With 21 stages, the 112th Grand Tour will begin in Lille on July 5 and conclude in Paris on July 27.
The Tour had Grand Departs in Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023, and Florence in 2024, and it had raced through Andorra in 2021.
On the 50th anniversary of its first finish at the Champs-Elysees, the race will also return in 2025. This year, due to the Olympics, the Tour concluded outside of Paris for the first time in its history.
“After all the international starts, we thought it was time to bring the Tour home,” race director Christian stated.
The 3,320-kilometer (2,063-mile) Tour will have six mountain-top finishes and two time trials, with the majority of the first leg being on the plains.
It’s not the same as it used to be to spend a week in the plains. According to Prudhomme, “we have cut the sprint stages and laid traps everywhere.”
The route’s planner, Thierry Gouvenou, probably didn’t leave a single climb [unclimbed] between Lille and Brittany.
In 2025, UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar will compete against two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard for the yellow jersey after winning his third title this year to earn a Tour de France-Giro d’Italia double.
