Tour de France 2025 route rumours and announcements

[YavorD]

Ok, here's my opinion. I think the route is perfectly fine, as it is every year. The people pedalling the bikes make it a race, not the route design.[[content deleted]]

Really, so you think we'd have an all time great stages on stage 11 in 2022 and Giro stage 18 if organisers put some shallow climbs before or made an unipuerto stage? Or that stage 11 would be probably the best of the whole Tour this year had it finished on Puy Mary?
Of course not. Those stages were great because they had good design not just because riders made them great.

And that's the whole point of criticising that route. Not a single mountain stage invites for early action and every stage screams that the final climb is the best place to attack. Now the riders make the race but if you design your race so that the last climb should see all the meaningful action you're not helping the riders to make the race great. Especially if you don't design a first part of the race that creates a real time gaps, forcing riders to actually "make the race" early.

 

[zlev11]

We have profiles of about 1/4 of the stages. Making your mind up now is just silly.

that's not true, the finales of all the hilly stages have been released, it's only the flat stages that do not have any profiles but even then it's not too difficult to tell what those stages are going to be like. my original gripe was with the mountain stages, anyway. if you go back and read that post, the issue for me is that this route could've been so much better with just a few changes that were easily available. on top of that, someone on twitter has profiled out all 21 stages here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1851399333356466652

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/1851399333356466652

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Not liking (everything about) the route or pretty much being satisfied with it no matter what are both perfectly fair opinions to have, but spending time on complaining about the fact that people have different opinions rather than discussing the opinions themselves, or the design of route, seems like a waste to me.

Pinky toe emoji.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

[[content deleted]]

Honestly, when this kind of *** sees zero repercussions (and it's not just this thread or even just this poster) while most of the people at the heart of the community have served at least one ban this year, I'm not sure what the point of moderation on here is even supposed to be.

 

[Cookster15]

These route speculation threads can be frustrating.

Can someone please repost the current 2025 Tour de France route as it stands? Where can I review every stage? The Twitter post above by zlev11 takes me nowhere.

 

[YavorD]

These route speculation threads can be frustrating.

Can someone please repost the current 2025 Tour de France route as it stands? Where can I review every stage? The Twitter post above by zlev11 takes me nowhere.

I saw them in "Lukas' cycling blog" on Facebook, the source being La Flamme rouge.
I don't know how to post image in here and I don't think it's possible through phone anyway, but have a look there if you can.

 

[E_F_]

These route speculation threads can be frustrating.

Can someone please repost the current 2025 Tour de France route as it stands? Where can I review every stage? The Twitter post above by zlev11 takes me nowhere.

The Inner Ring | 2025 Tour de France Route

inrng.com

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 10

Stage 12

Stage 13

Stage 14

Stage 18

Stage 19

 

[RedheadDane]

I don't know how to post image in here and I don't think it's possible through phone anyway, but have a look there if you can.

I think it was established a while back that if you don't know how to post pictures, you have to make a text-based breakdown of the route.

 

[YavorD]

I think it was established a while back that if you don't know how to post pictures, you have to make a text-based breakdown of the route.

I should ask @tobydawq for a private lesson over that then? 😅

 

[Peyroteo94]

The Inner Ring | 2025 Tour de France Route

inrng.com

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 10

Stage 12

Stage 13

Stage 14

Stage 18

Stage 19

Peyragudes is the type of climb Pogacar is unbeatable when he is in peak shape. He already said he loves steep climbs around 20 minutes.

 

[rghysens]

Superbagneres is nice, but would be preferable coming from east and after Port de Bales.

La Plagne is just "meh" when it is one of 5 big MTFs next year. 6 if you include the MTT. The stage would be better if you had like only Superbagneres and Mont Ventoux in addition of big MTFs.

What the Tour is missing most of all are some proper medium mountain stages. Something like this should there be 1 or 2 of in each version of the Tour.

Superbagnères is hard enough to not attack on Port de Balès, if that was included. Maybe it would be different if they finished on Hospice de France or so. I just like the historical reference of the stage aso came up with. And I agree with you on La Plagne, if it is the 5th mtf of the race, but I was talking about the stage on itself.

 

[Red Rick]

Anyone wanna guess if they're gonna make the time limit for the MTT completely ridiculous so that the poor sprinters don't need to try too hard to make the time cut?

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

Stage 10 looks crazy good if you ask me:

La Flamme Rouge - Information

I completely forgot to mention this precious in my previous post here!
In fact THE stage I've put the biggest tick in the calendar at.

Not so much due the (ever grateful simple-on-paper) profile, but since I know the terrain, visited it several times during the 80ies and 90ies These roads in the heart of the Auvergne are truly treacherous - no time to rest or extra breath takes.

With just 163 km stage length in concentrated attack-terrain from start to finish, IMO you have to be there from the gun.

It may well be that the stage has the tiny risk of becoming "boring" if the person with the greatest desire to do bike riding suddenly feels for cycling that day.

But I don't think he'll get off that easily.

It is Bastille Day after all.

So I'm mostly leaning towards a true celebratory firework of hopeful/hopeless Frenchmen added a 3rd of the peleton.

IN ADDITON, the spice as being an old motorsports fan too, to enjoy the riders on the first part of the stage climbing the old classic part of the Charade track and the hairy descent that leads directly to a convoluted passage up to Berzet. My first trip to this location was as a teenager, the family took a picnic with breathraking views down over Clermont-Ferrand (edit: especially I remember the huge impression the extent of the Michelin tire factories just outfilled the landscapes of this relatively large regional capital) and then Puy-de-Dôme slanting behind, when turning the neck.

