Tour de France 2025: An All-French Route Returns After Five Years

he 2025 Tour de France, for the first time since 2020, will unfold entirely within France. The 112th edition of this historic race will cover 21 stages, kicking off in Lille on July 5 and culminating in Paris on July 27.

In recent years, the Tour has ventured beyond France's borders, with stages held in Andorra in 2021, a Grand Départ in Copenhagen in 2022, a start in Bilbao in 2023, and last year’s launch from Florence. This year, the Tour also made history by finishing outside of Paris due to the Olympics. But 2025 marks a return to tradition, with the iconic Champs-Élysées as the final stage's destination, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its first Tour finish.

"We decided to bring the Tour home, it was high time after all the foreign starts," said Christian Prudhomme, the race director.

Covering 3,320 kilometers (2,063 miles), the 2025 route includes two time trials and six challenging mountain-top finishes. The opening week unfolds on relatively flat terrain, though Prudhomme warns it will be far from easy: “A week in the plains is not the joy ride it was in the old days. We’ve cut down on sprint stages and laid traps everywhere.”

Course designer Thierry Gouvenou has made the route particularly challenging, leaving “not a single climb untouched” between Lille and Brittany.

After claiming his third Tour de France title this year, UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogačar is set to defend his yellow jersey against two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard, promising another thrilling battle.

In the women’s Tour, new developments include an added ninth stage, with the event running from July 26 to August 3. Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma, the 2024 Tour de France Femmes champion, will be aiming to retain her title.

Source : BBC