Jonas Vingegaard has had to abandon the Tour de France after a strong crash on the fifteenth stage. The Danish cyclist —who was more than four minutes behind Tadej Pogacar— fell when he was with the main group and there were about twenty kilometers left to reach the Plateau de Solaison. Isaac del Toro also went down —who climbed from seventh to third place overall— and who helped Pogacar to win several stages in this Tour. The Mexican, however, was able to continue the race without problems and finished third in the stage.

I arrive at Plaça Espanya at two, with the Ferrocarrils from the Manresa line, and the tourist, returning from Montserrat, rushes down the escalators. We go out into the street. A blast of hot air. The solar heat is so intense that when you breathe it feels like the heat enters your lungs. The image of the square is completely different, because the streets are closed due to the Tour de France, which will pass through there, on the way to Montjuïc. Two men and a woman, dressed in yellow-volunteer, wait in the very weak and only shade of a canopy. They give me a map that says: “Grand Départ Barcelona 2026”, with the subtitle, “Everything you need to know to enjoy the 113th edition of the Tour de France 2026”. They explain to me that the Tour cyclists are expected to pass around five, and that before that there will be an advertising caravan. Since I arrived early, as the chronicler always follows Kapuscinsky's advice, I enter the shopping center with the idea of buying a notebook and a pen, and above all, of obtaining the necessary calories. Oh, air conditioning, I would dedicate an ode to you.

I see Don Joan Maragall rolling down La Rambla with a Mexican hat, reciting in a LOUD VOICE and passing the little plate: “Our Barcelona! The great enchantress!”. Charming, fascinating, magnetic. Like a human, cultural, social, spiritual synchrotron, Barcelona is transforming into a Latin American city. Extremes. Rich and poor. Abundance and misery. Possible and impossible. One and the other. Between. In the middle of.

The cyclist rooted in Catalonia Alex Molenaar was part of the day's breakaway. He is the son of a Dutch father and a Catalan mother. He was born in Rotterdam, but at the age of twelve, his family moved to Olot, and very soon he started cycling at the Club Ciclista Olot, his starting point to become a professional cyclist. He currently works for the Caja Rural team, which debuted this year in the Tour with 2 Catalan cyclists. Molenaar was virtually the leader for a handful of kilometers, won the special sprint in Viladecans, and was the first to crest the Coll de Begues, but his adventure with Engelhardt ended with a handshake just before the peloton absorbed them at the entrance to Barcelona. The Dutchman from Olot has fully justified the presence of his invited team in the Tour, after managing to climb onto the podium to wear the mountain jersey. The stage was won by Mexican Isaac del Toro, who had the complicity of his leader, Tadej Pogacar, to win his first stage in the year of his debut in the French race.

It's a few minutes past four in the afternoon. There isn't a cloud in the sky over Barcelona. The sun is beating down mercilessly. Thirty-one degrees, the mobile says. The asphalt gives off an invisible vapor that rises up your body and makes you sweat even if you're in the shade, which is particularly sought after. The classic stuffiness, intensified in the middle of the heatwave. And despite all this, dozens, hundreds, thousands of people are defying this July Saturday to come out onto the street and wait patiently behind the metal fences. There's no shortage of caps or sunscreen. Nor beach chairs, fans, or pocket fans. It's time to wait, but it seems to be a wait that is enjoyed, especially by those who have already secured a front-row spot and don't want to give it up even if they risk sunstroke.

After trying it in different races, the Tour de France has premiered the team time trial in Barcelona with the particularity that the stage is won by the team of the cyclist who arrives at the finish line with the best time. The individual record achieved marks the general classification. It is no longer necessary for five cyclists to arrive together, and the novelties have led to new strategies that have been applied to a 19.6 km route that passed through 3 districts of Barcelona. The eight turns in Sant Martí have been the most technical part of the time trial. In L'Eixample, they flew, and in Sants-Montjuïc, the power of the cyclists' legs on the climbs of Passeig de Santa Madrona and Passeig Olímpic have been decisive in making a difference. On the descent after the Olympic stadium Lluís Companys, at the left turn of INEFC, the cyclists reached over 80 km/h before arriving at Carrer del Foc. The strategy of team time trials has changed, and the cyclists have helped each other with relays in the city, and the front riders, the big shots, have sought their best time in the general classification in the final 800 meters that have ramped upwards to the finish line next to the stadium. Pros and cons of this new format in which at the start, the team's gears are seen in perfect harmony of what a team time trial is, in which each one has their function, and an end in which the cyclists arrive in dribs and drabs after their individual brilliance, which has provided a very exciting spectacle.

The Tour de France advertising caravan is a carousel of 180 vehicles with commercial brands of all types and colors that travel the entire 21 stages of the race at 30 km/h, throwing products and gifts to the public waiting for the cyclists' arrival. All the vehicles together occupy 12 km of route and a person in a fixed spot watches the spectacle for 40 consecutive minutes. The caravan moves 700 people who, on top of all sorts of brightly decorated vehicles, warm up the public who wish to be part of it. Barcelona will experience, starting Saturday, the first passage of the caravan 90 minutes before the start of the team time trial, which is 19.6 km, starting at Parc del Fòrum and ending at Montjuïc. First opportunity for the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, four-time winner of the Tour, to wear the yellow leader's jersey. To see the cyclists in action on the city streets, you need to consider the road closures and use the metro to reach the section you want to see. There will also be different giant screens along the route. At the Fan Park, on Passeig Lluís Companys, and also in Montjuïc, between the Olympic Stadium and the Gardens of Ramon Margalef López.

The first pedal stroke is about to arrive for the only two Catalan cyclists in this year's Tour de France. Their team, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, is one of the invited teams to the French race. "For now, we don't have time for nerves between photos, interviews, and everything else we're doing. We're going full throttle," explains Joel Nicolau to ARA before the team presentation next to Sant Pau Hospital. The dream has come true.

Barcelona is turning yellow. Thousands of yellow caps have welcomed the cyclists who will chase glory on two wheels starting this Saturday in the Tour de France, the emblematic race that, for the first time, starts from Barcelona. Today was the turn of the official presentation of the teams with a route where the cyclists rode along a yellow road that began at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site and ended in front of the Sagrada Família, in a setting where both riders and authorities had their say. If just a few days ago thousands of people approached the temple to see the Pope of Rome in an act of faith, today the atmosphere was different. More festive, with a crowd of cycling fans who wanted to see the best cyclists of the moment up close.

It's Tuesday and it's a quarter to eight in the evening. At the back of the Can Felipa Civic Center, in Poblenou, Barcelona, five men are chatting. They are discussing and pointing at a copy of the magazine Ciclismo a Fondo.. "We've all been part of the club for over 30 years and we do this every week because we love it," admits Jaume Llopart, president of the Penya Ciclista del Poble Nou, founded in 1929. "We're always talking about bikes, what they're doing, the stage, the start... and of course, now the Tour," explains Llopart.