Tour de France 2025, your ultimate stage-by-stage guide: Everything you need to know about the world’s biggest bike race

Montmartre, the bustling tourist-laden cobbled hill overlooking Paris, which will play host to this year’s edition of the Tour de France, ten or so minutes before the race finishes on the Champs-Élysées, derives its name from Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris.

In the third century, at the behest of Pope Fabian, Denis and a group of fellow missionaries headed to Paris’ predecessor Lutetia seeking to convert the city’s pagan population to Christianity. Such was their success at spreading this new-fangled belief system, the local Roman prefect, obviously quite resilient to change, ordered for Denis to be arrested, tortured, and eventually executed.

After being decapitated, the story goes, Denis got up, gathered up his detached head, and walked for seven miles, preaching along the way, before finally succumbing at what is now the northern suburb of Saint-Denis. But the site of his initial beheading? A hill and druidic holy site to the north of Lutetia originally named after Mars, but whose moniker eventually came to venerate Denis’ martyrdom: the Mont des Martyrs, Montmartre.

1,650 years later, in 1873, change and conservatism butted heads once again on Montmartre, when the city’s counter-revolutionary political forces commissioned the construction of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica – which now towers over both the district and the city in all its gaudy glory – on the site where the radical Paris Commune had been ruthlessly crushed just two years prior.

The Sacré-Coeur remains an imposing symbol of establishment-led repression for socialists and other left-leaning politicians to this day, despite its new-found status as a national historic monument in France.

So, it should be no surprise, then, that Butte Montmartre should once again form the site where new and old collide – in a sporting sense, this time – and play a pivotal role in a radical new reimagining of one of Paris’ most established and revered traditions: the Champs-Élysées sprint finish at the Tour de France.

Because, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tour’s first ever finish on the world’s most famous avenue, organisers ASO – emboldened, perhaps, by last year’s Olympic-induced holiday to Nice, as well as the success of the Games’ Montmartre-focused road race route – have decided to mix things up.

In many ways, the procession/photo opportunity-cum-chaotic sprint warfare on the Champs over the past five decades symbolises, on one hand, the Tour’s commitment to tradition and nostalgia, a stubborn refusal to change even in the face of prevailing viewing patterns and endless social media debates.

But the route of this year’s stage 21 is instead all about that watchword of the modern Tour: innovation.

In the final 40km of the 2025 Tour de France, the peloton will tackle three ascents of the Butte Montmartre, and its steep, narrow, cobbled climb to the Sacré-Coeur – the focal point of last year’s Olympic road race – the last of which will come just six kilometres from the race’s climax on the Champs.

In route director Thierry Gouvenou’s wildest dreams, the battle for the yellow jersey will be extremely tight heading into the final day, and the Butte Montmartre will provide the perfect springboard for a last-ditch, Tour-winning move – probably by someone named Tadej or Jonas.

The more likely scenario, of course, is that the route tweak will simply annoy the fast men – who will have slogged over the mountains fully focused on their annual crack at the so-called sprinters’ world championships – and create that extra bit of tension within a peloton desperate for it all to be over after three weeks of tense and intense racing.

But you can’t blame the Tour for trying, can you? It just has to pay off once, after all…

It’s highly ironic, then, that this radical reimagining of the Tour’s most conservative stage comes at the end of undoubtedly the most old-school route in years.

In fact, the 2025 Tour – for all current race chief Christian Prudhomme’s attempts to modernise and innovate during his two decades in charge – is essentially a throwback to the routes of the 1990s and 2000s, the much-maligned, and extremely conservative, Jean-Marie Leblanc era.

For one thing, it’s entirely in France, a relative novelty for the modern Tour, and the only time – barring the 2020 Covid Tour – the race hasn’t ventured beyond its nation’s borders for over a decade.

The route also eschews the all-action impulses of the TikTok-era Tour in favour of a prolonged gentle opening section of mostly flat and hilly stages, as the peloton lazily meanders southwest from Lille and Dunkirk down into Brittany, before a couple of long transfers take them into the Massif Central and the first rest day.

