With the route taking place entirely in France, multiple summit finishes including Mont Ventoux, a mountain time trial in the Pyrenees and a return to the traditional Paris finale, race director Christian Prudhomme has built a vintage and explosive 2025 Tour de France. He’ll be hoping for yet another gripping battle between defending champion Tadej Pogačar and two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard which will take place on some of the sport’s most iconic climbs.
The first summit finish of the Tour doesn’t come until after 10 days of racing, but there are plenty of hilly stages leading up to it where it will be important for general classification riders to remain vigilant. There’s a big risk of crosswinds in exposed sections of Northern France in the earlier part of the race, so echelons are a real possibility to spice up the opening week. Although there are seven opportunities for sprinters throughout the race, there’s not one entirely flat stage, which will make it a difficult Tour for the fast men.
For the climbers, there’s plenty to contend with in the second half of the race. There are five summit finishes in four mountain ranges including the return of Mont Ventoux on stage 16 which kicks off the last week of racing. An uphill time trial in the Pyrenees comes before that, however, placed in between two summit finishes on the Hautacam (13.6km at 7.8%) and at Superbagneres (12.4km at 7.5%). The final week also includes the infamous Col de la Loze which forms the highest peak in the 2025 race – Pogačar will have some demons to fight on this climb following his spectacular blow-up in 2023, but the peloton will be tackling the mountain from the eastern approach for the first time this year.
After a tough finish on La Plagne and another hilly penultimate stage, the peloton will head to Paris for the traditional sprint finish on the Champs-Élysées – a sight many of them will be grateful for at the end of an extremely challenging three weeks. While the 2025 Tour de France might not feature white roads or cobbles, the climbing in the second half of the race is relentless and the eventual winner of the race will be deserving of the yellow jersey.
Stage one: Lille Metropole to Lille Metropole (185km)
The sprinters are likely to contest the first yellow jersey. There are three climbs on the stage – one in Artois and two in Flanders. None of these are expected to challenge the fast men but they will provide an important…