Start Order Confirmed: UAE Last Off as the Barcelona Team Time Trial Sets the Grand Départ in Motion
The wait is over. On Saturday afternoon the 2026 Tour de France finally rolls out of Barcelona for a 19.7-kilometre team time trial that snakes through the Catalan capital before climbing to a finish atop Montjuïc — and organisers have now confirmed the start order that will govern one of the most anticipated opening days in years. It is the first time since 1971 that the Tour has begun with a team time trial, and the running order guarantees the drama builds all evening.
The first team down the ramp at the Parc del Fòrum is Caja Rural-Seguros RGA at 17:05 local time, the Spanish wild-card squad handed the honour of opening the race on home roads. From there the 23 teams set off at regular intervals, with the general classification heavyweights deliberately held back until the light softens over the Mediterranean and the crowds on Montjuïc swell.
The finale reads like a GC leaderboard in waiting. Netcompany-Ineos are scheduled off at 18:15, followed by Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale at 18:30 and Remco Evenepoel's Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 18:45. The final two teams are the ones everyone has come to see: Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike at 18:50, and last of all, at 18:55, Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
Starting last is a double-edged privilege. Pogačar's team will have live splits from every rival flashed to their earpieces as they climb, allowing them to pace the effort to the second — but they will also carry the full weight of expectation up the closing ramps knowing that any slip is instantly, publicly quantifiable. Visma, rolling out just five minutes earlier, will effectively set the benchmark the world champion's team must chase.
The stage is doubly significant because of the unusual timing rules ASO have applied to this edition. While the stage win and the first yellow jersey go to the first rider from the fastest team across the line, every rider is given an individual finishing time for the general classification. That means a team can shelter its leader for 16 or 17 kilometres before turning Montjuïc into an uphill launchpad, with co-leaders under no obligation to wait for one another. The gaps that open on this short course cannot be recovered, and on an uphill finish they could already separate the favourites by handfuls of seconds before the race has left Spain.
For the ramp-storming specialists it is a rare chance to shine. Visma count on the raw time-trialling power of Edoardo Affini, cleared to start only days ago after a national-championships crash scare, while UAE will look to protect Pogačar and set up teammate Isaac del Toro on his Tour debut. Red Bull have the horsepower to spring a surprise, and Ineos — first of the marquee teams onto the course — will be desperate to post a marker before the sun drops behind the Montjuïc castle.
By the time UAE cross the line shortly after 19:00, the 2026 Tour will already have a first leader, a first set of GC gaps, and a first read on who has arrived in form. After months of build-up, the racing is finally about to do the talking.