Believe it or not, the first high mountains of this year’s Tour don’t arrive until stage 12 – the longest we’ve had to wait for major climbs for around 20 years. Just throw in a prologue and we’re right back in 2002.

But while the GC riders bide their time, waiting for their moment, that long first stretch will provide plenty of opportunities for the sprinters to establish a hierarchy, and for the in-form Mathieu van der Poel to wreak havoc on the hillier days (including a return to the scene of the Dutchman’s greatest Tour exploit, the Mûr-de-Bretagne).

Opportunistic attackers – such as the resurgent Julian Alaphilippe – will be eyeing up the lumpier days in Normandy and the Massif Central, while the early, reasonably long 33km time trial in Caen on stage five will give some much-needed order to the GC and help relieve some of the tension in the peloton.

And, perhaps most importantly, the relaxed rhythm of the opening 11 days will enable us armchair fans to soak in the scenery, culture, and history of the places the peloton speeds through, before the yellow jersey race finally roars into life in the Pyrenees.

Because, if the first 11 days of this year’s race represent a nicely spread-out selection of starters, the final 10 stages are a bubbling hot cassoulet dish, filled to the brim and leaving you, by the end of the night, stuffed and delirious.

From stage 12 on, a trio of mega Pyrenean stages, featuring summit finishes at Hautacam, Superbagnères, and a time trial to the summit of Peyragudes, is followed by a return to the legendary Mont Ventoux, straight after the final rest day.

Then, if the much-anticipated battle between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard hasn’t been decided yet, two more summit finishes in the Alps, to the 2,304m-high Col de la Loze and a short and sharp stage finishing on La Plagne, will surely tip the scales.

Sorry, Thierry, but I just can’t see that Montmartre battle happening.

So, as you sit back and enjoy the next three weeks of racing on the roads of France – and all its quirks and changing rhythms – here’s our stage-by-stage preview to keep you company.

Along with the key details for each stage, we’ve also included a ‘sofa score’ feature, which will keep you abreast of the best days – in our opinion – to make your apologies to the family or put on your best cough and phone up the boss, before sitting back and enjoying the best bike race in the world.

Stage 1

Saturday 5 July

Lille Métropole – Lille Métropole, 184.9km (Flat)

This year’s Tour kicks off just down the road from the other crown jewel of French bike racing, Paris-Roubaix, in Lille, France’s fourth largest metropolitan area and a vibrant university city full of culture. It’s also the place where Chris Boardman pulled on his first ever yellow jersey, when the British star won the 7.2km prologue – at a record average speed of 55.153kph – at the 1994 Tour, the last time Lille hosted the Grand Départ.

There’s no prologue this time, however. Instead, we’re treated to a 184km loop skirting France’s border with Belgium. And while we’re a cobblestone’s throw away from the brutal pavé of the Hell of the North and the jagged climbs of Flanders, the route is fairly straightforward, with only a handful of Cat 4s included to appease the KOM sponsors.

Yes, this stage – and therefore the first yellow jersey of the race – should be one for the sprinters. That kilometre-long straight in Lille has Jasper Philipsen or Tim Merlier’s name written all over it.

Expected finish time (BST): 4.36pm

Sofa score: 7/10. The break will slip off the front of the peloton in the first 20 seconds, nothing will happen for four hours, then there’ll be a sprint. But it’s the first day of the Tour de France – what do you mean you’re not going to watch every second of it?

Stage 2

Sunday 6 July

Lauwin-Planque – Boulogne-sur-Mer, 209.1km (Hilly)

At 209km, the second day’s outing to Boulogne-sur-Mer – described effusively by Charles Dickens as “the most elegant, the most picturesque, and the best town I know” – is the longest stage of the entire race. Darting towards France’s northern coastline, it’s a day characterised by increasing difficulty, culminating in a tough series of climbs in the final 10km.

The Côte du Haut Pichot, which average 9.4 per cent for over a kilometre, is followed by the 900m, 11 per cent Côte de Saint Etienne au Mont, and the final drag to the line in Boulogne-sur-Mer, the same finish where Peter Sagan won the second of his three stages at his debut Tour in 2012, and where he debuted his famous ‘running man’ celebration.

