the North, Normandy, Brittany and Ventoux on the program – Libération

And here is again a “100% French” Tour de France where the riders will not put a hose outside of France. A banality, some will say – it is quite normal that the “Tour de France” takes place in France. But a small event nonetheless: over the last five years, the Grande Boucle had each time set foot abroad, for one or more stages. The last three major departures had even been given outside France: in Copenhagen in 2022, in Bilbao in 2023 and in Florence in 2024.

In 2025, return to French time. And head, first, to the North, Christian Prudhomme announced this Tuesday, October 29 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. On Saturday July 5, the big start will be given in Lille, which will also host the arrival of a first 185-minute long stage promised to the sprinters, detailed the director of the Tour de France in front of a private assembly of its stars (Pogacar, Vingegaard , Evenepoel or even Alaphilippe had skipped the ceremony).

After a few days spent in Nord-Pas-de-Calais (with arrivals in Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dunkirk), the peloton will head for Normandy, then Brittany. The first week will alternate between stages on the plains, others a little more rugged, including an arrival at Mûr-de-Bretagne during the 7th stage, “the Breton Alpes d’Huez” dixit Prudhomme, where Mathieu van der Poel won in 2021. Also note the presence of a 33-kilometer time trial after only five short days of racing, planned around Caen, which will be “all flat” and perfect “for pure specialists”analyzes the Tour boss.

In the second part of the Tour, the mountain wins

At the end of a relatively flat transition in Mayenne, Indre-et-Loire and Indre, the road will finally rise sharply from the 10th stage. The runners will then complete seven mountain stages in around ten days. Hostilities will begin in Puy-de-Dôme with 4,400 meters of altitude difference and an arrival at the summit at Puy de Sancy, then in the Pyrenees and finally in the Alps with a passage to the legendary Mont Ventoux. The 18th stage, between Vif and Courchevel, will be the most demanding: 5,500 meters of altitude difference are on the program and the arrival will be at the Col de la Loze via a new slope. A mountainous time trial will also be organized during the 13th stage: the organization has kept it simple with only 11 kilometers, but almost all of them uphill.

Finally, for the 21st and final stage, the peloton will return to the Champs-Elysées after a year of exile in Nice, a consequence of the organization of the Olympic Games in Paris. This will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the very first arrival on France’s most famous avenue. In total, the runners will cover 3,320 km of roads from July 5 to 27 (roughly as much as in 2024) for 51,550 meters of elevation gain.