Tour de France 2025: Ultimate Beginners Guide & Preview

Tour de France 2025 is here! In this video I’ll tell you all you need to know about this year’s edition of the biggest cycling event! Introduction to Tour de France, route talks and preview, most exciting climbs and my predictions!

If you like my content and would like to support my content creation, buy me a beer: https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtoa

Join Road to A club on Zwift: zwift.com/clubs/073fb18e-ae9b-440e-b4c3-d95d935898c1/home

Get 5% OFF anything from Cycplus store with the discount code “ROADTOA”: https://www.cycplus.com/

My name is Adam, I am 36 years old and I am a former marathon runner who shifted his focus on ZWIFT CYCLING.

Bike: Van Rysel EDR CF SRAM AXS
Wheels: Kastar R50 Wind (www.kastar.cz)

#RoadToA

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:38 What is Tour de France?
01:35 The Jerseys
04:51 Teams
08:26 Strategies and Motivation
09:23 Race Mechanics
10:51 Tactics
13:14 Tour de France 2025
18:03 Epic Climbs of TdF 2025
20:50 My Predictions

Tour de France 2025 is just around the corner and this year it presents one of the most demanding route profiles in the recent history. With more than 3000 kilometers, 51,000 meters of climbing and strategic placement of decisive stages it almost eliminates any opportunity for passive racing. In this video I will cover absolutely everything you need to know to enjoy this event. The first part is going to be focused on all things about Tour de France in general, in the second part we’ll take a look at this year’s edition specifically and in the third one I’m going to try and share my predictions. And let’s start by talking about what Tour de France actually is. It is what we call a grand tour, which means that it isn’t just a single race, it is 21 individual races spread over 23 days, which means that the riders only have 2 rest days, one on Monday of the second week and one on Monday of the third week. Generally speaking, the first week tends to be the easiest and the difficulty of the stages ramps up as we go in time. Each race, or as we call it a stage, functions as an individual race with its own winner, while simultaneously contributing to multiple classifications or in layman’s terms, multiple races that span across the whole tour. Winning a Tour de France stage is incredibly prestigious, not only for the rider and his team, but also for their sponsors. But for the most people, the full race classifications are the most exciting part of the event. And there are 4, each presenting a different goal, each tailored to a different kind of rider, and famously, each represented by a special jersey that the current leader of that classification is allowed to wear. That’s what makes the Grand Tour so interesting, it is not only about the overall winner. But let’s be honest, it is mainly about the overall winner, right? And the way it works is actually really simple. After each day, the finishing time of all riders gets recorded, and the rider that has the lowest cumulative time after each stage is the current leader of general classification. That person is allowed to wear the famous yellow jersey for the next stage, which is one of the highest honors in cycling. As you would expect, whoever is the general classification leader after the last stage is the overall to the France winner. The youth classification marked by white jersey is very similar to general classification, but it only considers riders that are under 26 years of age. In the recent years, it has been pretty common that the general classification leader and the youth classification leader was actually the same person. In fact, in theory, one rider can virtually wear all 4 specialized jerseys. It is not very common, but it is possible and it has happened in the history before. Then we have the mountain classification, whose leader gets to wear the beautiful Polka Dot jersey, and the unofficial but well deserved title, King of the Mountains or KOM. Throughout the tour, different climbs are awarding certain amount of points to first few riders that reach the summit, easier climbs award less points and the harder ones award more. Whoever has the most points after each stage is the current KOM. And finally, we have a points classification, whose leader gets to wear a full green kit. Across the route, there are designated segments that work as mini race finishes. First few riders across those segments and also across the stage’s finishing line earn points. Whoever has the most points after each stage is the leader of the points classification, or since this is the competition of the most powerful and explosive riders, we can call it a sprint classification. Those 4 classifications and the stage wins are the main spice of the race, but there are 2 more things to watch for. The first is the Combativity Award. After each stage, a panel of judges votes for the most combative rider. There aren’t any hard criteria. It can be someone who spent the whole day in a hard breakaway, someone who attacked many times or anything else. That rider gets to wear a red bib number on their back for the next stage and after the last stage, a supercombativity prize is awarded to the most aggressive rider of the whole tour. Last but not least, there is the team classification. After each stage, the times of the best 3 riders in every team are added up and the team with the lowest cumulative time is the leader of the overall team classification. As a reward, all riders of such team have their bib numbers printed on a yellow background instead of the standard white. Up until now you could think that Tour de France is, apart from the team classification, a race of individuals. Let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. No individual rider could ever win Tour de France