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Tour de France preview + stage overview

  • Forfatters billede: Yasmin Vingtoft
    Yasmin Vingtoft
  • for 11 minutter siden
  • 5 min læsning

It is finally that time of year again, when cycling takes center stage and millions watch 184 men in Lycra battle on the roads of France, fighting for stage wins and the prestigious leader’s jerseys, including the iconic maillot jaune. Because it is finally time for the biggest race on the cycling calendar: the Tour de France! 🚴‍♂️✨

The 2025 edition covers around 3,338.8 km with approximately 51,000 meters of elevation, spread across 21 states with just 2 rest days in between.

The 2025 Tour de France will start on July 5th in Lille and after last year’s untraditional final stage ITT in Nice, the race returns to the iconic finish on the Champs-Élysées though not everything about this stage will be as usual. I will get back to that later!



This preview includes:

📍 A brief overview of the 2025 route

📅 A couple of hopefully useful visual overviews

🗓️ A downloadable iCal calendar with basic stage information



The Route

This year’s Tour de France features:🏔️ 6 mountain stages💥 6 hilly stages🚴 7 flat stages⏱️ 2-time trials — one flat and one up a mountain


Week 1 - Sprinters, Puncheurs & Yellow Dreams

This year, the first week of the Tour de France stretches over no fewer than 10 days, before the riders get a well-deserved rest day. This is due to the first rest day being moved from Monday to Tuesday to avoid coinciding with Bastille Day in France. The opening week mainly consists of flat and hilly stages, offering plenty of opportunities for fast men and puncheurs. This is a week that, on paper, fits the Alpecin-Deceuninck duo Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen very well, and they will likely have their eyes on stage wins and try to get the yellow jersey on their hands. But they are not the only ones with big ambitions for the first week: sprinters like Jonathan Milan, Tim Merlier, and the fast and strong Wout van Aert will likely also be in the mix. And do not count out explosive GC contenders like Tadej Pogačar, who could make moves on these hilly stages. In between the hilly stages, on Stage 5, the riders will take on a 33 km flat individual time trial, where the time trial specialists will battle the GC contenders for the stage win, while the GC riders also fight for important seconds.

At the end of this first week, on Stage 10 on Bastille Day, the first mountain test awaits. It is a day filled with climbs, though none are classified as HC or Category 1. Instead, it is a constant up-and-down stage that will test the climbers’ legs. It is a stage with plenty of ground for the GC riders to make moves, while a breakaway may — or may not — be fighting for the stage win up front.


Jonathan Milan won the individual pursuit at the World Championships in Ballerup last year, but this summer he might be eyeing the yellow jersey as stage 1 is expected to end in a bunch sprint, which is just his cup of tea.

In the first week, Wout van Aert (picture 3) will likely also get some chances to hunt for stages, and maybe even yellow?


Week 2 - Mountains and Margins

The second week kicks off with a chance for the fast guys before the race heads into the Pyrenees, where three decisive days await: two mountain stages (Stages 12 & 14) and a mountain time trial on Stage 13. This trio of stages is likely to spark action among the GC contenders and could be the ground for time gaps between GC contenders like Pogačar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, and Roglič.

The fifth and final stage of the week (yes, week two is only half as long as week one!) is a hilly stage to Carcassonne that looks to hold great opportunities for a breakaway win 💪

All in all, week two may be short but it could play a crucial role in shaping the battle for yellow and finding the winner of the 2025 Tour de France 💛



Week 3 - Climbs, Chaos & Celebration

The third and final week kicks off with a mountain stage that is mostly flat until the foot of Mont Ventoux, which the riders will then climb in the battle for a stage win and potential GC time.Stage 17 then offers a potential sprint opportunity for the sprinters who’ve survived the mountains. But as always in the final week of a Grand Tour, surprises can happen, and a strong breakaway could have a chance for glory on this stage.

After that, the sprinters can forget about glory for a while, as Stage 18 and 19 bring two tough mountain stages. Stage 18 is the queen stage of this year’s Tour, featuring 5,450 meters of elevation over 171.5 km, including a brutal finish up Col de la Loze (26.4 km at 6.5%), following two other HC climbs. Stage 19 is the last mountain stage. It is short but mighty with 4,550 meters of elevation packed into only 129.9 km. If the GC is still up for grabs, this stage offers terrain for the GC contenders to challenge each other— though by then the GC might already be decided.


For the final weekend, two more chances for victory await. Stage 20 is a hilly stage that looks ideal for a breakaway, while Stage 21 brings the iconic Champs-Élysées finish but with a twist. Inspired by the Olympic route, the organizers have added Montmartre (1.1 km at 5.9%), which will be climbed three times, the last time just 6 km from the finish. This could open the door for late attacks and shake up what’s usually a sprinter’s affair. 🔥




Stage overview:

Below you will see a overview of all the stages at this years Tour de France, the overview includes a color coding indicating the stage type mentioned on the Tour de France page

💛Yellow - Mountain stage

💙Blue - Time-Trial

🩷Pink - Hilly

💚Green - Flat


Each stage comes with a short description of what to expect and a watch score based on how exciting I think the stage could be 😊 Of course, anything can happen, weather, tactics, and race dynamics can play a huge role. Even an on paper boring stage can surprise while the on paper exciting stages can disappoint. As always: the riders make the race! 🚴‍♂️


I have also made an overview of the expected start and finish times for each stage, including the estimated time the riders will pass the 50 km mark. All times are shown in local time (CEST) and are based on the fastest estimates from the official Tour de France timetable. Riders may go slower but it also would not be surprising if some stages finish even faster (: also note that the listed start times refer to the official race start, not the neutral roll-out, which begins a bit earlier.


Download here:


Icalender

I have also created an iCalendar that includes all 21 stages of this year’s Tour de France. Each with a short description of what to expect as well as information such as, the stage type, start and finish towns, estimated start and finish times, and the watch score.

You should be able to integrate it with your calendar app to stay up to date throughout the race 😊

Download here:

Google calendar

other applicatons



Now the route is briefly covered but as said it is the riders that make the race, so I have another blog post about the key contenders of this years Tour de France including GC-favourites, spinters and stage hunters



If you reahced this point, thank you for reading along and enjoy the Tour! 🌻💛🇫🇷

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