Tour de France 2025 route rumours and announcements

[Valv.Piti]

Great first week given everything. 4 stages suited to the puncheurs (with potential of some small raids by Pog) and a TT. Really looking forward to that one and its a nice change of pace. I always really love these kinda stages early in the Tour.

Loze is a proper queen stage, and Madeleine is just such a monster, so lets dream for a while. Could all be much worse. I like stage 10, a less hard stage 11 of this year. Pyrenees are a bit meh, but I do like the stages in the Alps and Ventoux is always welcome for me.

A solid 6.

 

[houtdffan]

again Gouvenou being a stupid dweeb turns what could have bene a great route into another bad one

Only changes this year that are needed are a slightly longer La Plagne stage and a stage 20 long ITT (50-60km)

had those been in the race, the route would have been given a 9 out of 10. But instead, it gets a 3 out of 10 as it is too biased toward climbers

 

[Valv.Piti]

Also, very weird not releasing the profiles of Ventoux and Peyragudes. Whats the deal here? Doesnt make any sense to me.

 

[Netserk]

Also, very weird not releasing the profiles of Ventoux and Peyragudes. Whats the deal here? Doesnt make any sense to me.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Wait, what? Alright, thanks.

But no Ventoux?

 

[zlev11]

horrible route, even worse than it looked through the rumors. they just skipped every possible chance to do something cool. no spandelles on the hautacam stage, no port de bales on the superbagneres stage. la plagne stage is 130km, lmao. just awful. once again they have a once in a lifetime GC battle between two extremely even riders and they squander it with a horrible route.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Haven't looked at the route but it's horrible because they are catering to one trick pony GC riders by not including a few night stages like that Vuelta TTT or courses with obstacles included like pipes and banana skins.

 

[Sneekes]

Have we really got two of the dullest stages on the weekend of 12th & 13th? Seems odd.
Beside that - it's OK, I'd give it 4/10.

 

[Netserk]

Wait, what? Alright, thanks.

But no Ventoux?

From the stage video:

 

[Valv.Piti]

From the stage video:

Thanks again. Oh well, not like that matters anyways really unless you loop around Ventoux before the final ascent.

 

[AmRacer]

Haven't looked at the route but it's horrible because they are catering to one trick pony GC riders by not including a few night stages like that Vuelta TTT or courses with obstacles included like pipes and banana skins.

Mr Hay Bale wants a say.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Fairly standard ASO fare of the last few years tbh. The flat to rolling stages are pretty decent for what they are, the mountain stages are lazy and uninspiring, with the whole thing seemingly tailored for Youtube Cycling, so you can catch more or less everything you need to see in the last 45m of any given stage. There is, however, not a great deal to be genuinely angry at, the only complete abortion is the pacing leading to abysmal weekend stages, where the best and most decisive weekend stage looks likely to be the one to Boulogne-sur-Mer, but there's no stage that really captures the imagination and fills you with any level of anticipation for any reason other than the prestige inherent from being the Tour de France.

So just ASO phoning it in with the mountain stages, just like usually.

 

[zlev11]

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the route is lazy and it's irritating me. i take off a week or more from work to watch the TDF live every season, so yeah maybe i wont this year.

 

[Gigs_98]

The hilly stages in the first week look pretty good so that's already a big improvement. Only 7 bunch sprints seems quite probable which would be nice for a Tour that basically spends an entire week in the north.

Mountain stages are still sh*t though. No guys, Loze from Courchevel is not a good mtf and it's not gonna invite long range attacks because it's the easier side. It's an absolutely enormous climb (much harder than Galibier from Briancon which it was compared to) but because it has such a long roughly 6% section before pretty steep ramps near the top those ramps are the very obvious best places to attack.

 

[Netserk]

Have we really got two of the dullest stages on the weekend of 12th & 13th? Seems odd.
Beside that - it's OK, I'd give it 4/10.

Fwiw, stage 8 will have an uphill drag to the finish. While it finishes near the same place as in 2021, the roads will be different.

Roughly 1.5 km at ~3 %.

 

[Valv.Piti]

While the mountain stages are not super exciting, its still not that bad, but Im not surprised of the feedback to far. Wout 2023 sweeps this first week. It looks better and better honestly the more I look at it. Great use of Northern France, superb.

 

[Netserk]

The hilly stages in the first week look pretty good so that's already a big improvement. Only 7 bunch sprints seems quite probable which would be nice for a Tour that basically spends an entire week in the north.

Mountain stages are still sh*t though. No guys, Loze from Courchevel is not a good mtf and it's not gonna invite long range attacks because it's the easier side. It's an absolutely enormous climb (much harder than Galibier from Briancon which it was compared to) but because it has such a long roughly 6% section before pretty steep ramps near the top those ramps are the very obvious best places to attack.