The steep ramps near the finish will likely rule out the pure sprinters, though expect the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert to battle it out for the victory, while the GC contenders keep a watchful eye on each other.

Expected finish time: 4.20pm

Sofa score: 7/10

Stage 3

Monday 7 July

Valenciennes – Dunkirk, 178.3km (Flat)

After yesterday’s punchy finish, the sprinters should resume hostilities on the way to Dunkirk, with only the draggy Mont Cassel with over 40km likely to cause trouble. Unless, of course, the crosswinds coming in from the coast cause the peloton to split – then all bets are off.

Expected finish time: 4.18pm

Sofa score: 4/10 – but 9/10 if the wind is strong.

Stage 4

Tuesday 8 July

Amiens – Rouen, 174.2km (Hilly)

Rouen returns to the Tour for the first time as a stage finish since big German Andre Greipel took the spoils back in 2012. Any sprinters hoping for a repeat could be disappointed, however, with a relentless series of tough climbs in the final 30km through five-time winner Jacques Anquetil’s old training roads (the first hill of the day is even named after the French hero) marking this one out for the puncheurs.

Or will the 10.6 per cent ramps of the Saint-Hilaire, which tops out with just 5km to go, be enough to tempt Tadej Pogačar into drawing first blood in the GC race before tomorrow’s time trial?

Expected finish time: 4.22pm

Sofa score: 7/10

Stage 5

Wednesday 9 July

Caen – Caen, 33km (Individual Time Trial)

Back in 1947, at the first Tour de France since the end of World War II, French rider Jean Robic overturned a three-minute deficit on compatriot Pierre Brambilla during the race-deciding time trial from Caen to Paris to secure his one and only yellow jersey success.

And while this year’s time trial in Caen, a 33km loop on wide, fast roads to the north of the city, won’t prove as decisive, it will nevertheless offer some tantalising glimpses as to who’s in top form, while providing a semblance of order to the general classification. Is there where Remco Evenepoel nabs the first yellow jersey of his career? Or will Pogačar or Vingegaard land their first big punch of the race?

Last rider’s start time: 4pm

Sofa score: 8/10

Stage 6

Thursday 10 July

Bayeux – Vire Normandie, 201.5km (Hilly)

The last time Vire featured at the Tour, in 1997, Mario Cipollini won. However, the self-styled Lion King wouldn’t get a look in on today’s stage, a lumpy 200km affair totalling 3,500 metres vertical gain. The climbs are tough but not brutally so, and with the time trial settling things down, this could be the breakaway’s first opportunity to make it all the way to the line.

And with the riders setting out from Bayeux, whose famed tapestry recounting the Norman conquest of England is set to return to Britain for the first time in 900 years, who will be coronated in Vire, and who will take an arrow to the eye?

Alaphilippe the Conqueror, anyone?

Expected finish time: 4.14pm

Sofa score: 6/10

Stage 7

Friday 11 July

Saint-Malo – Mûr-de-Bretagne, 196.6km (Hilly)

Since Cadel Evans’ win on stage four in 2011 – teeing up his eventual, long-waited overall victory that year – the Mûr-de-Bretagne’s two kilometre-long, seven per cent slopes have become a Tour staple, with this year marking the sixth time the race has finished on the climb in the last 15 editions.

Stage seven also reprises the two-climb model featured in 2021, when Mathieu van der Poel pulled off arguably his greatest ever Tour ride, attacking both times up the hill before winning the stage and taking the yellow jersey. Yellow may be beyond him this time, but who would bet against the Dutchman repeating the trick?

Expected finish time: 3.39pm

Sofa score: 7/10

Stage 8

Saturday 12 July

Saint-Méen-le-Grand – Laval Espace Mayenne, 171.4km (Flat)

Starting in Saint-Méen-le-Grand, the hometown of the Bobet brothers – marking a century since three-time Tour winner Louison’s birth – this stage is one for the sprinters. The rising false flat to the finish in Laval could throw up a few surprises, however. This will definitely be a stage Biniam Girmay’s had earmarked for a while.

