Tour of Britain Men 2025 complete route guide: East Suffolk sprints to hilly Welsh finish

After bisecting the UK top to bottom last year, the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men switches tack for 2025 for a six-stage crossways parcours, running from Tuesday, 2 to Sunday, 7 September.

In what is the second edition of the race since British Cycling took over its organisation from Sweetspot, the UCI 2.Pro-ranked race takes riders from Woodbridge in Suffolk to a Welsh finish.

A key part of the sixth and final stage will be honouring Geraint Thomas on what will be the final day's racing of his career. Starting outside the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome in Newport, the stage will finish in his birthplace of Cardiff, after passing the Maindy Velodrome where the Welshman cut his teeth.

It's broadly a race of two halves, with the initial three stages largely flat (though not without the odd classified climb), and the final three becoming markedly more hilly. That applies especially to stage five, which will see riders tackle a summit finish on the infamous climb of The Tumble.

Proceedings begin with two stages in Suffolk before heading west to central England, then the West Midlands, and finally Wales for the last two stages.

Once again the race has attracted some of the best riders in the world, with Remco Evenepoel in particular making headlines, as he lines up for what will be one of his final rides in Soudal Quick-Step colours. Fellow Grand Tour winner Geraint Thomas is there too, of course, as well as four-time ToB stage winner Olav Kooij (Visma Lease-a-bike).

Read the full start list for the 2025 race, from Matthew Brennan to Oscar Onley.

Tour of Britain 2025 stage table

Tour of Britain 2025 stage-by-stage guide

Stage one
Tuesday, 2 September
Woodbridge > Southwold (161.4km)
Start: 11:00am
Finish: 3:05pm

This year's race begins where last year's left off, in East Suffolk, and marks the first time since 2012 that the Tour of Britain Men has started in the area.

The stage will begin in the picturesque riverside town of Woodbridge, not far north of Ipswich, and make its way north to finish at Southwold on the coast.

This part of the world has grown used to welcoming some of the UK's biggest bike races, with the Women's Tour – which has now become the Tour of Britain Women – often frequenting the area.

The 100-mile stage darts east, west, north and south, out to the coast to Aldeburgh and Thorpeness and then back inland as it winds its way towards the Southwold finish.

East Anglia does not have a reputation for being hilly, and that is borne out in the first two stages. This first one features only 1,144m of ascent in 100 miles as it winds its way up through Suffolk. There are no classified climbs, but there is an intermediate sprint at Halesworth after 125km.

That should get the legs of the fast finishers warmed up for a near-inevitable bunch finish in Southwold 40km later, after they have first looped north through the market towns of Bungay and Beccles.

The flat finish will see the bunch hang a 90-degree right-turn as they hit the sea front, with a straight out 400m drag race along the town's North Parade to the finish line.

It's a stage that will allow the fast finishers – to open their account, along with the extra incentive of the leader's jersey to go with the stage victory.

Stage 2
Wednesday, 3 September
Stowmarket > Stowmarket
169.3km
Start: 11:00am
Finish: 3:16pm

The race stays in the East of England for stage two, for what will be the first time the men's Tour of Britain has started or finished in the Mid-Suffolk area (Stowmarket hosted a stage finish of the Women's Tour in 2019).

Stage two is even flatter than the previous day, with a scant 1,075m of ascent, but at the same time features a brace of climbs in the final kilometres, including the first classified climb of the race at Semer Hill.

Around half a mile long, with the main part of the climb at a gradient of 7-8%, Semer Hill comes with around 20km to go, and is followed 10km later by another, non-classified ascent at Cross Green. It's a double whammy that could tip the deck in favour of the punchiest attackers over the pure sprinters. This is the kind of territory that Julian Alaphilippe revels in. But whether or not a) the climbs are hard enough to drop the sprinters and b) the Frenchman still has it in him remains to be seen.

Today's outing – billed as 'The Stowmarket Stage' – is a touch longer than stage one at 169km, and is run off entirely inland, describing an elongated loop. Starting on Ipswich Street in the town centre, the race heads first north out of the town before looping south. It crosses the Dedham Vale National Landscape nature reserve before heading north again to the finish in the centre of Stowmarket, back on Ipswich Street.

Any pure sprinters who fear they may miss out due to the hilly finale can always try their luck at the intermediate sprint, which comes at Stradbroke, 45km into the stage.

There is a good chance an early break will have gone clear by this point though, its members hoovering up those points.

Stage 3
Thursday, 4 September
Milton Keynes > Ampthill
122.8km
Start: 11:30am
Finish: 2:40pm

The Tour of Britain moves to central England for stage three's mazy parcours between Milton Keynes and Ampthill, complete with two loops of a circuit near the finish that takes riders over the same cat-three climb on each.

It's the shortest stage yet, and at 994m of vertical ascent, the flattest too. However, the double ascent of Hillfoot Hill as they tackle the circuit should test the riders' legs at 700m long and a 5.2% average gradient if they find themselves out of position coming into it. With the second of these coming with 15 lumpy kilometres from the finish, there’s a small chance it could provide the springboard for a break and ensuing chase to the line.

