The Tour de France 2025 route will set up a titanic battle between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard

Six mountain stages, hilly days from the beginning, and an uphill time trial mean it will be hard to dislodge the Slovenian from his throne, but Jonas Vingegaard could

Tadej Pogačar wins stage 20 of the 2024 Tour de France
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Adam Becket
Adam Becket

News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport. This piece is part of The Leadout, a newsletter series from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As ever, email adam.becket@futurenet.com - should you wish to add anything, or suggest a topic.

The good news, I suppose, is that Tadej Pogačar almost certainly won’t win stage one of next year’s Tour de France. The opening day will probably end in a sprint, with the yellow jersey heading to the shoulders of a fast man, but who could rule anything out for the Slovenian. The UAE Team Emirates rider won the final three stages of this year’s Tour, and already, nine months out from the 2025 edition, he is the overwhelming favourite. It is almost impossible to design a route which wouldn’t favour Pogačar, and this certainly isn’t that. Aside from a few more punchy finishes, it’s hard to know what else would be on his wish list.

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