The men’s 2025 Tour de France begins next week, with the competition being held completely in France for the first time since 2020.
The Grand Départ of the 112th edition of the race will see cyclists kick off the race in Lille on July 5, and early stages include those in Normandy and Brittany.
The final stage – held on July 27 – will see the finish line return to the Champs-Elysées, after the 2024 event concluded in Nice due to the Olympic Games being held in Paris around the same time.
Northern France features heavily
Northern regions in the country will feature heavily in the race.
Alongside the starting stages in the Hauts-de-France region, a time-trial will take place in Caen during the fifth stage, marking the 1,000-year anniversary of the city’s founding.
The town’s current mayor Aristide Olivier said the city has been attempting to host a stage in the race for ten years.
Stage seven will see the cyclists ride from Saint-Malo to the Mûr-de-Bretagne, which ends on a steep 15% gradient.
The eighth stage will start in the village of Saint-Méen-le-Grand (Ille-et-Vilaine), birthplace of Louison Bobet, who in 1955 became the first cyclist to win three consecutive Tour de France races.
Difficult mountain passes in Vernoux and the Col de la Loze will also feature.
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The full route can be seen in the main image above.
Whilst the 2025 event will be staged solely in France, organisers have confirmed the 2026 race will begin in Barcelona.
The route for the 2025 women’s competition, running from July 26 to August 3, is available below.
It will see cyclists traverse the country from west to east in nine stages, beginning in Vannes (Brittany) and ending in Châtel (Haute-Savoie) in the Alps.
It will also be held entirely within France, after the 2024 event was held partly in Belgium and the Netherlands.
