Tour de France 2025 route rumours and announcements

[Rob5091]

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/to...ris-roubaix-pave-in-2025-grand-depart-stages/
Apart from explaining the reasons why there was no pavé, Gouvenou also offered further details to the media about the challenges the riders will face in the ultra-hilly final 10 kilometres of stage 2, with three short but tough climbs in very quick succession and a hill-top finish at Boulogne-sur-Mer.

“It’s a long stage” - 209 kilometres - “and we deliberately included lots of changes of direction in the hope that crosswinds could have an effect,” Gouvenou said.

“All in all, it’s a much tougher stage than the one here in 2012”, when Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) won at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Gouvenou told La Voix du Nord.

and no pavé because ...
“We didn’t feel crazy enough to put the riders in the cobbles on day 1."
How about an opening 50 km ITT with cobbled sections? Now that sounds fun for day 1!

 

[scribers]

They could have made a tro bro Leon out of that area. a legit historical parcour and entertainment

 

[Izzyeviel]

Absolute cowardly not to include cobbles. Pathetic.

 

[houtdffan]

Gouvenou going to Gouvenou

 

[ashhutch1997]

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/to...ris-roubaix-pave-in-2025-grand-depart-stages/
Apart from explaining the reasons why there was no pavé, Gouvenou also offered further details to the media about the challenges the riders will face in the ultra-hilly final 10 kilometres of stage 2, with three short but tough climbs in very quick succession and a hill-top finish at Boulogne-sur-Mer.

“It’s a long stage” - 209 kilometres - “and we deliberately included lots of changes of direction in the hope that crosswinds could have an effect,” Gouvenou said.

“All in all, it’s a much tougher stage than the one here in 2012”, when Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) won at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Gouvenou told La Voix du Nord.

and no pavé because ...
“We didn’t feel crazy enough to put the riders in the cobbles on day 1."
How about an opening 50 km ITT with cobbled sections? Now that sounds fun for day 1!

I mean they put cobbles in Stage 1 in 2019, although very early.

 

[ashhutch1997]

No, completely different. At least that's how the two stages have been mapped on La Flamme Rouge.

2012: https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/viewtrack/178888	2025: https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/viewtrack/554683

How did you get the maps to work on LFR? It won't let me access then anymore.

 

[Netserk]

How did you get the maps to work on LFR? It won't let me access then anymore.

I have an account and I'm logged in.

IMPORTANT: due to people using bots to scrape the website data, we have to restrict the access to the races only to people with an account. We hope that for now this will be temporay.

 

[scribers]

Absolute cowardly not to include cobbles. Pathetic.

Let's face it, these riders will figure out ways to crash under any circustance the first week. The more rugged the parcour, the slower the race, the less serious the crashes, imo.

 

[Rob5091]

The hope is that the GC guys and the sprint teams don't get in each others way so early in the Tour, but nowadays it's full gas from km 0 and a mad rush to get to the 3 km to go banner.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

and no pavé because ...
“We didn’t feel crazy enough to put the riders in the cobbles on day 1."

Yeah, I cannot understand Gouvenou here.

What exactly would have been crazy about going onto the cobbles already in stage 1?

TdF is an entertainment bike race, after all. Going onto the cobbles in stage 1 would have been something we spectators would have wanted to see.

The riders would have had absolutely no problems with that. These are professional riders, riding their bike >300 days a year. No problem for them to start a TdF with a cobble stage.

ASO sometimes has good innovations, and the Tour is still the best bike race. But sometimes ASO are weirdly „conservative“.

And after the imho very disappointing parcours of 2024, a cobbled start would have been nice for the 2025 edition.

Gouvenou better be more courageous, and give us cobbles (and Babadag, asap)…

 

[houtdffan]

Until Prudhomme fires Gouvenou and Guillen, the TDF and Vuelta are going to have these dog crap routes, whereas the giro will have a very good route.

If the giro and Vuelta ever swap places, the Giro is going to have even better routes

 

[staubsauger]

If the 2024 Giro d'Italia is mediocre again, it's about time ASO purchases the race. Because running a business they certainly would move the Giro d'Italia into fall to make the legendary Giro d'Italia & Tour de France double possible or at least attemptable again.

The Vuelta a Espana shouldn't lose much relevance if it's the first Grand Tour everyone awaits in spring!

 

[scribers]

Some teams will protest and just be loud if these stages aren’t straight wide roads. It’s like the race is always on, before and during the race. Visma for example will want nice safe roads. One medium ITT and one very long steep climb where Vingo can go full skeletor to win the tour by 4 minutes.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

If the 2024 Giro d'Italia is mediocre again, it's about time ASO purchases the race. Because running a business they certainly would move the Giro d'Italia into fall to make the legendary Giro d'Italia & Tour de France double possible or at least attemptable again.