on their own and we will later get into the reasons why. But the main message here is that cycling is a team sport. Each team starts with 8 riders but not every single one of them aims to win the Tour de France. In fact, most of them actually do not. Each rider has a main role in the team at the start but those can change as the Tour progresses. The first type of rider is a general classification contender. This is a person who teams designate to be the one to chase the overall Tour de France victory. Such person needs to be an all-rounder but mainly needs to excel in two disciplines, climbing and time trials. Because those are basically the only places in which a rider can get any meaningful advantage to his opponents. Such rider is treated like a diamond by the team. He never needs to pull from the front, always gets protected by his teammates, doesn’t need to carry his own water bottles and if it’s necessary, his teammates will even give him their bikes. In return, they are expected to perform where it matters and that is a lot of responsibility. Not every team has a GC contender though. Some teams, like for example Alpecin deceuninck are built around strong punchers and sprinters. They know they won’t be able to snag their yellow jersey but they aim to win as many individual stages as possible or possibly win the overall points classification which is also very prestigious. To win the green jersey, the rider usually needs to be top quality sprinter simply because flatter stages are being decided in the performance in last several hundred meters. Those two types of riders are what we call team leaders. They lead their team to whatever the team’s goal is. The remaining riders in the team can have two roles between which they switch depending on what is currently going on. Firstly, they can try to go into a breakaway and win a stage that is not relevant for their current leader. And of course secondly, they act as a support crew for their leader in stages that matter. And when they assume this role, they are called domestiques. Domestiques are often forgotten about because they are very rarely winners themselves but they are critical for their leader’s success. Without a good team of domestiques, no one, not even the best rider in the world, has any chance to win the Tour de France because the domestiques are those that enable their leader to conserve as much energy as possible during the three week endeavor. If the team is aiming to win the Tour de France, the domestiques are usually very light and very efficient at climbing. Except carrying water bottles and cooling their leader, their main task is to set a pace to thin out the field, isolate their opponents and set up an attack for their leader. They will often pull on the climb at a power that’s way higher than what is sustainable for them and when they simply cannot go anymore, they will exit the group and another domestic takes over. If the team is going for the sprint victory, the domestiques are usually very good sprinters themselves. Their job is to cover their leader and bring him at a crazy high pace to the best possible position for a finishing sprint. Like I said, not every team has a realistic contender for yellow or green jersey, so it is only natural that motivations and strategies differ. And also what differs is a definition of success. For the top GC-oriented teams, the only success is the yellow jersey. For smaller teams, few stage wins are usually an excellent result. For the smallest teams or wildcard invitees, simply joining breakaways to get a TV time and exposure might be a sufficient goal. That’s why you often see what you would otherwise think of as a very unnecessary attack right from the start. Such rider doesn’t expect to win the stage with the attack, but only his mere presence at the front for some time is very valuable to team sponsors. Ultimately, even though it is individuals who in the end stand on the podium, it is always a success or failure of the entire team. The Tour de France isn’t just about racing fast, it is also about not racing too slow. Each stage has a time limit that is set as a certain percentage of the winner’s time. The actual number depends on the stage’s difficulty and whoever doesn’t make the time limit is dropped from the entire race. Such time limit has two reasons. It prevents riders from going too slow and also it adds another layer of drama besides what is going on at the front. This is particularly difficult for the sprinters that need to finish mountain stages in time. If you ever saw a finish of flat races where basically the whole peloton, which is how we call the main group of riders, finishes together, you might have been wondering about how is the finishing time recorded for each individual rider. Well to put it simply, the only thing that matters in a group finish is who were the riders on first three places, otherwise the whole group gets the exact same time recorded. The winner of the stage gets a 10 second bonus, the runner up 6 seconds and the third rider 4 seconds. In addition to this, there are also bonus seconds in play at some mid-course segments on the route. There is also something that is called a 3 kilometer rule. What it says is that if a rider suffers a crash during the last 3 kilometers of a stage, they get credited by the same finishing time as the riders that were riding with at the time of the crash. The race tactics depend on what are the goals of the team and what is the profile of the current stage. In general, we can say that there are three main types of roads. Flat ones, hilly ones and mountain ones. Flat stages are sprinters playground. Due to the aerodynamics and effects of drafting, it is always going to be the peloton who is the fastest on flat terrain. Such stages very often finish in mass sprint, which means that for the sprinter oriented teams, the tactics revolve mainly about delivering their sprinter to the best position as fresh as possible and for the GC oriented teams to protect their leader and deliver them to the finish line safely. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are mountain stages. These feature long and extremely difficult climbs and that is pure GC territory. During those stages, the teams pursuing the yellow jersey will try to isolate and break their competitors to thin out the group by setting an insane pace on the climbs and setting their leader up for the best possible attack, while the sprinters only focus on getting to the finish line in time. And hilly stages are sort of a middle ground between those two. It really depends on the difficulty of each hilly stage. The flatter ones can still be won by sprinters and harder ones can still see some GC action, but what is actually happening very often on these kind of stages is what we call breakaway. Breakaway means that a group of riders splits from the main peloton and rides away to try for a stage win and to get some TV time at the front. And you might be wondering, why does peloton allow that? Well, those stages are often the only opportunity for the GC leaders to rest a little bit in between the hard mountain stages and to chase the breakaway even those riders would need to spend significant amount of energy, because otherwise they would be risking losing time to someone who could potentially endanger them. For such reasons, the teams need to carefully select who they allow to go into the breakaway. Usually it is only the riders who are either way behind in general classification or they are the types of riders that simply won’t be perceived as a threat. It is a win-win agreement between the teams. We agreed to attack only with the non-threatening guys and you in exchange won’t chase them. So that was the introduction to Tour de France in general, and now let’s take a look specifically at the 2025 edition. It is going to kick off on Saturday, July 5th from Lille, which makes it a little different to other years. Generally what often happens is the grand depart, which is how we call the start of the race, takes place in different country and only after few stages it moves back to France. This year is going to be a little different and the whole race will stay 100% in France. As I already mentioned, there are going to be 21 stages and 2 race days. The last stage will take place on July 27th. The total distance is going to be 3339 km and the total vertical gain is going to be about 52,000 meters. There are going to be 7 flat stages, 6 hilly stages, 6 mountain stages, 5 of which will have an uphill finish and 2 individual time trials, 1 flat and 1 uphill. Tour de France is not just for enjoying the cycling action though. This year’s route will visit 11 regions and 34 departments in France and that is a huge appeal of the event as well. You can fully immerse yourself in the summer French beauty even if you are not exactly a cycling fan. And who knows, maybe you will become one in the process. This year’s Tour de France is a little specific because the route is built in a way that we are quite unlikely to see a significant GC action until stage 12, which means that we will have 12 days to enjoy the fact that the event is back, enjoy the French countryside and the atmosphere without being filled with adrenaline. I kind of like this layout. The funny thing is, those early stages are not exactly just built for sprinters either. There are only 3, maybe 4 stages where I would be willing to bet on a sprint finish, stage is 3, 8, 9 and maybe the first one because the climbing here is not heavy and it is in the middle of the stage. Stage number 10 has some possibility for GC action, but if I had to bet I would still expect a breakaway to win here. Other stages are clear breakaway territory I would say, but since there won’t be any GC action at that point, the teams will need to be very careful about who they send into the breakaway. If they are sending potential threats to the GC, even those stages might finish in one big group. And after those 11 stages we will basically not get a breather. And this time the mountain stages will first come to Pyrenees. Stage number 12 brings us 4 categorized climbs out of which 3 are in the last 50 km and with a Hautacam finish we can be sure that on this day the general classification will experience a huge shift. And that is going to be the case day later as well, because we will get a mountainous individual time trial. Only 11 km long, but over 600 of vertical meters of Peyragudes climb. Stage number 14 will go even further into the heart of Pyrenees. Four categorized climbs, firstly the famous Col du Tourmalet, followed by Cod d’Aspin, Col de Peyresourde and another hors category uphill finish on Luchon-Superbagneres Stage 15 has some possibility of GC action, but I would expect a breakaway to win here. But then on stage 16 comes what we are all eagerly awaiting, the famous ascent of Mount Ventoux at the end of what is otherwise almost flat stage. By the way, since the big portion of my audience are Zwift riders, if you are interested go set your trainer difficulty at 100% and ride this climb, you will see for yourself what awaits those riders. Stage 17 looks like a breakaway stage with some possibility of there being sprint finish, but then stages 18 and 19, the duo that I would personally call 2 queen stages, because I have trouble deciding which is supposed to be the one. Stage 18 brings us 3 famous horse category climbs, Col du Glandon, Col de la Madeleine and at the end what is probably the most difficult climb in France – Col de la Loze Stage number 19 won’t be much easier, 5 categorized climbs, 2 of which are ranked as hors categorie, Col du Pre and La