Tour de France 2025 route rumours and announcements

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fenns

May 16, 2015
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Welcome the inclusion of the Montmartre climbs. The final stage has always been dull with the result bearing little relation to what has happened the previous 3 weeks. Now it's quite likely we will see the strongest rider in the race finishing alone on the Champs Elysees getting the acclaim he deserves - rather than the usual half-hearted yellow jersey wave from somewhere down the peleton.

Obviously won't suit the sprinters though.
 
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Rackham

Rackham

Jul 16, 2015
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fenns said:
Welcome the inclusion of the Montmartre climbs. The final stage has always been dull with the result bearing little relation to what has happened the previous 3 weeks. Now it's quite likely we will see the strongest rider in the race finishing alone on the Champs Elysees getting the acclaim he deserves - rather than the usual half-hearted yellow jersey wave from somewhere down the peleton.

Obviously won't suit the sprinters though.
Click to expand...

I really want to see the yellow jersey caught behind a crash and his rival winning GC on the final day though.

I mean why not go all in on the drama? Cycling doesn't always have a happy end. And that's pretty much what Prudhomme is looking for here, aka 'dramaturgie' as they call.
 
Boehmand

Boehmand

Mar 5, 2023
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Edit: I got stage 9 wrong, so have changed this:

I just had a first proper look at this years route, and I must say I am quite impressed.

It's one of the better Tour routes I have ever seen.

I would have liked a single downhill GC finish in the mix, because descending is a skill too, and one more GC stage instead of a sprint, but otherwise I have little critique.

The stages appear to be:

1. Slight uphill sprint
2. Puncheur stage
3. Flat sprint
4. Ardennes type stage
5. 33K undulating ITT
6. Puncheur stage
7. Puncheur stage
8. Uphill sprint
9. Slight uphill sprint
10. Ardennes type stage
11. Puncheur stage
12. GC day finishing on a big mountain
13. 11K mountain ITT on a big mountain
14. GC day finishing on a big mountain
15. Puncheur stage
16. GC day finishing on a big mountain
17. Slight uphill sprint
18. GC day finishing on a big mountain
19. GC day finishing on a big mountain
20. Puncheur stage
21. Puncheur stage

Add to that the line up of riders we can expect, other than Pedersen, Del Toro and possibly MvdP every elite rider will be there.

I especially find it interesting there is only two stages where GC riders don't have to worry about gaps in the peloton on the line (especially if Pogacar starts contesting uphill sprints and puncheur finishes), and that is stages 3 and 9 - on every other stage they will need to fight to stay in front all the way to the line, because gaps can easily form.

7 big GC days and arguably 11-12 other stages where GC riders have to be on their toes all the way.
 
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Boehmand

Boehmand

Mar 5, 2023
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BigCoward said:
Pog is going to win double digit stages on that route.
The gaps are going to be mad if he puts the hammer down on all the stages that suit him.
Click to expand...

I hope he races like that, because it would be highly entertaining, but I think UAE is going to do everything they can to get him to do nothing 10 out of the first 11 stages, because after that the hits just keep on coming.

Both Vingegaard and Evenepoel will have learned from last year and they will have modified their preparations to better match Pogacar where it counts - and then there is a whole array of secondary GC candidates who wil be looking to stick the knife in in the 2nd half of the race, Roglic, Carapaz, Jorgenson, Rodriguez, Skjelmose, Mas, O'Connor, Buitrago, etc.

Evenepoel however will be handicapped by the team's shared focus, with Merlier going for the 3 sprints and the lighter puncheur stages.
 
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Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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Certainly would have liked a descent finish somewhere, maybe with the easy side of Glandon it would have been better to beef up stage 18 with Croix-de-Fer from that side then add in Mollard or even Chaussy to make a true queen stages, but in all honesty 172km with at least two legit HC monoliths is one of the better such stages we've had in a while. The fact every mountain stage ends on the biggest climb of the day is a bit of a letdown, as it lends the stages an inherently repetitive feel (other than Ventoux being Unipuerto, but that doesn't really need to be anything else and works fine enough in that setting). Still needs more TT mileage, but they've looked to minimise the inconsequential stages and the opening is pretty decent given the limitations of the part of the country they're in.

But the biggest complaint - by far - has got to be the pacing, which might just be the dirt worst pacing I have ever seen from Le Tour. Seriously, you have 8 weekend days, and 5 of them are going to be either flat stages or ones where the break comes in 20 minutes ahead of a disinterested GC bunch. Stages 8 and 9 don't have a single categorised climb between them so I'm not sure what "big GC stage" Boehmand is referring to on stage 9 there. Really not sure how 15 and 20 can be considered "puncheur" stages when there are no climbs of consequence in the last 50km of the former, and the latter has no decisive climbing in the last 60km. And one of the three remaining weekend stages is the Champs Elysées! At least stage 10 is a decent intermediate stage and some of the best use of the Massif Central in a while, but that will be the first climb over cat.3, already at the halfway point in the race, and all the main mountains are from stage 12 to stage 19, so it's stupendously backloaded, yet somehow managing to specifically highlight key weekend days as the ones NOT to have any significant action on. Seriously, WTF?

