Why is the Vuelta a España starting in Italy? Everything you need to know about overseas Grand Tour starts

It’s time to say buenas dias, or rather buongiorno, to the final men’s Grand Tour of the year. That's right, the 80th edition of the Vuelta a España does not begin in Spain itself, but in Italy, specifically Turin.

It is just the sixth time the Spanish race has started abroad, but is the third time in four years, following Utrecht in 2022 and Lisbon in 2024. Monaco is scheduled to host the start next year, too.

It should all make for very scenic racing. But why is the Vuelta a España – a race with Spain in its very name – starting in Italy?

For decades, Grand Tours have offered out their opening stages, also known as Grands Départs, to other countries. The deals come as an opportunity to gain international exposure, as well as boosted income for the race organisers, who earn a fee for ‘selling’ the event.

According to the organisers, this foreign Grand Départ is celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Vuelta. It also "strengthens the ties between Europe’s leading cycling nations", and celebrates the Italians who have succeeded at the race; Italian riders have taken 187 stage wins, and six overall victories.

An additional interesting thing about this foreign start is that the race will pass through France before reaching Spain; there are four stages fully outside of the host country.

The first time the Vuelta, the youngest Grand Tour, began away from Spain was in 1997, after more than five decades of home starts, with Madrid the preferred host for the first nine editions. That year, the race rolled out from neighbouring Portugal.

Both the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the other men's Grand Tours, have made more of a thing of foreign starts, with the Giro doing it 15 times, including in Albania this year, and the Tour 26 times, most recently Florence, Italy, in 2024.

The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is also getting in on the foreign Grand Départ act, with the 2024 race beginning in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is very popular with all the Grand Tours, actually, hosting the four above on 10 separate occasions.

How much does a foreign start cost?

The fees for hosting a Grand Tour start vary depending on place and plans. It was reported that the deal for this year’s Vuelta Grand Départ was around €7 million. Historically, these costs have ballooned, once extra measures like security, road works, and other logistics have been accounted for.

For a previous Giro foreign start in 2022, for example, the Hungarian government put aside €24 million to host the race. These costs can end up even more expensive for the more well-known Tour de France; in 2014, the UK’s Tour Grand Départ rose from an initial £4.2 million fee paid to the organiser ASO up to £29.4 million for the hosts.

Do other countries bid to host Grand Tours?

There is no formal bidding process for countries who wish to host a Grand Départ. Unlike the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics, where countries file bids and the host is decided in a vote, preparing a pitch for a Grand Tour start is more informal.

Typically, a country’s national body will reach out to the race organiser – ASO in the Vuelta a España's case, RCS for the Giro d'Italia and ASO again for the Tour de France – to open discussions.

Plans are then laid out for the stages, and if the organiser finds the idea convincing enough, a fee will be decided. This can be particularly lucrative for organisers, who in the case of all three men’s Grand Tours, are independent event management companies.

How does the race manage the extra travel?

To help facilitate foreign starts, cycling’s governing body, the UCI, allows an extra ‘travel day’ at a Grand Tour every four years.

However, the Vuelta will not have an extra 'rest' day this year, with teams travelling from Voiron, close to Grenoble in southeast France, to Figueres, just over the border to Spain, between stages four and five on the 26 and 27 August.

That's an almost five hour drive, with the race expected to finish at about 4:30pm CET on Tuesday, and then resuming again at about 4:30pm CET the next day, for a 20km TTT. An interesting transfer.

In contrast, this year’s Giro began a day early – on Friday instead of its usual Saturday slot – to accommodate a travel day from stage three’s finish in Vlorë, Albania to the start of stage four in Alberello, Italy.

Riders, typically, will fly from one country to another to minimise time spent travelling. Team buses and logistics trucks, such as those carrying barriers and start-finish gantries, might spend an entire day driving from one place to another.

One of the furthest-flung Grands Départs in history was when the Giro began in Israel in 2018. The event marked the first Grand Tour start outside of Europe, and required an extensive logistical operation, with a Boeing 747 cargo plane booked to carry bikes more than 2,000km from Israel back to Italy.

Where else has the Vuelta a España started abroad?

This year is just the sixth time the Vuelta a España has started abroad. Here are the occasions it has had a foreign Grand Départ.

1997 - Portugal
2009 - Netherlands
2017 - France
2022 - Netherlands
2024 - Portugal
2025 - Italy

Where has the Tour de France started abroad?

The Tour de France has made more of a habit of starting abroad than the other two men's Grand Tours, although the first didn't happen until 1954, the 41st edition. Here is where it has started outside of L'Hexagone.

1954 - Netherlands
1958 - Belgium
1965 - West Germany
1973 - Netherlands
1975 - Belgium
1978 - Netherlands
1980 - West Germany
1982 - Switzerland
1987 - West Germany
1989 - Luxembourg
1992 - Spain
1996 - Netherlands
1998 - Ireland
2002 - Luxembourg
2004 - Belgium
2007 - United Kingdom
2009 - Monaco
2010 - Netherlands
2012 - Belgium
2014 - United Kingdom
2015 - Netherlands
2017 - Germany
2019 - Belgium
2022 - Denmark
2023 - Spain
2024 - Italy

Where has the Giro d’Italia started abroad?

This year was the 15th time in the history of the Giro d’Italia that the race has begun outside of Italy. Here are the other countries that have hosted the Grand Tour:

1965 - San Marino
1966 - Monaco
1973 - Belgium
1974 - Vatican City
1996 - Greece
1998 - France
2002 - Netherlands
2006 - Belgium
2010 - Netherlands
2012 - Denmark
2014 - Northern Ireland
2016 - Netherlands
2018 - Israel
2022 - Hungary
2025 - Albania

Where has the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift started abroad?

The modern women's Tour de France, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, has only started abroad once so far in its short existence, although there are more scheduled.

2024 - Netherlands