The second stage of O Gran Camiño 2026 will be dedicated to the province of Lugo and will pass through two regions making their debut in the race: A Terra Chá and A Mariña. It will be a “fun stage,” starting in Vilalba and finishing on the beaches of Barreiros.
The organizers announced this on Monday at an event held in Barreiros, which also served to renew the invaluable support of the Vice Presidency of the Lugo Provincial Council for the major Galician professional cycling race.
Thus, on April 15, the peloton featuring the leading figures of international cycling will return to Lugo, starting in the capital of A Terra Chá and finishing in an area highly demanded by fans in the previous four editions: A Mariña.
“It was about time we came to A Mariña,” said the race director and CEO of EME Sports, Ezequiel Mosquera, during his speech at the event. He emphasized the challenges involved in bringing a race of this scale to more remote areas. “Moving all the infrastructure, teams, and staff involves constraints that a stage doesn’t have on paper,” he stressed.
Nevertheless, he highlighted how “rewarding” it is to bring top-level sport to all parts of the region, given that cycling “is everyone’s sport, the one that reaches your doorstep.”
Regarding the Lugo stage, Mosquera said it would be “worthy of what the surroundings deserve” and described it as a “fun stage with plenty of sporting spectacle throughout.”
Also taking part in Monday’s event was the mayor of Vilalba, Marta Rouco, who highlighted the town’s strong connection to sport and cycling, as well as the impressive landscapes through which the cyclists will ride.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Barreiros, Ana Hermida, expressed her gratitude for the opportunity for a race of this magnitude to reach a municipality of just over 3,000 inhabitants—something “unthinkable” under other circumstances—and noted that it will help create role models for grassroots sport.
“A SPORTING SPECTACLE LIKE NO OTHER”
The event was closed by the Vice President of the Lugo Provincial Council, Efrén Castro, who promised a “sporting spectacle like no other” in a spectacular setting—two regions that O Gran Camiño has yet to traverse and with which it had “a debt.”
Efrén Castro thanked the municipalities along the route for their “great effort” in hosting the “significant logistical operation” involved, and encouraged fans to enjoy both the start and the finish as well as the route itself, which holds “a few surprises” all the way to the “idyllic finish line” on the beaches of Barreiros.
For the Vice Presidency of the Lugo Provincial Council, he said, supporting O Gran Camiño is a source of “pride”—a race in which the institution has been involved since its inception and which, in addition to promoting sport, helps to “showcase our territory to the outside world.”