The Vuelta a Espana shouldn't lose much relevance if it's the first Grand Tour everyone awaits in spring!

One entity owning the rights to all three GTs is a recipe for disaster.

The reason that we haven't seen anyone come close to the double recently is that nobody who's credible has attempted it in the past five seasons. The most recent attempts were Dumoulin and Froome in 2018, both of whom podiumed both races and therefore really weren't that far away from pulling off the double. Do you really buy that the double has become that much harder in the 5 seasons since then?

For me, the actual reason is that there aren't that many credible riders right now, and Pogacar (and to a lesser extent Evenepoel) have monuments to worry about. That leaves Vingegaard and Roglic, who have done some incredibly unambitious schedules these past two years (Vingegaard doing his first GT double only this year, Roglic skipping two of Ardennes + Giro + Tour two years running). In other words, the double not being attempted is simply due to the situationality of this generation and its riders, and I expect the lack of real attempts to end when Vingegaard wins a Vuelta and/or when Pogacar wants a new challenge.

Oh, and the Giro had two of the five strongest-on-paper GC riders battle (or rather, 'battle') it out this year. Which proves that field quality is not the leading cause for the race's recent struggles in the first place.

 

[Netserk]

I think it's crazy to call Rogla's schedules unambitious. He started his season earlier than planned after his surgery, he wanted to ride the Tour after the Giro, and after the disappointment from the Vuelta and decision to change teams he rode the Italian fall classics. That's a full plate, and not riding the Ardennes before the Giro doesn't subtract from that.

Last year he was injured after Itzulia, and understandably ended his season after crashing out of the Vuelta. Incredibly unambitious schedule to only aim for P-N, Itzulia, Dauphiné, Tour & Vuelta with that in mind, eh?

Likewise Vingegaard this year, keeping in mind what he actually delivered throughout the season. Froome is the only rider as close or closer to pull off back-to-back GTs in this century, and the rest of his schedule was certainly less ambitious than that of Vingegaard.

 

[houtdffan]

If the 2024 Giro d'Italia is mediocre again, it's about time ASO purchases the race. Because running a business they certainly would move the Giro d'Italia into fall to make the legendary Giro d'Italia & Tour de France double possible or at least attemptable again.

The Vuelta a Espana shouldn't lose much relevance if it's the first Grand Tour everyone awaits in spring!

If ASO purchases the giro, expect Prudhomme to hire another dweeb along the lines of Gouvenou and Guillen

 

[rallybanana]

Stage 3 was a perfect chance to use the Trouée d'Arenberg as the départ réel. Opportunity missed.

 

[Gigs_98]

It just annoys me so much that whenever the ASO makes a hilly stage it feels the urge to make the finish uphill. This stage would be so much more interesting with a flat finishline.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

It just annoys me so much that whenever the ASO makes a hilly stage it feels the urge to make the finish uphill. This stage would be so much more interesting with a flat finishline.

In their defence, the centre of Boulogne is located on a hill, so both logistic and commercial purposes also dictate an uphill finish in this case.

 

[staubsauger]

If ASO purchases the giro, expect Prudhomme to hire another dweeb along the lines of Gouvenou and Guillen

Both had better course designs than Vegni lately! Sad but true.

 

[houtdffan]

Both had better course designs than Vegni lately! Sad but true.

Vegni designed a decent course for 2025. Classic giro with 2 ITTs of decent Giro length. Mountain stages are not the hardest, but are appropriate for a course with 68km of ITT

Resembles a course from 20 years ago

Gouvenou and GUillen have not been designing GT routes. They have been designing world climbing championships, as has Vegni most years

 

[Rob5091]

2024? So passé! 2025? Now we're talking ... The Vingegaard family can pack the "campervan" for Brittany next year it seems -
Prudhomme says, "We will soon return to Brittany. You will know all this on October 29, but if I were in your place, I would sleep peacefully,"

https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling...ttany-in-2025-we-will-soon-return-to-brittany

The Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2025 in Lille (Northern France) gives a very good opportunity to make a trip to Brittany, which could organize two stages as already indicated by Ouest-France and Le Télégramme.

 

[Peyroteo94]

2024? So passé! 2025? Now we're talking ... The Vingegaard family can pack the "campervan" for Brittany next year it seems -
Prudhomme says, "We will soon return to Brittany. You will know all this on October 29, but if I were in your place, I would sleep peacefully,"

https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling...ttany-in-2025-we-will-soon-return-to-brittany

The Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2025 in Lille (Northern France) gives a very good opportunity to make a trip to Brittany, which could organize two stages as already indicated by Ouest-France and Le Télégramme.

Cobbles!! Please do a 200 km stage around roubaix

 

[Rob5091]

Cobbles!! Please do a 200 km stage around roubaix

Could be fun, but next year is "Lenny Martinez friendly" year.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Let the speculation commence.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1786389797235257508