The 2025 Tour de France will be decided in the thin air of the high mountains, with the 112th edition of the Grand Boucle including a triple whammy of mountain finishes in the Pyrenees, a summit finish atop Mont Ventoux and two final mountain stage in the high Alps to Courchevel and La Plagne.
The 2025 route also includes two time trials but they will have a limited impact on the fight for overall victory. The first is a flat and fast stage around Caen in Normandy, while the second is a mountain time trial on the Col de Peyresourde to the Peyragudes ski station landing strip.
The full routes of the 2025 Tour de France were revealed in Paris by race director Christian Prudhomme after the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift route was revealed by Marion Rousse.
The two races will again overlap by two days. The 2025 men’s Tour de France will start on Saturday, July 5 in Lille and end in Paris on Sunday, July 27. The Tour de France Femmes includes nine days of racing from Vannes to Châtel between Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, August 3.
The route and numerous mountain finishes appear to offer a perfect scenario for another Tadej Pogačar – Jonas Vingegaard battle. The limited number of time trial kilometres perhaps is a handicap for Remco Evenepoel but helps the French climbers like David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ and Lenny Martinez, who will ride for Bahrain Victorious in 2025.
Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel were all absent from the presentation in the Palais des Congrès, near the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysées, which will again host the final stage in 2025.
The occasion also saw the Tour de France celebrate Mark Cavendish’s stage win record and retirement. Also present in the Palais des Congrès were green points jersey winner Biniam Girmay, his sprint rival Jasper Philipsen, Audrey Cordon-Ragot and the 2024 queen of the mountains winner Justine Ghekiere.
Grand Départ – Lille and nervous racing in northern France
The 2025 Grand Départ will be contested in northern France. Stage 1 starts and finishes in the centre of the Lille and covers 185km via a northwest loop, with the sprinters expected to fight for the first stage win and yellow jersey.
The riders will enjoy several nights in the same hotel near Lille, with stage 2 from Lauwin-Planque south of the city, to Boulogne-sur-Mer on the coast. At 212km, this is the longest stage of the 2025 Tour.
This stage is hillier and more exposed to crosswinds from the Channel, with the Saint-Étienne-au-Mont (900m at 11%) and the Côte d’Outreau (800m at 8.8%) in the final ten kilometres. Wout Van Aert won a similar stage to Calais in 2022 with a late solo attack and Peter Sagan won on the uphill finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 2012, so this is a day for the puncheurs and perhaps a change in the race lead.
Stage 3 runs from Valenciennes to Dunkerque on the coast, with summer crosswinds a possible extra danger in the final 35km. The 2025 Grand Départ will not race on the cobbles of northern France but the stages will be stressful and intense.
Week one – An early time trial, a Mûr-de-Bretagne finish and the Massif Central
The Tour de France returns to the heartlands of French cycling in 2025, with week one jumping across from Lille to Picardy, Normandy and Brittany before heading south via the Massif Central for the first rest day in Toulouse.
The Tour leaves the Lille-Nord de France area on the 173km stage 4 from Amiens, giving the sprinters another shot at victory in Rouen, though the challenging final kilometres twist around the town.
The first time trial is on stage 5 around Caen and runs over a flat and fast 33km loop. The city celebrates its millennium in 2025 and has been chasing a stage for a decade. For a day, the town famous for calvados and cider will be the centre of the cycling world.
Stage 6 starts in Bayeux and ends in Vire Normandie after 201km. The rolling stage includes six categorised climbs and 3,500 metres of climbing, with a 700-metre, 10% ramp to the finish line.
The GC tension rises even higher for the stage 7 finish on the Mûr-de-Bretagne hilltop finish. The 194km stage will celebrate local legend and the last French Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault, who will be 70 in November.
Mathieu van der Poel won alone on the Mûr-de-Bretagne in 2021 with a searing attack to take the yellow jersey. Pogačar will surely try to attack here to snatch a time bonus with two climbs of the Mûr-de-Bretagne offering two chances to attack.
The 2025 Tour route turns south on the 174km stage 8 with finishes in Laval and then the 170km stage 9 in Châteauroux, where Cavendish won in 2008, 2011 and 2021
Stage 8 celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of three-time Tour winner Louison Bobet, while the final 50km of stage 9 zig-zags north and south in the hope crosswinds could cause chaos.
Bastille Day is on Monday, July 14 and so the Tour races on and deep into the Massif Central, with the first rest day coming on the Tuesday rather than the usual Monday.
