2025 Tour de France set for first exclusively French race since 2020

Tuesday October 29th saw Tour de France Race Director, Christian Prudhomme announce the 2025 race route, revealing the first all-French Tour for five years. The race will begin in Lille on July 5th and end in Paris, with the final stage (or Grand Arrivée) returning to the Champs-Élysées on July 29th.

The last four years have seen four completely different routes for the race. Traditionally, although the format of the race stays the same, each year the route alternates between a clockwise and anticlockwise circuit of France. However, between 2021 and 2024, four different countries were involved in the running of the race. In 2021, stage 15 of the race made its way through Andorra, whilst in 2022 through to 2024, the Tour’s Grand Départs took place in Copenhagen, Denmark; Bilbao, Spain; and Florence, Italy respectively.

After this information was released to the public, Christian Prudhomme commented on the decision to bring back the all-French race, stating it was “high time after all the foreign starts” and that is was simply time to “bring the Tour home”.

This year, on the 50th anniversary of the first finale, the Grand-Arrivée will return to Paris and the Tour will end with its renowned Champs-Élysées finish once again

After disruptions due to the Paris 2024 Olympics, for the first time since its inception 50 years ago, the final stage of last year’s race did not take place along the Champs-Élysées, and instead took place in the South of France with a 33.7km time trial from Monaco to Nice. This was the first time the last stage of the Tour has been a time trial since 1989, which funnily enough, equally involved a foreign Grand Départ, with the first stage of the race commencing in Luxembourg. This year, on the 50th anniversary of the first finale, the Grand-Arrivée will return to Paris and the Tour will end with its renowned Champs-Élysées finish once again.

Similarly, the Tour de France Femmes (the women’s equivalent of the men’s race) will return to an all-French structure, after a Dutch Grand Départ in 2024. The first four stages of this year’s race took place in the Netherlands, with the fourth and final foreign stage briefly entering Belgium, whilst the final half of the Tour took place in France, concluding in the French Alps. Next year, the women’s race will be made up of nine stages (compared to only eight in 2024) and will take place after the men’s, from July 26th to August 3rd. This will begin in Brittany with the Tour’s first hilly stage, before ending in the mountainous region of Châtel, on the Swiss-French border.

Three time title holder, Slovenian, Tadej Pogačar is set to challenge for the Yellow Jersey once again, after securing the double by winning both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia in 2024

The 2025 Tour de France will be the 112th edition of the race, featuring 21 stages, including 2 time trials, and 6 mountain top finishes. Three time title holder, Slovenian, Tadej Pogačar is set to challenge for the Yellow Jersey once again, after securing the double by winning both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia in 2024. Will he taste victory yet again, or will another rider stop him from achieving a fourth consecutive victory?