2025 Tour de France to Feature Entirely French Route for First Time Since 2020

Tadej Pogacar is expected to pursue his fourth Tour de France title in 2025. The 2025 Tour de France will be held exclusively within France, marking the first time in five years that the event has not ventured outside the country. This 112th edition of the Grand Tour will consist of 21 stages, commencing in Lille on 5 July and concluding in Paris on 27 July. In recent years, the Tour included sections outside France, such as passing through Andorra in 2021 and featuring Grand Departs in Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023, and Florence in 2024. The 2025 race will also see the return of the Champs-Élysées as the final stage location, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its inaugural finish there. This year, the Tour concluded outside Paris for the first time in its history due to the Olympic Games. Race director Christian Prudhomme commented on this decision, stating, “We decided to bring the Tour home, it was high time after all the foreign starts.” The race route, spanning 3,320km (2,063 miles), is designed to include two time-trials and six mountain-top finishes. The initial section of the competition is expected to predominantly cover flat terrain. Prudhomme further elaborated on the route’s design, remarking, “A week in the plains is not the joy ride it was in the old days. We have cut the sprint stages and laid traps everywhere.” He also noted the challenging nature of the initial sections, adding, “I don’t think Thierry Gouvenou, who mapped out the route, left a single climb [untouched] between Lille and Brittany.” This year, Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates secured his third Tour de France title, achieving a Tour de France-Giro d’Italia double. He is anticipated to contend for the yellow jersey once more in 2025, potentially against two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard. Concurrently, the women’s Tour de France Femmes will feature an additional ninth stage, scheduled to run from 26 July to 3 August. Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma claimed victory in the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes this year.