It’s finally time for the first Monument of the 2026 season… OK maybe not but there are plenty who rate the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior as one of the most undervalued races on the pro calendar.
The race takes place on Monday 16th February and circles through the olive groves of Andalusia, with six gravel sectors to tackle along the hilly parcours, which leads to an uphill finish back where it started in Úbeda. It’s essentially the Spanish non-WorldTour Strade Bianche, but always delivers good racing, scenic backdrops and a giant metal olive for the victor.
Past winners include Tadej Pogačar and Michał Kwiatkowski – who beat Isaac del Toro last year, though in 2026 the start list is headlined by Tom Pidcock, Tim Wellens and Maxim Van Gils.
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Clásica Jaén key information
- Date: 16th February 2026
- Start and finish: Úbeda, Andalusia, Spain
- Distance: 154km
- Elevation: 2,400km
- Olive grove gravel sectors: Six, 25.1km
- 2025 winner: Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers)
- Live TV coverage: TNT Sports, Discovery+
Clásica Jaén 2026 route and gravel sectors
Clásica Jaén has had to slightly adapt its route through Andalusia’s olive groves in 2026 due to a series of storms in the region. The result is one of the gravel olive grove sectors has been removed, but the organisers have replaced it with a second feature of another sector, which will also lead to a new, uphill run to the finish.
Starting and finishing in the town of Úbeda – in the Jaén province unsurprisingly – the race takes riders through a series of gravel paths through the local olive groves, making it Spain’s answer to Strade Bianche.
There are six gravel sectors, with the longest, Mar de Olivos, the one to be ridden twice before the climb back to Úbeda.
Sector 1: Vandelvira
The first olive grove sector comes after 79.9km and it’s the easiest of the lot at just 1.2km with only 38m of elevation and a max gradient of 4.4%.
Sector 2: Mar de Olivos
Riders will first take on the 7.3km Mar de Olivos sector after 97km. As well as being the longest it features the hardest climbing, with a gradient going up to 9.5%, racking up 198m of elevation. This leg will be a good splitter of the bunch and should give the favourites a nice recon of the final sector.
Sector 3: Juancaballo
About 15km later the peloton will face the 3.7km Juancaballo sector, which is the easiest of the lot in terms of climbing.
Sector 4: Santa Eulalia
The fourth sector is in the village of Saint Eulalia, which incidentally is named after the patron saint of inclement weather. That probably explains why this sector wasn’t too badly affected by this year’s storms. This sector is only 2.3km long but the gradient goes up to 7.9%.
Sector 5: San Bartolomé
The penultimate sector at San Bartolomé is 3.3km long with a max gradient of 5.1%. If we’re comparing saints, as one of the apostles Saint Bartholomew is a patron saint of absolutely loads of things, including, but not limited to: Armenia, butchers, dermatology, plasterers and twitching.
Sector 6: Mar de Olivos
To finish off, it’s another run through Mar de Olivos, which takes the race right back to the foot of Úbeda.
Clásica Jaén 2026 favourites
There’s been a little shake-up of the teams in 2026. While the number of WorldTour representatives has increased from four to five, though Ineos and Visma-Lease a Bike won’t be lining up this year, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Bahrain Victorious and Soudal-QuickStep come in instead.
There’s still set to be a few big names looking to get an early one-day win as well as a bit of practice for Strade Bianche.
Cyclist’s ratings
- ★★★★★: Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG)
- ★★★★: Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe)
- ★★★: Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Roger Adrià (Movistar), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious)
- ★★: Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
- ★: Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet-Rose Rockets), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Iván Romeo (Movistar), Viktor Soenens (Soudal-QuickStep)
How to watch Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior 2026
Even among the Winter Olympics and the start of the UAE Tour, TNT Sports has found a spot to broadcast Clásica Jaén this year, with coverage kicking off on TNT Sports 1 and on Discovery+ at 14:30 and scheduled to finish at 16:45 (both GMT).
Elsewhere it will be shown on Eurosport 2 in Europe; FloBikes in Canada, Australia and New Zealand; Canal Sur locally; Teledeporte in the rest of Spain; HBO Max; VTM in Belgium; and Eurosport in Asia and Pacific territories.
Clásica Jaén 2026 start list
Clásica Jaén 2025 highlights
