Vuelta a España director Javier Guillén has confirmed that Piedmont in northwest Italy, is the leading candidate to host the start of the 2025 Vuelta a España.
It would mark the sixth foreign start in Vuelta history and the first in Italy. Indeed, a successful Piedmont bid would see the Vuelta start abroad for three years in succession, given that this year’s race gets underway in Lisbon on August 17, while Monaco was recently announced as the start site for 2026. The USA's Sepp Kuss won the 2023 2023 Vuelta a España after an internal rivalry with his Jumbo-Visma teammates.
Piedmont is investing heavily to attract major sporting events and especially cycling. The region hosted the Grande Partenza of the 2024 Giro d’Italia, will host a stage finish and stage start of the 2024 Tour de France and perhaps the opening stages of the 2025 Vuelta a España. There are also reports in Italy that the 2025 Tour de France will return to Italy for a stage finish, while the 2024 men’s and women’s Tour de L’Avenir will finish atop the dirt roads Colle delle Finestre in Piedmont.
“I can confirm that what the Piedmont region published, declaring its interest in hosting the 2025 start, is true and that we are working on it,” Guillén told AS.
“We would like it very much, because Italy is a cycling country that this year will also host the start of the Tour de France, and we would love for the Vuelta to be present in the territory.
“There are talks, intense work and, if everything goes well, there will be great joy. The official confirmations will come, when it happens, from both sides, but I am very happy to say that the Vuelta and Piedmont are getting closer and closer.”
Guillén indicated that confirmation of the Piedmont start should be formalised before this year’s Vuelta gets underway in Portugal.
“It's not done yet, but we are on the line we want, moving forward. The idea is to make an announcement before La Vuelta 2024,” he said.
The Piedmont region hosted the start of this year’s Giro d’Italia, with the race beginning in Venaria Reale outside Turin before a summit finish at Oropa on stage 2.
In April, RAI reported that the 2025 Vuelta could start with a stage from Venaria Reale to Novara, with the second stage taking the race into the Langhe with a finish in Alba. RAI indicated that the planned third stage would finish in Ceres, with stage 4 starting in Bussoleno and then crossing into France.
As well as working on foreign starts, Guillén reiterated his interest in bringing the Vuelta to the Canary Islands for the first time since the race began in Tenerife in 1988.
Representatives from Tenerife and Gran Canaria have met with Vuelta organiser Unipublic this year amid reports that the final four stages of the 2026 race could take place on the Canary Islands. The hypothesis had previously been floated for the 2017 race, but the plan did not come to fruition.
“This is one of our great challenges,” Guillén said. “It would be an extraordinary national event to further deepen our international impact.”