Expected finish time: 4.04pm

Sofa score: 4/10

Stage 9

Sunday 13 July

Chinon – Châteauroux, 174.1km (Flat)

Ah, Châteauroux. Mark Cavendish, sitting with his feet up at home, will enjoy the Tour’s return to one of his adopted homes, the city where he secured three of his record-breaking 35 stage victories, in 2008, 2011, and 2021. Will the heir to Cav’s throne emerge in the place the Manx Missile made his own? Or could crosswinds scupper the sprinters’ best laid plans?

Expected finish time: 4.07pm

Sofa score: 4/10

Stage 10

Monday 14 July

Ennezat – Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy, 165.3km (Middle Mountains)

The Tour’s long first week draws to a close with a first concerted outing for the climbers, thanks to a classic rollercoaster of a day in the Massif Central, featuring 4,500 metres of vertical gain and the most second-category climbs (seven) packed into a single stage in Tour history.

Taking place in the shadow of the Puy de Dôme, the back-to-back nature of the climbing, and ambush-friendly nature of the saw-tooth profile, could draw out the big GC contenders, with the short, sharp eight per cent ramps of the Puy de Sancy seemingly tailormade for a trademark explosive Pogačar attack. Of course, the breakaway – especially its French proponents – will be hungry for success on Bastille Day. Expect fireworks.

Expected finish time: 4.25pm

Sofa score: 8/10

Stage 11

Wednesday 16 July

Toulouse – Toulouse, 156.8km (Flat)

The peloton eases into week two of the race after a rest day in Toulouse, one of the two ‘cassoulet capitals’ visited by the Tour this year, with a mostly flat 156km loop around the city.

However, things will begin to heat up – if it already wasn’t stifling enough – on the run-in, which is peppered with a handful of sprinter-swatting climbs, including the 20 per cent Pech David, just eight kilometres from the finish. If any of the sprinters do survive, their teams could have trouble controlling matters towards the finish.

Expected finish time: 4.05pm

Sofa score: 6/10

Stage 12

Thursday 17 July

Auch – Hautacam, 180.6km (Mountain)

The phoney war is finally over. After 11 days of jostling and marginal GC gains, the Tour explodes into life with the first of three possibly, probably, almost certainly race-defining days in the Pyrenees.

Much like this year’s race itself, today’s big mountains are preceded by an extended section of flat road. But when they arrive, 120-odd kilometres into the stage, they have the potential to blow the Tour apart. The Col du Soulor will whittle down the peloton, before the riders tackle one of the sport’s wildest, most infamous summit finishes: Hautacam.

Hautacam’s proximity to Lourdes, a Catholic Disneyland cynically packed with overpriced tat and flesh-coloured Christs that glow in the dark, is fitting.

Since its debut in 1994, this uneven, leg-sapping road to nowhere (or to be more accurate, a ski station) has been home to a fair few of cycling’s pharmaceutically induced ‘miracles’, from Bjarne Riis’s big-ringed demolition in 1996 to Lance Armstrong’s show of force in 2001 and Leonardo Piepoli and Juan José Cobo’s hilarious one-two for Saunier Duval in 2008.

Since then, somewhat less controversially, the monstrous climb has proved the bellwether for the GC – in 2014 and 2022, eventual Tour winners Vincenzo Nibali and Jonas Vingegaard both on Hautacam. Vingegaard will be hoping history repeats itself today.

Expected finish time: 4.32pm

Sofa score: 9/10

Stage 13

Friday 18 July

Loudenvielle – Peyragudes, 10.9km (Individual mountain time trial)

Peyragudes is, in many respects, a symbol of the modern Tour de France. The road it rises above, the Col de Peyresourde, is one of the race’s old guard, featuring in that very first Pyrenean outing back in 1910 and 67 times since.

