The route for the Tour de France 2025 was revealed this Tuesday, October 29. It will start from the North, in Lille, to return three weeks later to its traditional finale on the Champs-Élysées.
Getting from Lille to Paris by train takes just over an hour. With the 2025 Tour de France, it will be three intense weeks of cycling. The start of the 112th edition will be given on July 5 in France, in the capital of Hauts-de-France, which has not happened since 2021 before three foreign cities, Copenhagen, Bilbao and Florence, launched the great summer mass.
The new route of the Grande Boucle will return to a certain normality after a 2024 edition turned upside down by the holding of the Olympic Games in Paris and a final arrival in Nice.
On July 27, the peloton will return to the Champs-Élysées to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first terminus on the “most beautiful avenue in the world”. At the time, Bernard Thévenet had beaten the great Eddy Merckx in the final ranking. The defeat of the “Cannibal” marked the end of his reign in the Tour de France, which he had won five times.
A sprinter for the first Yellow Jersey?
If the first three stages take place in the North, the riders do not use the paved sectors of Paris-Roubaix, for a smoother start than in recent years. For the first time in more than a decade, a sprinter could capture the first Yellow Jersey of this new edition. The first stage, a 185 km loop around Lille, indeed represents a dream opportunity for straight line specialists. It will be followed by a stage promised to the punchers between Lauwin-Planque and Boulogne-sur-Mer, before a new chapter dedicated to the sprinters between Valenciennes and Dunkirk. “ We would like the first week to be unbridled », Comments the director of Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme.
After this northern aperitif, Normandy will be in the spotlight, including a flat 33-kilometer time trial in Caen on July 9. After a trip to Brittany and central France, the Pyrenees will be there with an arrival at altitude at Hautacam, with a final climb of more than 13 kilometers with an average slope of 7.8%. The next day, Friday July 18, a second 11-kilometer time trial will be offered and should be up to a climber. For the 14th stage, the finish will be judged at Luchon-Superbagnières. “ It will be a sort of Pyrenean sandwich with two stages and a time trial in the middle », laughs Christian Prudhomme.
The return of Ventoux
A Tour de France without the Alps is not a Tour de France. But first, you will have to go through Mont Ventoux, departing from Montpellier, on July 22. In 2013, Christopher Froome had secured his first Tour de France there by knocking out the competition.
“ Le Ventoux is a unique place in the Tour de France. We hope that there will not be violent winds like in 2016 when we were forced to finish further down at Chalet Reynard », Indicates Christian Prudhomme. We remember that Christopher Froome, hit by a television motorbike on the way up, broke his bike and continued running through the crowd while waiting for his recovery car.
In the Alps, the peloton can expect “ two very tough stages » according to Christian Prudhomme. There will be an arrival in La Plagne on July 25 and another in Courchevel with the Col de la Loze. “ Everything will be done to ensure that the race is dense and beautiful “. concludes Christian Prudhomme.
The stages of the Tour de France 2025
July 5: 1st stage Lille – Lille, 185 km
July 6: 2nd stage Lauwin-Planque – Boulogne-sur-Mer, 212 km
July 7: 3rd stage Valenciennes – Dunkirk, 172 km
July 8: 4th stage Amiens – Rouen, 173 km
July 9: 5th stage Caen – Caen (individual time trial), 33 km
July 10: 6th stage Bayeux – Vire Normandy, 201 km
July 11: 7th stage Saint-Malo – Mûr-de-Bretagne, 194 km
July 12: 8th stage Saint-Méen-le-Grand – Laval, 174 km
July 13: 9th stage Chinon – Châteauroux, 170 km
July 14: 10th stage Ennezat – Le Monté Doré, 163 km
July 15: rest day in Toulouse
July 16: 11th stage Toulouse – Toulouse, 154 km
July 17: 12th stage Auch – Hautacam, 181 km
July 18: 13th stage Loudenvielle – Peyragudes (individual time trial), 11 km
July 19: 14th stage Pau – Luchon Superbagnères, 183 km
July 20: 15th stage Muret – Carcassonne, 169 km
July 21: rest day in Montpellier
July 22: 16th stage Montpellier – Mont Ventoux, 172 km
July 23: 17th stage Bollène – Valence, 161 km
July 24: 18th stage Vif – Courchevel Col de la Loze, 171 km
July 25: 19th stage Albertville – La Plagne, 130 km
July 26: 20th stage Nantua – Pontarlier, 185 km
July 27: 21st stage Mantes-la-Ville – Paris Champs-Élysées, 120 km
The Tour de France Women is growing in volume
For its fourth edition, the Women’s Tour de France will start from Vannes in Brittany on July 26 and arrive in Châtel les Portes du Soleil, a Franco-Swiss ski area, on August 3. In 2025, the race will expand, with nine stages instead of seven in the first three editions.
To succeed the Polonaise Katarzyna Niewiadomayou will have to swallow the 1,165 kilometers on the program. There will be 154 riders at the start, divided into 22 teams of 7. The fifth stage between Chasseneuil-du-Poitou Futuroscope and Guéret in the Creuse will be the longest with 166 kilometers on the program. At 2,000 meters above sea level, the Col de la Madeleine in Savoie will serve as the roof of this edition during the 8th stage which will offer 3,490 meters of positive altitude difference. The Tour de France Femmes will cross four regions and fifteen departments. With Brittany, the Massif Central and the Alps, the route should provide a rhythmic race, which could, as in 2024, maintain suspense until the last day.
The Dutch Demi Vollering, one of the best riders on the international scene, beaten by four seconds in the general classification in 2024, will certainly want her revenge with her new French team FDJ-Suez.
The nine steps:
Saturday July 26: Vannes / Plumelec 79 km
Sunday July 27: Brest/Quimper 110 kilometers
Monday July 28: La Gacilly / Angers 162 km
Tuesday July 29: Saumur / Poitiers 128 kilometers
Wednesday July 30: Chasseneuil-du Poitou / Guéret 166 km
Thursday July 31: Clermont-Ferrand / Ambert 124 km
Friday August 1: Bourg-en Bresse / Chambéry 160 km
Saturday August 2: Chambery / Col de la Madeleine 112 km
Sunday August 3: Praz-sur-Arly / Châtel les Portes du Soleil 124 km