La Vuelta Desafìo Granada 2026

« Whoever hasn't seen Granada, hasn't seen anything », the Andalusians have been repeating for ages 🤪.

The organizers of La Vuelta seem to have taken the lesson to heart: for the first time, the Tour of Spain clips into the Nasrid city with a brand-new cyclosportive, La Vuelta Desafío Granada. On roads completely closed to traffic, you ride in the same conditions as the summit bosses ⬆️, between Granada and the first slopes of the Sierra Nevada ⛰️. Enough to put the Desafío straight onto the map of European top-level amateur cycling 🌍. Granada and its mountains are among La Vuelta 🔄’s favorite final arbiters, where it has drawn some of its cruellest summit finishes 😎. In 2013, the American Chris Horner dropped Vincenzo Nibali on the ramps of the Alto de Hazallanas 📈, laying the foundations for a final triumph at 41, a record still standing.

As for the route, the Desafío lets you set the suffering slider yourself 🥵. The start sets off from the heart of Granada to climb toward Güéjar Sierra, a lovely balcony perched at 1,088 m altitude, at the massif’s north-western entrance 🧭. Three loops, three verdicts: first lap completed at km 33.7, second at km 67.5 and the full course at km 101.4, for a finish in the Genil valley. The profile is anything but a long, rolling ribbon: between the Canales reservoir and the switchbacks that bite into the mountain, the gradients quickly climb into double digits 📈, and the leg-breaking walls of the Hazallanas sector reach beyond 20% in places 🤯.

The atmosphere promises to feel like a huge Andalusian street party 🎉. At the end of September, the Southern heat hasn’t yet surrendered ☀️, and you rack up the kilometers on tarmac privatized just for amateurs, crowds packed into the villages and the finisher’s name ringing out at the finish 🎺. The à la carte format opens the door to both the sharpened climber and the rider who’s come to sample just one loop for the sheer beauty of it 🙌.

Once you’ve racked the bike, Granada rolls out one of the finest post-race scenes in Spain 🇪🇸. The city cherishes the tradition of the tapa offered with your drink, a local miracle that turns every beer into a free feast 🤤. Climb up to the Alhambra, get lost in the white alleyways of the Albaicín, let a flamenco Sacromonte guitar close out the day 🎸, and spare a thought for Federico García Lorca, the local son who sang of his city better than anyone 🎶. You’ve got it: in Granada, the only grenade that explodes is in your thighs as you come out of Hazallanas 😂.

Your turn to take on the Desafío de Granada 👊.