The Tour is the great museum of cycling, a collection of legends and an exhibition of great steep, sweaty and exciting works of art, the setting for as many victories as defeats. The organization has dusted off its catalogue, has resorted to its most hidden galleries and rooms to fill the 2025 edition with myths. After a different edition, due to the demands of the script and the proximity of the Paris Games, the French race has decided to populate the tour of myths that had not been seen for a long time in the month of July.
New scenarios have been sought that have not witnessed the relentless fight that Pogacar, the science fiction champion, and Vingegaard have been engaged in for four years. And instead of modernity, tradition has been thought of, innovating by catching forgotten greats such as Superbagnères (14th stage) or La Plagne (19th day). Because they are less traveled and hackneyed, they are not less beautiful or tough. It may be precisely that that is where his charm lies, in his ostracism.
Eight high finishes in 13 stages
After Pogacar’s six partial victories in 2024, two of the finals bring back good memories for Vingegaard: Hautacam and Col de la Loze
Thirty-six years had passed since the Tour reached the summit where Hinault’s attempt to win the sixth Tour ended. It will be reached after passing through the Tourmalet. Since the beginning of the century, 2002, the port was not chosen where Miguel Indurain surely gave his greatest performance in the mountains, the only time he arrived alone, after scattering everyone, all his rivals.
The route of the 2025 Tour
Between the Pyrenees and the Alps, as a link between the second and third weeks, the fearsome and naked silhouette of Mont Ventoux appears. The giant of Provence, where Armstrong angered Pantani, where Froome panicked, abandoned his bike and started running, and where Tom Simpson met his death, will once again be the end of the stage. It was raised in 2021 but then it was lowered (an escaped Van Aert won). This time, there will be no excuses for face-to-face in its lunar and windy landscape, 1,910 meters above sea level.
The first exam
On the fifth day, in Caen, the favorites will face a 33 km flat time trial
Three returns that are four if you count the time trial to Peyragudes, in the thirteenth stage. Few exercises are as stark as climbing a mountain pass with the watch as the sword of Damocles. It hasn’t happened since the surprise of La Planche des Belles Filles with which Pogacar won his first Tour. It will be 11 km, with 8 km of ascent at 7.9% slope, with 16% ramps.
Perhaps because it is the 50th anniversary of the polka dot jersey to distinguish the king of the mountains, the edition is very mountainous and spectacular, with eight high finishes concentrated in 13 stages (from 7 to 19) and just 33 km of flat time trials in Caen (5th).
After forced exile to Nice
Before the departure from Barcelona in 2026, the race will be 100% French to arrive in Paris on July 27
If the goals of the Brittany Wall and Mont Dore in the Massif Central are explosive and perfect for the insatiable Pogacar, capable of taking six partial victories, Vingegaard also has good memories of Hautacam (he won in 2022) and the Col de la Loze , where he sentenced in 2023 the day Pogacar surrendered and lost more than five minutes. To add toughness to the queen stage, the Glandon and the Madeleine will be crowned beforehand.
The pre-Barcelona Tour will leave on July 5 from Lille and before the historic Grand Départ from the Catalan capital the race route will be 100% French, without excursions abroad. On July 27, after a year in exile from Nice, he will crown his winner in Paris and the Champs Elysées. Will it be the Slovenian’s yellow room? Will the Dane match him to three? Or will Evenepoel or Roglic make their debut? The only thing that is certain is that the Tour wants it to be an edition with a lot of mystique.
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