And it haunts me to this day that I and my family must've literally stood just next to the old Circuit de Charade slopes - in the penultimate year that it was in operation - completely without my knowledge back then. No images, other than those on the retina.

So stage 10 is a pure 'must watch' here.

 

[pman]

Speaking of Stage 10- what’s the town like? Looks like a great stage to go to.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

Speaking of Stage 10- what’s the town like? Looks like a great stage to go to.

"The town"?
You refer to the heart of Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand?
The marked place Place de Jaude, the Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral, Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Port, Musée d'Art Roger Quilliot, a volcanological museum, Musée de l'Art et de l'Industrie .....and then, ofcourse, L'Aventure Michelin.

And, of course, a good bike ride upway to Puy-de-Dôme in the vicinity and finishing the day with testing the limits on 4 wheels on the modern layout of Circuit de Charade.
Then you have filled your day.

Well, apart from you've probably worked up an appetite for the +25 restaurants in the city, listed in the Michelin guide laying the foundation for the good habit of planning the route after the food.
Here you don't have to drive that far. You're already there

 

[E_F_]

The ASM flags will be out in full force, that's for sure.

 

[pman]

"The town"?
You refer to the heart of Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand?
The marked place Place de Jaude, the Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral, Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Port, Musée d'Art Roger Quilliot, a volcanological museum, Musée de l'Art et de l'Industrie .....and then, ofcourse, L'Aventure Michelin.

And, of course, a good bike ride upway to Puy-de-Dôme in the vicinity and finishing the day with testing the limits of 4 wheels on the modern layout of Circuit de Charade.
Then you have filled your day.

Well, apart from you've probably worked up an appetite for the +25 restaurants in the city, listed in the Michelin guide laying the foundation for the good habit of planning the route after the food.
Here you don't have to drive that far. You are already there

Thanks! There’s still rooms available in Mont- Dore. Seems like a great place to spend Bastille Day. Though Clermont-Ferrand looks like a ton of fun.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Honestly, when this kind of *** sees zero repercussions (and it's not just this thread or even just this poster) while most of the people at the heart of the community have served at least one ban this year, I'm not sure what the point of moderation on here is even supposed to be.

Not one post prior to this in the thread had been reported. I have been travelling for a few days and spent very little time online, but have opened this site every now and then to check for report notifications, so that I could have intervened had there been call for it.
And then instead of PMing me, or reporting the posts that you think should have been acted upon had I happened to have stumbled across them, you denounce the modding system (ie, me) publicly.

Frankly, what the hell do you expect of me?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Not one post prior to this in the thread had been reported. I have been travelling for a few days and spent very little time online, but have opened this site every now and then to check for report notifications, so that I could have intervened had there been call for it.
And then instead of PMing me, or reporting the posts that you think should have been acted upon had I happened to have stumbled across them, you denounce the modding system (ie, me) publicly.

Frankly, what the hell do you expect of me?

I could have sworn I had reported a number of posts in this thread, either I’ve somehow made that up or there’s a technical issue.

Edit: I’ve reported my own post for the sake of testing, if that’s gone through I’ll assume the issue is with my memory,

 

[Bavarianrider]

Well with Pogacar (and Vinegard to a lesser extent) the route doesn`t really matter all that much. That guy simply is the most electryfying racer of all time and lights up the race no matter what. So there`s no oubt he`ll make the best of it and deliver a good show.
That being said, Prudhomme and his ASO toyboys can really go and *** themselves. This route is really the biggest insult yet.
"Yeah let`s really piss them all of by doing 33km Vuelta Time trial and than a mountain TT but let`s do it on a piss poor boring short climb to minimize the action as much as possible".
I mean what the actual *** is wrong with these people? I am out of words for the patheticness of that organisation.

 

[Rob5091]

Just to remind people again, the Tour (and other) GT's can n't go and plan a route how they want. There's a lot of money, time and local political will needed as well as all the security. That's why it's the same places year after year. The Innerring blog has had some good posts about the mechanism behind the Tour and how things are stitched together.

 

[OlavEH]

Just to remind people again, the Tour (and other) GT's can n't go and plan a route how they want. There's a lot of money, time and local political will needed as well as all the security. That's why it's the same places year after year. The Innerring blog has had some good posts about the mechanism behind the Tour and how things are stitched together.

You're right about that. But they do have some freedom. Like I don't think it was regional authorities in Spain and France that came up with the idea of muritos. And those steep ramps on top of climbs like Super Belles Filles and the altiport at Peyragudes. This is a developement pushed by ASO (and earlier Unipublic). Same for next year. I think it is a ASO choice that they have none relevant GC mountain stages that end in something else than a big MTF.

 

[Breh]

You're right about that. But they do have some freedom. Like I don't think it was regional authorities in Spain and France that came up with the idea of muritos. And those steep ramps on top of climbs like Super Belles Filles and the altiport at Peyragudes. This is a developement pushed by ASO (and earlier Unipublic). Same for next year. I think it is a ASO choice that they have none relevant GC mountain stages that end in something else than a big MTF.

Because the general public - CN forums are not representative - does not like descent finishes.

 

[OlavEH]

Because the general public - CN forums are not representative - does not like descent finishes.

It does not need to be a descent finish. But not the biggest climb as MTF on every mountain stage. Or none proper medium mountain stages, only HC MTFs.

 

[pman]

Question for the big climbing fans. Would you prefer a race with 10 stages like the Bastille Stage on tap for the upcoming year or 6 mountain stages like the ones that many of you are complaining about. I am genuinely curious. Because I love the look of the Mastiff stage but I am not a “destroy them in the mountains “ kind of fan. But I do like a good, non stop punchy mountain stage.