Tour de France 2025: 9 key stages in the yellow jersey battle between Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel

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A three-way battle for the yellow jersey looks likely again at the 2025 Tour de France as Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel do their best to stop Tadej Pogacar from winning a fourth title. We select nine key stages that could prove decisive this July as Vingegaard targets a third win over an in-form Pogacar in his pomp and an Evenepoel looking to improve on his promising debut last year.

Watch: Stage-by-stage guide as Tour de France 2025 route revealed

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With more summit finishes and bunch sprints on the cards, the route of the 2025 Tour de France could once again highlight the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Doing their utmost to prove themselves to be part of the former camp, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel will hope to turn things around after a largely one-sided Criterium du Dauphine, where the three-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar ran riot with three stage wins on his way to the overall win.

Six summit finishes and an uphill time trial make the mountainous 2025 route one for the climbers.

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But with the first major summit showdown not coming until Stage 12, there are numerous banana skins to avoid in a tough opening phase filled with Classics-style stages that suit the puncheurs and opportunists more than the out-and-out GC specialists.

Once the first mountain rendez-vous occurs, the floodgates open – with the second half of the Tour featuring more climbs than seemingly ever before, including the return of Mont Ventoux, an alternative ride up the interminable Col de la Loze, and a re-run of a classic mountain stage from 1986.

Here are the nine days that could make the difference in what promises to be an intriguing battle for the yellow jersey this July, live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

Stage 5: Wednesday, July 9, Caen to Caen – 33km TT

Tour de France 2025 Stage 5 profile

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The only stage where Remco Evenepoel got the better of his rivals during the Dauphine was the flat time trial, where the Belgian Olympic and world TT champion blasted into yellow by taking 20 seconds on Jonas Vingegaard and 48 seconds on Tadej Pogacar over just 17.4km.

Well, the Tour’s first time trial is almost twice as long and features just 200m of vertical ascent over the course of its 33km.

Not only will it give Evenepoel the opportunity to don the Tour’s maillot jaune for the first time in his career, it could be the only chance for the 25-year-old to steal a march over his rivals before the mountain-heavy second and third phase of the race.

If Pogacar and Vingegaard prove once again to be the strongest in the mountains, a flat time trial might be the only place in the race where Evenepoel can find some joy and put them under pressure.

So, while this may not be the most thrilling of spectacles – and indeed could well be won by Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers – it will be an important early indication of who's in contention for yellow, and indeed the only stage in the opening week where significant time gaps can be made.

Stage 6: Thursday, July 10, Bayeux to Vire Normandie – 202km

Tour de France 2025 Stage 6 profile

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One day after the time trial, this relentlessly undulating stage through Normandy features a whopping 3,550m of vertical gain over six lower-category climbs and a succession of leg-sapping hills.

Starting in Bayeux, the hometown of Kevin Vauquelin, the 202km stage could be a tapestry upon which breakaway specialists and GC ambushers alike bid to leave their mark.

The finish is on an uphill ramp into Vire Normandie, the home of the Tour’s chief route planner Thierry Gouvenou, who is expecting fireworks in his backyard.

Quite right, too, for it’s probably the hardest of four similar stages in the north of France in a puncheur’s paradise of an opening week.

Once again, the old adage rings true: the Tour may not be won, but it could well be lost in this mini Ardennes classic of stage that has more of a kick to it than the local tipple of choice, Calvados.

Stage 10: Monday, July 14, Ennezat to Mont-Dore – 165km

Tour de France 2025 Stage 10 profile

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There have been some brilliant stages in central France in recent years – Pello Bilbao’s win in Issoire in 2023, Matej Mohoric at Le Creusot in 2021, Dani Martinez on the Puy Mary in 2020, or even Vingegaard getting the better of Pogacar at Le Lioran last year – and this undulating test through the Massif Central looks to build on that tradition.

It’s not often that you see a stage with eight categorised climbs peppering the route – but that’s what you have here, as well as at least four other uncategorised hills packed into just 165km.

The final climb on the Puy de Sancy may only be 3.3km at 8% but some serious damage could be done on a day usually taken off the bike for the peloton.

Given that it would be sacrilege for there to be no Tour stage on Bastille Day, the riders will have to wait until the second Tuesday for the first rest day – while the holidaymakers are treated to a Quatorze Juillet to savour.