Plagne, which is basically Alpe d’Huez on steroids. Personally I am super happy that this tour focuses on GC stages being uphill finishes, it adds to the excitement and I feel that when there is downhill finish at the end of otherwise hard stage, it makes it unnecessarily risky and dangerous. Stage 20 will see GC action only if there is not a huge gap at that point, otherwise it will be the last chance for a breakaway riders. And then to conclude this tour, after a year of break, stage 21 returns to Champs-Élysées in Paris, where it is traditionally a sprinter’s playground. However, this time they added 3 ascents up the Montmartre and we will only have to wait and see how does this shuffle things, although I do not expect this should have a big impact on the general classification. Before I share my predictions with you, let’s take a detailed look at what are the most exciting climbs in this year’s tour. The first one is Hautacam on stage 12, it’s 13.5 kilometers long with average gradient of 7.8%. It first appeared in Tour de France in 1994 and it is a very steady climb, the maximum gradient here is 10%. You can look forward not only to GC action but to some gorgeous vistas as well. The next climb worth mentioning is Col du Tourmalet that the Peloton is going to visit on stage 14, 19 kilometers at an average gradient on 7.4%. This climb is a long standing tradition for Tour de France, it first appeared in 1910 and since then it has been featured over 80 times. Tourmalet can be climbed from both sides, this side starts easier and gets harder and harder and harder, the last kilometer is then the hardest from the whole climb. That’s not the only significant climb on stage 14 though as it will finish in the Superbagneres Ski center This climb debuted on the Tour in 1961, it’s 12.4 kilometers long with an average gradient on 7.3%. As was the case on Tourmalet, even here it starts easier and gets harder as the climb progresses. Moving to stage 16 and it is probably the most exciting climb from the whole tour, Mont Ventoux 15.7 kilometers at an average gradient of almost 9%. It first appeared in Tour in 1951 and honestly it does not make sense to talk about which part here is more difficult, it’s all crazy and especially by the end it’s super beautiful. Now let’s take a look at stage 18 and here we are going to have three monster climbs. The first one is going to be Col du Glandon 21.7 kilometers at 5.1%. This firstly appeared in the Tour in 1947 and although it is unlikely we are going to see some big moves here, it will put a lot of fatigue in the riders legs and it is very nice to see the alpine vistas here. The next one is Col de La Madeleine. 19.2 kilometers at 7.9%, this is probably my favorite Tour de France climb. Brutal gradients all the way through but basically the whole time going through beautiful alpine meadows. And finally col de la Loze, a climb that especially Tadej Pogacar who is one of the main favorites doesn’t have good memories about. 26.4 kilometers at an average gradient of 6.5%, often traversing through very exposed and windy nature. This is probably the hardest climb in Tour de France and I am sure we are going to see things even this year. And the final climb I’d like to mention here is La Plagne, finisher of stage 19. 19 kilometers with an average gradient of 7.2%, after Col de la Loze it is another insane mountain finish. With its 21 bends in the road it is very reminiscent of the famous Alpe d’Huez but this one is even longer and more difficult. That was all you need to know about this year’s Tour de France, but let me give my prediction for the results. It is a rare possibility for me to make myself a clown in front of an audience. I am picking the results based on how I think it will end up, not based on how I want it to end up. When it comes to GC, I think this year we have only two contenders, Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard I know many people are including Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic in the mix, but I honestly do not think either of them has a chance, one of them yet and the other anymore. The aforementioned two are simply too far ahead. Since I need to pick one, I have to go with Tadej. I don’t think it is necessarily going to be as clear of a win as many people think, anything can happen, but considering his performances in the last year, I think it would be insane to pick anyone else. He is going to be the winner. As for the climbers classification, that Tadej again for me 6 stages will be decided in hard mountain finishes and it will be very difficult if not impossible for anyone to snag this jersey from him. As for the youth classification, one month ago I would say it’s clearly Remco Evenepoel, but I didn’t really like how he looked at Dauphiné and Florian Lipowitz who is also eligible for the white jersey looks fantastic. I think it’s going to be one of those two guys, I’m still going to call Remco for whom this is the last opportunity to take the jersey, but I’m really not so sure about this one. For the points classification, I think it’s going to be either Jonathan Milan or Jasper Philipsen and I’m going to pick Philipsen here, although there are many great sprinters in the lineup, he has probably the best teammate for a lead out, Mathieu van der Poel. But who knows, that was the case even last year and he didn’t win either. And as for the team classification, it’s either UAE or Visma, both have so many riders who can do great. If the team classification was about the best two riders, I’d pick UAE because I think Joao Almeida can easily end up third in the GC. But when we are talking about the best three, I’m going to go with Visma. That’s it for today, hope you guys liked this video, if you did give it a like, subscribe and if you want to see me doing a road race, click here.