Tour de France returns to Champs-Elysees, women’s Tour adds ninth stage

PARIS (Agencies): The Tour de France will finish at the Champs-Elysees in Paris once again in 2025, with the race featuring an all-French route for the first time in five years and its first finish at the Mount Ventoux since 2013, tour organisers said on Tuesday. The women’s Tour will add a ninth stage to its programme, running from July 26 to Aug. 3, starting in Britanny and finishing in Chatel Les Portes du Soleil. The 2024 edition of the men’s Tour did not finish in the French capital for the first time since the event started in 1903, with Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar crowned champion in Nice due to Paris hosting the Summer Olympics. This year’s Tour will kick off in Lille on July 5, with the first part of the 21 stages taking place mostly on plains before moving to more mountainous regions. “It’s a false (first) week on the plains because in fact there are four finishes for the punchers,” race director Christian Prudhomme said in a statement referring to riders who prefer short, sharp climbs. “I don’t think Thierry Gouvenou, who mapped out the route, left a single climb (untouched) between Lille and Brittany.”

Stage 10 on July 14, Bastille Day, will be a 163-km race between Ennezat and Le Mont-Dore, the Tour’s first day in the mountains, with a gruelling 174-km run between Montpellier and Mount Ventoux set for stage 16. Organisers were forced to lower the finish of the Mount Ventoux race to Chalet Reynard in 2016 due to high winds at the summit. “We hope to go all the way to the top,” Prudhomme said. The women’s Tour will also feature two major climbs, going through the Col de la Madeleine and Joux Plane mountain passes. “We’re here to keep pace with women’s cycling and we’ve seen that the overall level has increased,” event director Marion Rousse said.