Absent from the official unveiling in Paris, two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard was likely rubbing his hands together upon seeing the race route for 2025, according to his Visma-Lease a Bike sports director Grischa Niermann.
Meanwhile, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), the defending champion, described the course as "brutal".
The route for next year’s edition of the race was announced by organiser ASO on Wednesday, detailing a course for the pure climbers, with five mountain finishes and 51,500m elevation gain.
Among the climbs included in the race are Mont Ventoux, the Col de la Loze and Hautacam, all three of which Visma-Lease a Bike have enjoyed strong performances on in recent editions; Wout van Aert won the last time the Tour visited Mont Ventoux in 2020, Vingegaard took almost six minutes on Pogačar on the Col de la Loze in 2023, and the Dane won on Hautacam in 2022, his second of four stage wins at the race.
For Niermann, Visma-Lease a Bike’s head of racing, the course “certainly appeals” to the Dutch squad.
"Jonas couldn’t be there today, but I can imagine he’s happy with the course," he said. "But that will also apply to Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel, for example.
"I think it’s also a course for Wout where he could do something. But in the coming period, together with all the riders, we’ll make decisions about the programs for the upcoming season. All options are still open at the moment. We’re going to prepare ourselves in the best possible way for the 2025 Tour de France."
The 112th edition of the race will begin in Lille on 5 July, remaining within French borders over the 21 stages. After eight stages in the north of the country, the peloton will then move south, into the Pyrenees, before crossing east to the Alps, and finally into Paris for the final day.
Speaking to L'Équipe, Pogačar said the race opens with "tricky stages".
"I especially like the Peyragudes time trial [on stage 13], I've never done that climb in a time trial before. It'll be interesting to see what happens but I've had good results in the Pyrenees in the past," he said.
"The stage to Mont Ventoux is mostly flat but the climb is very hard, it's for the pure climbers. I love that climb, it's different to anything else. It'll be even more interesting to see what happens as it comes after the second rest day."
"The Alps are always hard. The stage to the Col de la Loze is perhaps the Queen stage because it has such a high amount of climbing. I think it'll be brutal."
For Niermann, the overall route offers a "very beautiful, but tough course". The sports director also said his team has a "little psychological kick" having previously performed well on many of the mountains.
"With almost 55,000 metres of elevation, it will once again be a Tour for climbers, with most of the mountains hidden in the second and third week. That doesn't mean that the first week will be easy, because it never is in the Tour."
Vingegaard finished second at this year’s edition, six minutes and 17 seconds down on the winner Pogačar. The Dane’s participation came less than three months after he was involved in a high-speed crash at Itzulia Basque Country, suffering a broken collarbone, several broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
According to Vingegaard’s coach, Tim Heemskerk, the two-time Tour winner is already in training for next July’s race. "He’s in a good place and confident," Heemskerk told Velo. "He’s already thinking about, and looking forward to, next year."