But the Peyragudes, a 21st-century add-on to the Peyresourde, continuing on to the ski village – and its ridiculously steep altiport runway – above, is tailormade for the TikTok generation, gorging on bitesize chunks of telegenic pain and suffering. That pain and suffering on Peyragudes’ fearsome final ramp will be magnified today, coming as it does at the end of 10.9km mountain time trial. The time gaps could suddenly be magnified, too.

Last rider starts: 4.31pm

Sofa score: 9/10

Stage 14

Saturday 19 July

Pau – Luchon Superbagnères, 182.km (Mountain)

Is this the single hardest day of the entire Tour? Probably. An absolute classic Pyrenean test, the riders will tackle three-quarters of the mountain range’s ‘circle of death’, the brutal Col du Tourmalet, the Col d’Aspin, and the Peyresourde, before racing to the finish at Superbagnères, a forgotten icon of cycling’s 1980s golden period, ready once again for its close up.

In fact, this route is an exact replica of the 1986 stage, where Greg LeMond hit back at his teammate and bitter rival Bernard Hinault, on his way to winning his first of three Tours.

Hinault, who had promised LeMond the 1986 Tour as a reward for his help the previous year, had sucker punched his La Vie Claire colleague the previous day to take yellow, and with it a seemingly decisive four-and-a-half-minute lead.

However, the overconfident Badger blew up at the foot of Superbagnères after once again going on the attack, as LeMond powered on to win the stage and almost wipe out Hinault’s advantage, paving the way – via intense psychological warfare waged by the flagging French star – for his eventual win in Paris.

Three years later, Superbagnères once again played a starring role in LeMond’s era-defining to-and fro-battle with Laurent Fignon, the American this time losing his grip on yellow to his French rival as Robert Millar, now Pippa York, won the stage. Since then, the climb hasn’t been seen at the Tour. Until now.

It’s fair to say not all eighties remakes hit the mark – it’s fair to say the Puy de Dôme’s spectator-less return in 2023 was a damp squib – but Superbagnères’ return could well prove a blockbuster.

Expected finish: 4.07pm

Sofa score: 10/10 – don’t miss a second of what could possibly be the Tour-deciding stage.

Stage 15

Sunday 20 July

Muret – Carcassone, 169.3km (Hilly)

The riders head into the final rest day with a stage tailormade for a breakaway into Carcassone, the other cassoulet capital of the 2025 Tour.

The long drag that follows the steep Pas du Sant with 50km looks set to offer a perfect launchpad for an ambitious long-range attacker, keen to keep the team bosses off their back during their rest day recovery ride.

Expected finish: 4.08pm

Sofa score: 6/10

Stage 16

Tuesday 22 July

Montpellier – Mont Ventoux, 171.5km (Mountain)

In the same way it dominates the rolling landscape of Provence, Mont Ventoux looms large over the 2025 Tour de France. Its iconic, bleached summit is visible from both the Alps and Pyrenees. And while the back-to-back climbs of those two mountain ranges will almost certainly decide the fate of this year’s yellow jersey, all eyes will still be on the Ventoux – cycling’s most iconic, revered, and feared ascent.

The Ventoux, in a geographical, historic, and racing sense, is a singular climb. Its imposing bulk – the scene of tragedy, triumph, and farce at the Tour – stands alone, just as it does on today’s stage. The opening 149km from Montpellier to the foot of the Giant in Bédoin are simply a prelude to those final 20km, which rise steeply through the woods before emerging at Chalet Reynard, and that iconic, exposed six kilometres of white rock and twisting black tarmac that leads to the observatory at the top.

Remarkably, such is its mythical hold on the race’s identity, this will be only the 11th time in the Tour’s history that a stage has finished on the Ventoux, and the first since Chris Froome’s chaotic display of running in 2016.

The last time we visited, back in 2021, when the mountain was climbed twice from two different directions before finishing down in Malaucène, was the first time we saw Jonas Vingegaard properly drop Tadej Pogačar on a climb. I’m sure that fact will be evident in both riders’ minds as they brace themselves for the Giant.