The stage marks the first time the race has visited Milton Keynes since 2008, when the town hosted stage two of the race to Newbury. That day saw an Antipodean one-two-three, with Matt Goss taking the stage honours in a bunch sprint, followed closely by Julian Dean and Chris Sutton.

The riders will start the stage on Midsummer Boulevard outside the Milton Keynes Theatre and MK Gallery, threading their way out of the city in the neutralised zone, past the Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 team tech campus to the start proper.

The route passes through Woburn Sands and Woburn Abbey Deer Park as it jinks slowly eastward. It introduces them to the 30km circuit and its double bite at the KoM. From there the riders will head back west to finish on Woburn Street in Ampthill town centre.

The double loop – which is technically tackled one-and-a-half times – makes this a great stage to watch the race on, with fans being treated to two passes of the race. Hillfoot Hill will, of course, be the ideal viewing point, with the riders battling it out in slow(er) motion.

Stage 4
Friday, 5 September
Atherstone > Burton Dassett Hills Country Park
186.9km
Start: 10:30am
Finish: 3:12pm

The race’s longest stage is contained to the winding roads of Warwickshire, the county that gave the world William Shakespeare and the sport of rugby. The start town of Atherstone, however, is famous for its own ball game, played every February, in which the winner is the person who is holding the ball after two hours – there is only one rule: players are not allowed to kill each other. For the riders on stage four, the first bit of argy-bargy will come in Cubbington, the site of the day’s only intermediate sprint.

The second half of the stage brings a smattering of climbs that tot up quickly. They’ll come as welcome launchpads for the GC hopefuls, not so much for the sprinters, who by this point will already have enjoyed three reasonably flat days. After the categorised climbs of Friz Hill, Fant Hill and Sun Rising Hill, the race heads into a circuit finale in Burton Dassett Hills Country Park, with three laps that include a steep kicker.

That final rise to the line is only 700m long, but pitched at 9%, it should have the peloton’s best chance to open up some gaps in the bunch. According to the tourist board, there are “breathtaking” views at the top, with the hills dating back to the Jurassic period – not that the riders will have much chance to appreciate them, as they’ll be recovering from their first hilltop test.

Stage 5
Saturday, 6 September
Pontypool > The Tumble
133.5km
Start: 11:30am
Finish: 2:55pm

The penultimate day is the first instalment of a tricky double-header in South Wales. Setting sail from within the peaceful, tree-lined Pontypool Park, the riders will first complete a large loop to the east, passing through Chepstow and Monmouth, and tackling three climbs: the category-two Llangwm and Itton Hill, and the category-three Old Ross Road.

It’s on entering the smaller finishing loop that things will get spicy, though. With around 50km to go, the riders begin their first of two ascents of The Tumble – the longest and hardest climb of this year’s race. Opening with two hairpins with a 10% gradient, the full climb is 5km long, with an average gradient of 8%. At almost 400m altitude, it’s about as close to a mountain as cyclists will find in the UK.

The Tumble was last used in the Tour of Britain more than a decade ago, when Italian Edoardo Zardini won at the top of its slopes. Zardini still holds the Strava KOM today, managing the climb in 12 minutes and 44 seconds, an average speed of 22kph. Second in the leaderboard is former world champion Michał Kwiatkowski, who was runner-up on the day.

The toughest climb in South Wales, The Tumble isn’t as gruelling as its Snowdonia counterparts in the north of the country. Still, it’s notoriety earns it a slot in Simon Warren’s 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs of the UK book – albeit only just: it’s number 97.

Stage 6
Sunday, 7 September
Newport > Cardiff
112.2km
Start: 11:45am
Finish: 2:45pm

On Geraint Thomas’s final day as a pro cyclist, the Tour of Britain has pulled out all the stops with a tribute stage to the Welshman, passing by a number of important milestones from his life and career. The first comes at the stage start – Newport’s Geraint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales, whose entrance bears a giant photo of the Ineos Grenadiers rider wearing the Tour de France’s yellow jersey he won in 2018.

From there, the route zigzags north, up to the edge of, but not quite dipping into, the Brecon Beacons National Park. The road here tilts constantly up and down, with no real let up on the flat; stage six may be the event’s shortest at 112km, but it’s unlikely to be its easiest.

Refusing to afford Thomas and the rest of the peloton a processional finish, the race’s final categorised climb – the category-one Caerphilly Mountain (1.3km at 10%) – could see a last-gasp fireworks display for the overall win.

It’s then back on the Thomas trail, as the riders hurtle into Cardiff through the suburb of Maindy, home to the Maindy Velodrome where the Welshman began his cycling journey more than 30 years ago with his first club, Maindy Flyers. There’ll be no time to stop and pay homage, though.

The 2025 Tour of Britain’s flamme rouge will be erected not far from the velodrome’s entrance, indicating one kilometre to go to the finish in Cardiff, Thomas’s hometown. The line will be drawn just short of the city’s castle, where a new race king will be crowned.