Madeleine saw attacks in both 1997 and 2000. I think 2025 will have at least as much action as 2000. For the first time since 2004, they also take the shortest route between Glandon and Madeleine, so there's very little flat between the climbs.

 

[OlavEH]

The hilly stages in the first week look pretty good so that's already a big improvement. Only 7 bunch sprints seems quite probable which would be nice for a Tour that basically spends an entire week in the north.

Van der Poel should really put this on his calendar. Several stages the first week with max 1 km, 10 % climbs. That should fit him perfectly.

 

[Sciatic]

Pog also put over a minute into Remco in the final ITT of this year's TDF...

Final Tour ITT quite different from early ITT because of fatigue-recovery factor. But 5 people probably already said

 

[KZD]

Given how bad the rumours looked, I am actually positively surprised.

The first week is much better than I expected, only 4 bunch sprint stages and the time trial is longer than I expected which is a good thing. Stages 4, 6 and 7 also have really hard finishes which could not only give us a good battle between puncheurs but also some gaps between GC riders (Pogačar should try something on Mur de Bretagne). Stage 10 is also good even though I preferred a harder climb before the finish.

This is my biggest criticism of the route, the lack of hard climbs before the final MTF. Hautacam stage looks pretty easy and Mont Ventoux is a unipuerto just like the MTT up Peyragoudes which should have been a hilly longer effort instead. Stages 14, 18 and 19 are the key stages with around 5000 meters of elevation, Vingegaard will surely try to break Pogačar in one of these stages. Personally I am getting a bit tired of Col de la Loze its the third time that they use it in 6 years, would have liked Granon or L'Alpe de Huez instead but good to see La Plagne back. Stage 20 is just disappointing.

Overall I give it a 6 out of 10.

 

[Sciatic]

First week ITTs:

2025, stage 5: 33 km
2024, stage 7: 25 km
2023: -
2022, stage 1: 13 km
2021, stage 5: 27 km
2020: -
2019: -
2018: -
2017, stage 1: 14 km
2016: -
2015, stage 1: 14 km
2014: -
2013: -
2012, prologue: 6 km
2011: -
2010, prologue: 9 km
2009, stage 1: 16 km
2008, stage 4: 30 km
2007, prologue: 8 km
2006, prologue: 7 km, stage 7: 52 km
2005, stage 1: 19 km
2004, prologue: 6 km
2003, prologue: 7 km
2002, prologue: 7 km
2001, prologue: 8 km
2000, stage 1: 17 km
1999, prologue: 7 km, stage 8: 57 km
1998, prologue: 6 km, stage 7: 58 km
1997, prologue: 7 km
1996, prologue: 9 km, stage 8: 31 km

No ITT in the 30 most recent routes has been longer than the 2025 one and as early in the race. Only 3 times a longer one in the first week, most recently in 2006.

Are you counting the weekend after the start week as part of the first week since it typically comes before the first rest day? Or are you defining “week” as just the first 7 days of racing (for example Sat through Friday)?

 

[Netserk]

Are you counting the weekend after the start week as part of the first week since came before the first rest day? Or are you defining “week” as just the first 7 days?

Including second weekend. Without it, just remove the second ITT in 1996, 1998, 1999 & 2006.

So yes, you can say that it's the longest ITT in the Tour's first 7 days in a very long time.

 

[Sciatic]

Including second weekend. Without it, just remove the second ITT in 1996, 1998, 1999 & 2006.

So yes, you can say that it's the longest ITT in the Tour's first 7 days in a very long time.

Thanks. I think of it the same way you framed it: “first week” includes the 2nd weekend.

 

[RobertCrawley]

The parcours is not everyone’s cup of tea, clearly, but in the end, the riders make the race.

 

[pman]

I know we’re not supposed to like any route but I like this one enough. Is it perfect? Of course not, I’d like some cobbles and longer individual time trials. I know some people would like tougher mountain stages. Everyone has their wants but this route is pretty good given the fact they had to go back north at don’t point.

1) the first week is so much more punchy than it looked like it might be

2) The Caen time trial went from being a 20k boring team trial to an over 30 k individual time trial. Will it decide the overall winner, obviously not unless something crazy happens but it will be a fun, early gc day and might attract someone like Remco.

3) The Bastille Day stage looks fun. Never a dry moment kind of stage.

4) Stage 20 is a disappointment but fewer GC days leads to showdown days and not just zombie exhaustion fests.

5) Should be beautiful route on TV

6) Roglic 5 years ago would loved this route