Tour's Barcelona TTT will take place in the evening

Tour de France organiser ASO has released the schedule, which includes the news that the stage 1 team time trial in Barcelona will take place in the evening of Saturday, July 4th.

This is not really a surprise, given that opening TTTs often take place late in the day, but we now have confirmation. The first team will role off the ramp at 17:05 local time, and the last will start at 18:55, which means all can be expected to finish the 19 km effort by 19:15.

The last time Barcelona hosted a TTT was in the opening stage of the 2023 Vuelta a España, an organisational faux pas that was subject of some controversy. With a later evening start than this year's Tour, a late-summer rain storm significantly reduced the already lowered visibility, and the organisers came under attack from some of the late-starting teams including reigning champion Remco Evenepoel, whose Soudal-QuickStep team didn't start until 20:19.