A total of 4,450m of vertical gain should coax some action from the GC favourites while the 37 king of the mountains points up for grabs should roll out the red carpet for a polka dot battle.

Stage 10 may not decide the outcome of the 2025 Tour, but it could well prove to be one of the most frenetic, exciting and dramatic days in the entire race.

Expect both Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert to be in the breakaway.

Stage 12: Thursday, July 17, Auch to Hautacam – 181km

Tour de France 2025 Stage 12 profile

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Fans will have to wait for the second Thursday of the race for the first proper summit finish – and even then, it’s a slow-burner of a stage with around 120km of largely flat roads before the climbing really begins.

Ascents of the Cat. 1 Col du Soulor (11.8km at 7.3%) and Cat. 2 Col des Borderes (3.1km at 7.7%) are a mere amuse-bouche before the main course: the Cat. 1 climb to Hautacam.

If Simon Yates buried his demons on the Colle delle Finestre to take the pink jersey in May on the same climb where he so sensationally lost it eight years previously, then Tadej Pogacar will be presented with his own opportunity for a bit of redemption.

The Slovenian conceded over a minute to Vingegaard on the 13.8km long 7.8% climb to Hautacam in 2022 to all but relinquish his hopes of winning a third successive Tour.

Victory put the Dane 3’26" clear of the then double champion two days before he put the final nail in Pogacar’s coffin in the time trial to Rocamadour.

Three years on – with Pogacar now 3-2 up in his head-to-head with Vingegaard – the world champion has the chance to make amends on what is the first major summit showdown of the 2025 race.

Stage 13: Friday, July 18, Loudenvielle to Peyragudes – 10.9km TT

Tour de France 2025 Stage 13 ITT profile

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If Evenepoel’s performance in the Dauphine makes him the outright favourite to win the flat time trial to Caen in the opening week, then this uphill TT is a whole new ball game.

Four largely flat opening kilometres will be enough to raise the time-old question of whether it will be worth switching from a specialised TT rig to a regular climbing bike ahead of the final push to the line.

The climb to Peyragudes itself is 8km at 7.9% and essentially involves the riders tackling the western flank of the Col de Peyresourde before hooking a right a couple of kilometres shy of the summit to tackle the steep ramp of the Altiport, where the exposed gradient ramps up to a heinous 16%.

Given the length, the time gaps may not be huge. But they will certainly shuffle the pack and sort out something of a GC hierarchy going into the final week of racing.

Pogacar won at Peyragudes the last time the Tour visited in 2022 but nothing separated first and second except bonus seconds, with Vingegaard crossing the line right on his rival’s wheel.

But riding up any hill on your own and against the clock is very different to the usual blend of mind games, team support, attacking and defending. It’s each to his own, a veritable race of truth.

Stage 14: Saturday, July 19, Pau to Superbagneres – 183km

Tour de France 2025 Stage 14 profile

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The final GC showdown of the second week is a re-run of Stage 13 of the 1986 Tour, when Greg LeMond came of age in his quest for yellow.

The American’s solo win in Superbagneres saw him come within 40 seconds of the yellow jersey of his La Vie Claire team-mate Bernard Hinault, whom he trailed by over five minutes just 24 hours earlier.

It set the pendulum swinging away from a record sixth Tour win for the Frenchman towards LeMond’s own yellow jersey exploits on the Col du Granon and the subsequent truce on Alpe d’Huez that teed up the American’s overall triumph in Paris. Whether, 39 years on, this stage will carry as much significance remains to be seen.

LeMond was also involved the last time a Tour stage finished in Superbagneres – in 1989, when he conceded 12 precious seconds to Laurent Fignon, who took back the yellow jersey that he would lose, win back, then lose again in dramatic scenes on the Champs-Elysees over a week later...

Such a scenario is something Christian Prudhomme and his pals can only dream of. At the very least, they will be hoping that whoever leads at this point in the race, whether it be Pogacar, Vingegaard or someone else, is still within striking distance at the top; seconds, not minutes.

Before the final slog to Superbagneres (12.4km at 7.3%) there is the small matter of the Holy Trinity of Pyrenean ascents: the mythical Col du Tourmalet, the Col d’Aspin and the Col du Peyresourde.