As a result, lots of nice stages in and of themselves with plenty of details to be happy about close in, but where the complete picture is flawed when you zoom back out. If it was a painting, it would be by Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
 
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Gigs_98

Gigs_98

Feb 18, 2015
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I think it would be a really good route if only the mountain stages were actually well designed. There's other issues as well, in particular all high mountain stages coming in the last 10 days, but this is my one major problem with this route.
 
Boehmand

Boehmand

Mar 5, 2023
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Libertine Seguros said:
Certainly would have liked a descent finish somewhere, maybe with the easy side of Glandon it would have been better to beef up stage 18 with Croix-de-Fer from that side then add in Mollard or even Chaussy to make a true queen stages, but in all honesty 172km with at least two legit HC monoliths is one of the better such stages we've had in a while. The fact every mountain stage ends on the biggest climb of the day is a bit of a letdown, as it lends the stages an inherently repetitive feel (other than Ventoux being Unipuerto, but that doesn't really need to be anything else and works fine enough in that setting). Still needs more TT mileage, but they've looked to minimise the inconsequential stages and the opening is pretty decent given the limitations of the part of the country they're in.

But the biggest complaint - by far - has got to be the pacing, which might just be the dirt worst pacing I have ever seen from Le Tour. Seriously, you have 8 weekend days, and 5 of them are going to be either flat stages or ones where the break comes in 20 minutes ahead of a disinterested GC bunch. Stages 8 and 9 don't have a single categorised climb between them so I'm not sure what "big GC stage" Boehmand is referring to on stage 9 there. Really not sure how 15 and 20 can be considered "puncheur" stages when there are no climbs of consequence in the last 50km of the former, and the latter has no decisive climbing in the last 60km. And one of the three remaining weekend stages is the Champs Elysées! At least stage 10 is a decent intermediate stage and some of the best use of the Massif Central in a while, but that will be the first climb over cat.3, already at the halfway point in the race, and all the main mountains are from stage 12 to stage 19, so it's stupendously backloaded, yet somehow managing to specifically highlight key weekend days as the ones NOT to have any significant action on. Seriously, WTF?

As a result, lots of nice stages in and of themselves with plenty of details to be happy about close in, but where the complete picture is flawed when you zoom back out. If it was a painting, it would be by Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
Click to expand...

You are right ojn stage 9, I must have opened the same GC profile twice without noticing - obviously stage 9 is an uphill sprint.

That drops the number of GC stages by one, so now I am suddenly less happy with the route - one sprint too many :p
 
Boehmand

Boehmand

Mar 5, 2023
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Gigs_98 said:
I think it would be a really good route if only the mountain stages were actually well designed. There's other issues as well, in particular all high mountain stages coming in the last 10 days, but this is my one major problem with this route.
Click to expand...

Any GT would be better, if the big mountain stages were spaced out so nobody ever had to worry about "tomorrow".

But it would be a crazy zig zag route across France to achieve that, which may not be logistically viable?
 
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Valv.Piti

Valv.Piti

Aug 3, 2015
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Its hard if your starting where you are and are not sprinting towards Massif Central or go West to the Vosges

But still, looking at your stage write up you make it sound a decent amount better than it is. I really like the classic style stages early, but there definitely will be some boring stages without GC implications without crashes. Stage 8 and 9 look dead to me. Stage 1 and 3 will always be extremely hectic, but unless something crazy happens, those are just sprints as well.

The two last stages could actually be really, really good if the GC is tight as well. Massif Central stage is very nice, and I dont have the biggest problems with the mountain stages tbf. The main thing for me watching the Tour is just to decrease the dead days which they have done a pretty decent job of, especially considering how much flat terrain they have to cover.
 
H

HashRouge

Apr 21, 2025
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Boehmand said:
I hope he races like that, because it would be highly entertaining, but I think UAE is going to do everything they can to get him to do nothing 10 out of the first 11 stages, because after that the hits just keep on coming.

Both Vingegaard and Evenepoel will have learned from last year and they will have modified their preparations to better match Pogacar where it counts - and then there is a whole array of secondary GC candidates who wil be looking to stick the knife in in the 2nd half of the race, Roglic, Carapaz, Jorgenson, Rodriguez, Skjelmose, Mas, O'Connor, Buitrago, etc.

Evenepoel however will be handicapped by the team's shared focus, with Merlier going for the 3 sprints and the lighter puncheur stages.
Click to expand...
I agree with this. I think Vingegaard is going to be really strong this year. There's a lot of recency bias because Pogi was so good last year, but people are ignoring two key things: 1) Jonas wasn't in top shape last year; and 2) he (and Visma) know how good Pogi was last year and so they know what they need to do to beat him. It's harder for Pogi, because he doesn't know how much better than last year JV can be. I just hope Pogi is preparing with a mind to how bad JV's preparation was last year (i.e. expecting him to be much, much stronger), rather than with a mind to his own superiority last year.
 
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