After the Giro d'Italia in 1966 and the Tour de France in 2009, with the individual time trial that will kick off the Vuelta on Saturday, August 22, Monaco will become the first city to host the opening stage of each of the three Grand Tours. The 81st edition of the Spanish race will touch the Principality of Monaco, France, Andorra and Spain and will conclude on Sunday, September 13 in Granada against the backdrop of the Alhambra, one of the most visited museum complexes in the world. The choice of Madrid was not feasible: that weekend the Spanish capital will host the F.1 Grand Prix. The earthquakes that affected Granada yesterday do not currently endanger the race, but it is clear that the organizers are already in close contact with the relevant authorities.

Sixty years separate the opening stages of the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta in Monaco. In 1966, the Giro Rosa celebrated the centenary of Monte Carlo, the most famous district of the city-state, named in honor of Prince Charles III on July 1, 1866, shortly after the opening of the Casino of Monaco. There is a very famous photograph that recalls that start of the Giro d'Italia: Vittorio Adorni in the pink jersey (he had won the Giro in 1965) alongside Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, the actress favored by director Alfred Hitchcock. For the first time, the team presentation in the evening, between 9 and 10 p.m., was broadcast live from Eurovision, and then the first Girofestival accompanied the race, presented by Mike Bongiorno, with the most famous singers of the era. The great star at the start was the Frenchman Jacques Anquetil, in search of his third Giro victory, but in the end he finished third, behind winner Gianni Motta and Italo Zilioli.

The 2009 Tour de France is instead remembered as the race that definitively consecrated Spaniard Alberto Contador: surprise winner of the 2007 Tour and then in 2008 of the Giro-Vuelta double, Contador dominated that edition of the Grande Boucle.

On July 2, 2009, two days before the opening time trial won by Fabian Cancellara, fourteen-year-old Victor Langellotti was one of the young cyclists from Monegasque schools to take the podium during the team presentation alongside the participants of the 96th Tour de France, and had the honor of accompanying his idol, Alberto Contador, and his Astana teammates. Since then, Langellotti has become the third professional cyclist of Monegasque nationality (after Laurent Devalle and Albert Vigna in the 1920s) and the first of them to wear a distinctive jersey in a Grand Tour (the blue polka dot mountain jersey at the 2022 Vuelta). On August 1, 2026, shortly before the Vuelta start from his home, he changed teams—he left Netcompany Ineos—and joined XDS-Astana, the same group managed by Vinokourov for which Contador raced in that 2009.

The equivalent of Anquetil at the start of the 1966 Giro d'Italia is now Tadej Pogacar, the phenomenon of contemporary cycling who has just conquered his fifth Tour de France. The Slovenian from Uae Emirates XRG, who lives in Monaco, will pass in front of his home during the opening 9.4 km time trial on August 22. His objective is to enter the history of cycling by winning the Vuelta for the first time, the only Grand Tour he is missing (he has won 1 Giro and 5 Tours): he raced it only once, as a neo-professional, in 2019, and finished third with three stage wins. If he manages to do so, on September 13 in Granada he would enter the Triple Crown club, composed of champions who have won all three major stage races at least once in their careers. He would be the ninth after Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome and Jonas Vingegaard.

If the start from Monaco promises to be historic, the grand finale in Granada will be equally so: from the Casino of the Principality to the Alhambra, the complex built by the Arabs from 1232 and which embodies nine centuries of Mediterranean civilization. Between these two jewels, the riders will have to face over 58,000 meters of elevation gain across 21 stages: a number that will make the 2026 Vuelta one of the most challenging Grand Tours ever.