Mountains, crosswinds, cobbles and time trials: none of the hazards of the 2025 Tour de France route, unveiled in Paris on Tuesday, are likely to derail the seemingly unstoppable Tadej Pogacar, winner of almost every race worth winning in 2024.
Next summer the Slovenian – once a cheeky prodigy but now a ruthless terminator – will be back at the Tour’s Grand Départ, for a race that starts in Lille on 5 July and returns to the traditional finale, after a one-year absence because of the Paris Olympics, on the Champs-Élysées in the capital on 27 July.
Five summit finishes, a mountain time trial and a return to Mont Ventoux will not daunt Pogacar, whose domination this year has left even the Tour director, Christian Prudhomme, aghast. The three-time champion will be the outstanding favourite on a route peppered with sprint opportunities, punchy uphill finishes and showpiece summits.
From Lille, the race circles around the north-east corner of France before striking west towards Brittany. After a finish on the Mûr-de-Bretagne, the peloton will head towards a first mountain finish, on Bastille Day, on the Puy de Sancy.
Three summit finishes in the Pyrenees, including a time trial to Peyragudes altiport, come before the ascent of the Ventoux, the scene of numerous dramas in past Tours, including a fierce battle between Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in 2021.
From the “Giant of Provence”, the peloton heads towards the Savoie and two further summit finishes, on the Col de la Loze and at La Plagne. The stage is set for another climbing duel between the two adversaries.
While Pogacar seeks a fourth win, this Tour appears to offer little beyond stage-hunting for the beleaguered Ineos Grenadiers. Like Jim Ratcliffe’s other franchises, the cycling team is still searching for direction and leadership, despite a recent managerial reshuffle.
Tom Pidcock’s open dissatisfaction has fuelled uncertainty over his future, while the reliable Geraint Thomas will be in the final year of his career.
The Tour de France Femmes begins in Brittany on 26 July. The nine-stage race includes over 17,000m of climbing, as it plots an increasingly hilly course across country to the French Alps.
Climaxing with three mountain stages and a summit finish on the 2,000m Col de la Madeleine, the final day’s trawl, to Châtel Portes du Soleil, takes the women’s peloton over the Col de Joux Plane, one of the most brutal climbs in France.
Demi Vollering lost the Tour Femmes this year to rival climber Kasia Niewadoma by the narrowest of margins but has finally completed her move to the French team FDJ-Suez. She has signed what is thought to be one of the most lucrative deals in women’s cycling, and Vollering is likely to start the race as the favourite.
Niewadoma’s 4sec overall win on Alpe d’Huez in August was one of the most thrilling finales in the long history of stage racing, but Vollering’s challenge was blighted by bad luck and internal wrangling. She is unlikely to encounter the same problems next year.