Stage 10 includes the little-known Croix Morand and Croix Saint-Robert climbs before the finish at Le Mont-Dore and the Puy du Sancy. It is only 163km long but includes 4,400 metres of climbing on the little-known Massif Central country roads.
Week two – Three days of suffering the Pyrenees
The Pyrenees stand out in week two of the 2025 Tour de France, with a triplet of three mountain finishes, including the return of a mountain time trial.
Stage 11 covers a 154km loop around Toulouse and should suit the sprinters but they will have to suffer. The riders will see the Pyrenees looming on the horizon.
Stage 12 runs 181km from Auch to Hautacam, a climb which has been used six times in the Tour de France – most famously in 1996, when Bjarne Riis powered away to win in the yellow jersey. In 2022 Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar clashed on the Hautacam, with the Dane dropping his rival on the way to his first Tour victory. The 13.6km climb has an average gradient of 7.8%. In 2025 it is preceded by 100km of flat valley roads and only minor climbs. Expect more big ring attacks on the climb to the finish.
The Pyrenean triple whammy includes a 11km mountain stage between two mountain finishes. Stage 13 will climb from the valley town of Loudenvielle up to the Peyragudes airport landing strip at the ski station below the Col de Peyresourde.
Eight of the stage’s 11km will come on the climb itself. It will be a true mountain time trial; the effort will be intense as riders try to climb at speed but also stay aero. It could give Vingegaard a chance to gain time on Pogačar, or for the Slovenian to tighten his grip on the race.
There is no time to recover from the TT on stage 14, with the final day in the Pyrenees arguably the queen stage of the 2025 Tour. It covers 183km and 4,950 metres of climbing.
The stage starts in Pau and climbs the Col du Tourmalet, the Col d’Aspin, the Col de Peyresourde before concluding with a climb up to the Luchon-Superbagnères ski station. The Superbagnères climb has not been used since 1989, but new bridges and a new ski lift will make the logistics far easier for the huge Tour caravan.
Pure climbers like Imerio Massignan, Federico Bahamontes and Robert Millar have won there, and in 1986 Greg LeMond cracked Bernard Hinault to set-up overall victory. The stage follows the same route as it did back then, and we could see a similar outcome in 2025.
Stage 15 is rolling, running over 169km, and takes the Tour east from Muret to Carcassonne. Another post-stage transfer follows, as Montpellier hosts the second rest day on Monday July 21.
2025 Tour de France stages
Date |
Stage |
Start/Finish |
Distance |
July 5 |
Stage 1 |
Lille – Lille |
185km |
July 6 |
Stage 2 |
Lauwin-Planque – Boulogne-sur-Mer |
212km |
July 7 |
Stage 3 |
Valenciennes – Dunkerque |
172km |
July 8 |
Stage 4 |
Amiens – Rouen |
173km |
July 9 |
Stage 5 |
Caen – Caen ITT |
33km |
July 10 |
Stage 6 |
Bayeux – Vire Normandie |
201km |
July 11 |
Stage 7 |
Saint-Malo – Mûr-de-Bretagne |
194km |
July 12 |
Stage 8 |
Saint-Méen Le-Grand – Laval |
174km |
July 13 |
Stage 9 |
Chinon – Châteauroux |
170km |
July 14 |
Stage 10 |
Ennezat – Le Mont-Dore |
163km |
July 15 |
Rest Day |
Toulouse |
– |
July 16 |
Stage 11 |
Toulouse – Toulouse |
154km |
July 17 |
Stage 12 |
Auch – Hautacam |
181km |
July 18 |
Stage 13 |
Loudenvielle – Peyragudes ITT |
11km |
July 19 |
Stage 14 |
Pau – Luchons-Superbagnéres |
183km |
July 20 |
Stage 15 |
Muret – Carcassonne |
169km |
July 21 |
Rest Day |
Montpellier |
– |
July 22 |
Stage 16 |
Montpellier – Mont Ventoux |
172km |
July 23 |
Stage 17 |
Bollène – Valence |
161km |
July 24 |
Stage 18 |
Vif – Courchevel Col de la Loze |
171km |
July 25 |
Stage 19 |
Albertville – La Plagne |
130km |
July 26 |
Stage 20 |
Nantua – Pontarlier |
185km |
July 27 |
Stage 21 |
Mantes-la-Ville – Paris |
120km |