Race director Christian Prudhomme announced the route of the 2025 Tour de France in Paris today, outlining that the French Grand Tour race will begin in Lille in northern France and return to Paris for the traditional procession to a finish on the Champs-Elysees.
The route will feature a mixture of flat and punchy parcours in the opening days mixed with some challenging hilly rides, before two chunks of strikingly hard climbing in the Pyrenees and the Alps. There are two individual time trials, the second of which is an 11km ascent that has the potential to shake up the standings on stage 13.
Stage one will be a flat day giving a chance for a sprinter to take the yellow jersey, and kicking off a first week which will take in Dunkirk at the northern tip of the country before snaking across to Normandy and Brittany, where the stage five individual time trial is a 33km flat ride around Caen. The stage-seven finish on the Mur de Bretagne will offer a first look at the strength of the main contenders
The peloton will move into central France where the hills of the Massif Central could throw up some fireworks on stage 10, culminating on the Puy de Sancy, before a well-earned rest day.
Then comes the most eye-catching phase of the route where the race could be won and lost: three testing, grueling days in the Pyrenees, back to back to back. Stage 12 finishes at Hautacam, where Vingegaard crushed a broken Pogacar en route to victory two years ago; stage 13 is an intriguing mountain time trial, an 11km race against the clock up the Peyragudes; stage 14 confronts the Pyrenees’ infamous ‘circle of death’ climbs including the Col du Tourmalet, Col d’Aspin and Col de Peyresourde before a summit finish at Luchon-Superbagneres.
After the second rest day, the road kicks high again with an ascent of the legendary Mont Ventoux and its eerie lunar landscape on stage 16, before a sprint day to tee up the savage queen stage 18 in the Alps: 5,550m of elevation over the Col du Glandon, Col de la Madeleine and finally the Col de la Loze.
Stage 19 is shorter but no less tough, with more monstrous climbs leading to a high finish at La Plagne. The flat jaunt of stage 20 along the east of France will be a welcome relief, before the climax in Paris.
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