The CRO Race 2026 is a six-stage professional road cycling race across Croatia, held from 29 September to 4 October 2026. The route takes the peloton through a changing Croatian landscape, linking the Adriatic coast and its islands with historic towns, rugged karst country, inland hills and the streets of Zagreb. Part of the UCI Europe Tour, the race combines opportunities for sprinters with rolling terrain and demanding climbs that can shape the general classification.
For Around the Peloton, the CRO Race is particularly interesting because the route becomes a journey through Croatia itself: Roman and Venetian heritage on the Adriatic, medieval settlements, fishing communities, the stark landscapes of the Dinaric coast, and the complex history of a country positioned for centuries between Central Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean.
The final stage of the CRO Race begins in a town visited only a day earlier, but almost immediately takes the race into a different Croatia. Stage 5 approached Samobor through vineyards and wooded hills after a long journey from…
After four stages dominated by the Adriatic, Stage 5 moves inland and introduces a Croatia built around rivers, forests, castles, vineyards and the old approaches to Zagreb. The change is immediate. There are no islands, no Venetian ports and no…
The fourth stage of the CRO Race crosses the Istrian peninsula from south to north-east, beginning beside one of the greatest surviving buildings of the Roman Adriatic and finishing in a city whose modern identity was created by ships, factories…
Stage 3 begins on an island and ends on a hilltop, but between those two points the CRO Race crosses a much larger geographical boundary. The opening kilometres wander through the interior of Krk, where villages, dry-stone fields and sheltered…
Stage 2 is short, but the landscape changes quickly enough to make the distance feel larger than it is. From Biograd na Moru, the race heads north along the coast towards Zadar, then turns towards the rougher country beneath Velebit before…
The CRO Race opens on the Dalmatian coast, but Stage 1 does not stay there for long. From Split, the route turns inland through Stobreč and the country east of the city, crosses the old territory of Poljica, reaches the…
