2026 Vuelta a España stage 1 preview | 9 kilometres, 25 turns: Mario Kart on two wheels in Monaco

The third major stage race of the year kicks off on Saturday: the Vuelta a España. This year, it begins in the Principality of Monaco with a nine-kilometer individual time trial. Part of the course runs along the roads of the Formula 1 Grand Prix there, which means: turns! IDL Pro Cycling takes you along for the ride!

The opening time trial in the Vuelta a España is 9.4 kilometers long, so it’s a time trial and not a prologue: for that, it would have had to be no more than 8 kilometers. Anyway, that’s just for the sake of completeness.

So this is simply Stage One, and it will be held entirely in Monaco. And given the principality’s length of 3.2 kilometers and maximum width of 910 meters, that’s no easy feat: riding a 9-kilometer time trial on a total area of 2.03 square kilometers. They managed to pull it off, though—but it took 25 turns over the course of 9.4 kilometers of cycling.

The race starts at the Monte Carlo Casino, then heads toward the northern border, turns around, and heads north again through a technical zone. There’s another 180-degree turn, followed by a long stretch toward the southern border with France.

To get there, we’ll have to pass by the harbor, where quite a few turns and twists still await the riders. From the southern border, it’s still a short distance to the finish line at Port Hercule, where the riders will cross the finish line one by one on a circuit that partially overlaps with that of the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 1.

Times
Start: 4:17 p.m CET (first rider)
Finish: around 7:30 p.m CET (last rider)

It will rain in Monaco on Thursday and Friday, but on race day, the drivers should be able to keep it dry. There will be hardly any wind, and the temperature will be around 27 degrees Celsius.

We’re calling it a time trial, but then again, not really: this challenge in Monaco is more like Mario Kart or Formula 1 on two wheels. While a time trial normally revolves mostly around maintaining position and keeping up the pace, this is more of an on/off time trial. Braking, accelerating, slamming on the brakes, and accelerating again—that sort of thing.

Who’s good at that? Sprinters with power. And we just happen to have two of them in this Vuelta a España: Wout van Aert ( Visma | Lease a Bike) and Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek, who lives in Monaco. Van Aert hasn’t gone all out in a time trial for a while, but of course he still has the innate talent to push himself to the limit over 9.4 kilometers and cut through the turns.

Van Aert has won 9 time trials in his career, but his most recent victory dates back to 2023. Pedersen has won a total of 6: in 2019, the Dane, riding for the national team, even beat Van Aert (Veranda’s Willems) in Denmark.

Well, there are still a few more. For example, in 2022, Christophe Laporte was already on his way to claiming the yellow jersey for Visma at the Tour in Copenhagen when he crashed. During his time with Cofidis, he even won several time trials of the same length.

And then there’s Matthew Brennan, perhaps the most dangerous of them all. Last year, at the age of 19, the explosive British rider tested himself twice at the WorldTour level on tougher courses in Romandy and Poland, finishing 11th both times among a field of top contenders.

TheTadej Pogacar factor alsocomes into play. We’re talking about the best cyclist on the planet, who in recent years has consistently been in contention for time trial victories. One difference: winning this time trial in Monaco might also require a bit of daring. Pogacar lives just around the corner, but will he want to risk that on the first day of the Vuelta?

The same applies, to a lesser extent, to teammates Jay Vine, Joao Almeida, and Ivo Oliveira, as well as other general classification contenders such as Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Primoz Roglic of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, who are normally capable of handling this as well.

For “pure” time trialists, however, this is a unique opportunity. In that category, we have super-specialist Ethan Hayter ( Soudal Quick-Step), Tour of Poland stage winner Stefan Küng, Arthur Kluckers (Tudor), Ivan Romeo, Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar), Callum Thornley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Sander De Pestel (Decathlon CMA CGM), and, to a lesser extent, punchy riders like Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Ben Turner of Netcompany INEOS.

Top Favorites: Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
Dark horses: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG), Matthew Brennan, Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), and Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step)
Long shots: Ivo Oliveira, Jay Vine (UAE Emirates-XRG), Stefan Küng (Tudor), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Finn Fisher-Black, Callum Thornley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), and Ben Turner (Netcompany INEOS)