport throughout Catalonia that will once again offer spectacular images that will reach the whole world thanks to its important global television broadcasting. The images of this Volta a Catalunya, which in Spain can be followed live on television on Esport 3, Teledeporte and Eurosport, will be distributed in 190 territories around the world through 40 international broadcasters, which will broadcast live images on all five continents. A global expectation for a cycling race that is a world reference point, and which is once again on the threshold of an edition worthy of its history.