The Vuelta a España has announced that the 2023 edition will start with a team time trial for the second consecutive year.

For the first time in over half a century, the Vuelta will start in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, on Saturday, August 26, one week later than in 2022.

The later start date for the Vuelta is due to the UCI World Championships calendar being moved forward to next August and incorporating several different events, including road, MTB, and track. The final race of the World Championships is Sunday, August 13.

The Vuelta's inclusion of a team time trial for the second year in a row will test riders in an increasingly underused discipline in Grand Tours, but this year the Vuelta will begin with a TTT for the first time since 2019.

Barcelona's TTT is only 14 km, about half the distance of this Friday's event in Utrecht, L'Equipe reported Friday. However, the 2023 Vuelta TTT will have an uphill finish in Montjuïc Park in central Barcelona.

Montjuïc Park has deep historical ties to Spanish cycling and has hosted its own race, the Circuit a Montjuïc, for many years. It also hosted the World Championships in 1973. The last time the Vuelta started or finished in Barcelona was in Montjuïc in 2012, and the last time the Vuelta started in the Catalan capital was in 1962.

It is unclear where the 2023 Vuelta will go after the opening TTT, but there are rumors of an invasion of France. A return to the Pyrenees, which has been absent from the Vuelta route since the summit finish stage in 2020, is also being considered.