In many Tours, this would be the queen stage – the veritable Etape Reine – but given what’s still in store, it doesn’t even come close.

Stage 16: Tuesday, July 22, Montpellier to Mont Ventoux – 172km

Tour de France 2025 Stage 16 profile

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The final week of the Tour gets under way with a bang – albeit a slightly delayed one, with 155 flat kilometres through the sweltering Herault, Gard and Vaucluse before the showpiece finale: the return of Mont Ventoux.

Not since 2016 have we witnessed a finish on the Giant of Provence, when Belgian breakaway specialist Thomas De Gendt took the spoils on the shortened stage to Chalet Reynard (the day Chris Froome went for an impromptu uphill run).

This time round, the Tour should go right to the top for a first summit finish since Froome won in 2013.

Mont Ventoux hasn’t been entirely absent from the Tour for the last nine years – quite the contrary.

Indeed, it was tackled twice by two different approaches in the same stage in 2021, when Wout van Aert soloed to glory in the valley at Malaucene.

That was the year Jonas Vingegaard made his debut, the Dane showing his promise by matching Pogacar on the legendary 15.7km climb from Bedoin, which has an average gradient of 8.8% as it rises to 1,910m in the heart of Provence.

Four years on, Visma will look to pull the strings rather than simply see their man hold on and test the waters.

Stage 18: Thursday, July 24, Vif to Col de la Loze – 172km

Tour de France 2025 Stage 18 profile

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With the final stage in the Alps to La Plagne perhaps not hard enough to make a significant difference, and the race's penultimate stage in the Jura better suited to the breakaway than the GC favourites, the 112th edition of the Tour may be decided on the race’s highest point: the Col de la Loze.

The queen stage of the race is this tortuous affair that slaps the riders with the gargantuan Glandon (21.7km at 5.1%) and mighty Madeleine (19.2km at 7.9%) before tagging on a showdown on a third HC climb that is both longer and steeper than what’s gone before.

First raced in 2020 when Miguel Angel Lopez took the spoils, then repeated on the road to Courchevel where Felix Gall won in 2023, the Col de la Loze returns for a third outing, but this time the hardest climb in the Tour is tackled from the eastern slope.

Some claim that this side of the climb is slightly less severe than the western approach. Yet that is neither here nor there – especially in light of the two monster climbs that precede it.

The lofty summit remains 2,304m high and reachable only by the highest cycle path in Europe, so either way, it’s no picnic.

Twice before, Pogacar has struggled to assert his authority or find a rhythm on the interminable Loze and its succession of steps and ramps, so this could be a key day for his rivals.

A whopping 80 points are up for grabs for the king of the mountains competition, so anyone keen on taking the polka dot jersey to Paris will need a strong showing on a day that features almost 5,500m of vertical gain. Oof.

Stage 21 – Sunday, July 27, Mantes-la-Ville to Paris – 132km

Tour de France 2025 Stage 21 profile

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It’s become something of an unwritten rule for no GC riders to attack on the last day of the Tour – but that will all go out of the window this year should the top two be separated by anything less than a minute. That’s because we have a final stage in Paris – but with a major twist.

The success of the Butte de Montmartre during last summer’s Olympic Games has made the Tour organisers think twice about settling straight back into the usual processional ride into the French capital followed by eight laps of the Champs-Elysees circuit and a ding-dong sprint.

Instead, the peloton will do four laps of the usual circuit and then head up through the heart of Paris to tackle the narrow cobbled climb to the Basilica de Sacre Coeur via Rue Lepic.

The race will then head back to the Champs-Elysees, with this detour circuit taken on a further two times ahead of a finish that may not see the entire peloton arrive together as one.

The Butte de Montmartre is 1.1km at 5.9% but while it’s not the steepest of tests, the narrow, twisting roads and technical descent will string out the peloton and could blow the pack to pieces – as we saw in the Olympics, where Remco Evenepoel soloed to gold.

It’s perhaps wishful thinking that the main contenders will be separated by seconds – and not minutes – as they enter Stage 21. But should that be the case, the traditional ceasefire will surely step aside in ground-breaking, nail-biting fashion.

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