The 83rd edition of Paris-Nice will feature three stages for the sprinters, three summit finishes and one final showdown stage through the mountains of Nice on its 1,206-kilometre course. But arguably the most eye-catching feature, for the third year running, is the stage 3 team time trial, this time over an extremely rolling 28.4 kilometre route and with a short but painfully steep climb mid-way through, the Côte de la Pisserotte.
Last year's slightly easier equivalent TTT stage saw 2022 Paris-Nice winner Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) lose nearly a minute and nearly all chance of victory. Although a Cat.1 summit finish the following day at Loge des Gardes the next day will switch the GC focus to the high mountains, in 2025 the team time trial could once again have a pivotal role to play in the final outcome.
Kicking off on Sunday, March 9 at Perray-en-Yvelines on the south-west edge of Paris, stage 1's rolling finale might see a late breakaway ambush the sprinters' teams. Then 24 hours later the risk of crosswinds will be on everybody's minds during stage 2's repeat of the Paris- Nice 2019 trek to Bellegarde across the highly exposed plains of Beauce.
But if several GC contenders will likely fall foul of the multiple early Paris-Nice challenges, as ever the winner of the Course au Soleil will likely be decided in the final two stages of the race, held in the Alpes-Maritimes mountains of south-east France.
Stage 7's ascent to Col de la Colmiane and final summit finish at the cat. 1 climb of Auron was cancelled last year because of poor weather conditions but is back on the menu for 2024. However, the last day through the mountains in the Nice hinterland, with three cat. 1 climbs packed into a short but very intense 119-kilometre stage, is even more fraught with potential perils for the GC men.
Stage 8 culminates in the same ultra-hard ascent, the Col des Quatre Chemins (3.6km at 8.8% and with segments at 16%) where Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) put the finishing touches to his overall victory in 2024. The race concludes as ever a few kilometres later on, after a fast, breakneck descent back down to the coast at Nice.
Other eye-catching features of the 2025 Paris-Nice route include a brutally difficult stage 5 seemingly designed for a strong breakaway and with a last half reminiscent of the renowned 'muri' stages of Tirreno-Adriatico, which runs concurrently.
The seven short but punchy categorized climbs that day concluded with the ultra-hard Notre-Dame-de-Sciez finish. The ascent is just 1 kilometre long but its ramps of up to 18% could well both decide the stage winner and also perhaps see some more gaps emerge in the overall battle.
At the time of the route presentation, few overall contenders had announced they would take part in the 2025 race. Remco Evenepoel, second overall last March and a stage winner at Nice, will almost certainly still be recovering from his major off-season training crash, while Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) have also already ruled out taking part.
However, given Paris-Nice's unfailing predilection for testing, and varied routes in which the unpredictable French spring weather can also play a major role, nobody will be certain of overall victory in one of cycling's most prestigious stage races until the final finish line on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice has been crossed on Sunday, March 16.
Stage 1: Le Perray en-Yvelines - Le Perray en-Yvelines, 156.5km
Stage 1 of the 2025 Paris-Nice kicks off the race with a lumpy, technically complex route, in which the sprinters will struggle to contain the breakaways.
- Km 32.9 Cat. 3 Côte de Villiers-San-Frédéric
- Km 70.1 Cat. 3 Côte des 17 Tournantes
- Km 134.9 Cat. 3 Côte de Villiers-San-Frédéric
- Km 147 Sprint Les Mesnuls
Stage 2: Montesson - Bellegarde, 183.9km
Stage 2 is seriously exposed and could well see the traditional echelons forming on the flat plains of northern France. A fraught day for the GC riders, who might not win the race on this stage, but could easily lose it.
- Km 34.1 Cat. 3 Côte des Mesnuls
- Km 54.1 Cat. 3 Côte de la Villeneuve
- Km 163.6 Sprint Bellegarde
Stage 3: Nevers - Nevers (team time trial), 28.4km
Overall differences at the top end of today's crunch team time trial will likely be small, but they could well see some significant differences between the GC favourites if their squad is not up to scratch in this keenly anticipated stage.
Stage 4: Vichy - La Loge des Gardes, 163.4km
The first summit finish of 2025 Paris-Nice and when combined with the multiple previous minor ascents and potential rough weather, a tough day all round. The race's half-way point and by now a first clear GC contender at the top of the overall rankings should have emerged.
- Km 33.6 Cat. 3 Côte de Lavoine
- Km 73.6 Cat. 3 Côte de la Bruyere
- Km 106 Cat. 3 Côte de la Croix Bruyere
- Km 111 Cat. 2 Côte du Canon
- Km 136.8 Sprint Le Mayet-de-Montagne
- Km 150.4 Cat. 3 Cote de la Chabanne
- Km 163.4 Cat. 1 La Loge des Gardes
Stage 5: Saint-Just-en-Chevalet - La Côte-Saint-André, 196.5km
A stage for the breakaways or a stage for the GC? This could get very tough in the second half of the course, with a series of brutally steep little climbs and a second uphill finish in as many days.
- Km 10.9 Cat. 3 Côte de Saint-Polgues
- Km 106.3 Cat. 3 Côte de Treves
- Km 149.5 Cat. 3 Côte de Chateau Jaune
- Km 154.3 Cat. 3 Côte de Sibuze
- Km 167.2 Cat. 3 Côte de Chavagneuse
- Km 180.1 Cat. 3 Côte d'Arzay
- Km 183.6 Sprint Porte-des-Bonnevaux
- Km 196.5 Cat. 2 Côte de Nôtre-Dame-des-Sciez
Stage 6: Saint-Julien-En-Saint-Alban - Berre l’Étang, 209.8km
A bunch sprint is likely, but cross-winds could yet have their effect on the last flat stage of the 2025 race, so the GC men will have to be alert. But in Paris-Nice, when don't they?
- Km 88.3 Cat. 3 Côte de Pouzihac
- Km 145.2 Cat. 3 Côte des Baux-de-Provence
- Km 160.4 Cat 3 Côte de Mouriès
- Km 190.5 Sprint Lancon-Provence
Stage 7: Nice - Auron, 147.8km
For all it's less than 150 kilometres long, the climbing starts at km 20 and then never stops on the toughest single stage of the race, and with the hardest summit finish of the 2025 edition, it will provide another major GC sort-out.
- Km 19.6 Cat. 2 Côte de Aspremont
- Km 75.7 Cat. 3 Côte de Belvedere
- Km 95 Cat. 1 La Colmiane
- Km 129.4 Sprint Isola
- Km 147.8 Cat. I Auron
Stage 8: Nice - Nice 119.9km
All of these climbs have featured multiple times in Paris-Nice, with the Col d'Eze one of the most emblematic of the entire race, and the finale of this stage with the ultra-steep Col des Quatre-Chemins was key to overall victory for Matteo Jorgenson last year. A fittingly tough, spectacular finale to the 2025 edition of the Race to the Sun.
- Km 50.7 Cat. 1 Col de la Porte
- Km 79. 2 Cat. 1 Côte de la Peille
- Km 95.1 Sprint Col d'Eze
- Km 110.9 Cat. 1 Col des Quatre Chemins