Expected finish: 3.44pm

Sofa score: 10/10

Stage 17

Wednesday 23 July

Bollène – Valence, 160.4km (Flat)

A final transition day to the Alps offers another opportunity for the sprinters and green jersey contenders, as a slightly lumpy and possibly windy stage culminates in a pan-flat 600m finishing straight in Valence.

This will probably be the last chance for the fast men before Paris, so unfortunately the breakaway – normally a good bet on a transition day like this – won’t stand a chance if the sprinters’ teams have their act together. Which, by this point in the Tour, isn’t a given of course.

Expected finish time: 4.10pm

Sofa score: 4/10

Stage 18

Thursday 24 July

Vif – Courchevel Col de la Loze, 171.5km (Mountain)

While the Ventoux, for all its history and iconography, is a relative rarity at the Tour (adding, no doubt, to its mythical stature), the Col de la Loze on the other hand is like one of those new, tech-obsessed hipsters who show up at the party and never take the hint to leave.

The 2,300m-high Alpine brute first made its professional cycling debut at the 2019 Tour de l’Avenir, before playing host to Miguel Ángel López’s victory at the following year’s autumnal Tour de France and Felix Gall’s win in 2023 – when Vingegaard stuck the knife in a flagging Pogačar amid chaotic scenes of rowdy fans and stalled motorbikes.

And, after all that drama, it’s back again this year, rising above the more traditional (and steady) Tour stop of Courchevel to its altiport which, when not serving as the dropping off point for the rich and famous during the winter ski season, operates as a shockingly steep ramp to the finish for tired Tour contenders.

The Col de la Loze’s spectacular denouement will come after a classic mammoth Alpine HC fest and quite possibly the toughest day of the entire race – 171km featuring the mighty Col du Glandon (21.7km at 5.1 per cent) and Col de la Madeleine (19.2km at 7.9 per cent). It’s going to be a war of attrition.

Expected finish: 4.12pm

Sofa score: 9/10

Stage 19

Friday 25 July

Albertville – La Plagne, 129.9km (Mountain)

The second day in the Alps, and the final mountain stage of the entire Tour, offers the kind of short and staggeringly sharp test favoured by the organisers over the past decade and a half.

In just 130km, the route packs in two Cat 2, one Cat 1, and two HC ascents, kicking off almost from the gun with a double whammy of the Côte d’Héry-sur-Ugine and Col des Saises – which could tempt a few enterprising favourites seeking to throw the cat amongst the pigeons.

Another back-to-back ascent of the Col du Pré and the Cormet de Roseland precedes a long dive into the valley and the final difficult climb to La Plagne, which will almost certainly conclusively seal the fate of the yellow jersey.

The Tour’s visit to La Plagne, only the fifth time it has hosted the race, represents another eighties throwback, the foggy climb providing the scene for Stephen Roche’s Lazarus-style resurgence in 1987. Now, if we could have half the drama of that today…

Expected finish: 4.18pm

Sofa score: 10/10

Stage 20

Saturday 26 July

Nantua – Pontarlier, 184.2km (Hilly)

Today’s trek to Pontarlier, through the foothills of the Jura, has the breakaway written all over it. The relentless terrain is to difficult for the sprinters, lots of riders and teams will be desperate for some success after three weeks of near misses, and the rest of the bunch will be too tired to care, and will instead be daydreaming of that champagne on the Champs.

Expected finish 4.12pm

Sofa score: 5/10

Stage 21

Sunday 27 July

Mantes-la-Ville – Paris Champs-Élysées, 132.3km (Flat)

Will ASO’s Montmartre gamble – a route shake-up designed to celebrate 50 years of the Tour’s relationship with the Champs-Élysées by pulling at its very fabric – pay off?

Will we see some last-gasp GC action on the Butte? Or will everything just be a touch more chaotic than it usually is, before ending in a big bunch sprint on the Champs? In any case, it’s the Tour, it’s Paris, there’ll be photos of riders pretending to sip champagne. It’ll be great.

Expected finish time: 6.26pm

Sofa score: 8/10 – an extra point for the potential of intrigue in Montmartre.