The relative calm of the road off-season was interrupted Tuesday with the pageantry and projections for the biggest weeks to come on the 2025 racing calendar - the 112th edition of the Tour de France and the fourth edition for the Tour de France Femmes.
The official route presentation for both the men's and women's Grand Tours has become one of the biggest days of the non-racing season, as notable riders from the men's and women's professional peloton gathered at the Palais des Congres in central Paris to take in the video presentations, host community comments and organiser analysis for new terrain and returning challenges.
Strong applause greeted the introduction of many French riders in attendance, with the loudest chorus sounding for retiring rider and a nine-time national champion Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health).
Evita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), who was fourth on GC at last year's Tour de France Femmes, sat nearby. Belgian Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) was in attendance, as she won the polka-dot jersey and one stage at the Tour de France Femmes this past August.
There were also Romain Grégoire and Olympic silver medallist Valentin Madouas (both Groupama-FDJ), Lenny Martinez, who will move from Groupama to Bahrain-Victorious next season. The home crowd was also treated to two French riders who won stages at the Tour last year, Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
Four accomplished sprinters were in attendance, led by all-time Tour stage winner Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), who is set to retire at the end of this year. He eclipsed the record held by Eddy Merckx and captured his historic 35th stage victory in Saint Vulbas in July.
"It's been great. Things haven't changed that much, I've been riding my bike, spending time with my kids, I just haven't been shouting in races anymore. I've been travelling, been busy, been on holiday - it was the first time I could really enjoy a holiday," Cavendish said when he took the stage.
"Like every rider who's ridden the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, you finish it and think 'I'm never doing that again' and a couple of days later you miss it and long for the buzz."
Emerging talent Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) attended his first route presentation ceremony. He won the green jersey at this year's Tour thanks to a haul of three stage wins among his eight top 10s. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), a nine-time stage winner and former points champion at the Tour, and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), who won his sixth stage at the Tour last year, were there as well.
The French team, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, was represented by Sam Bennett, a two-time stage winner and points classification winner from 2020. From Uno-X Mobility were Magnus Cort, another two-time Tour stage winner, and four-time stage winner Alexander Kristoff.
Missing from the event were recent past champions of the Grand Tours - Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on the men's side and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) on the women's side. It is the off-season after all.
Routes
Once race directors Christian Prudhomme and Marion Rousse took centre stage, it was time to amp up the proceedings. For the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift route, Rousse confirmed the race will take place over nine stages - up from eight and over the UCI limit - with the start in Brittany.
She then revealed the new information, that there would be no time trialling and the race would move from medium mountains in the Massif Central to the final three stages in the Alps. The finale would go over the famous Col de Joux Plane, then the Col de Corbier and finish in Chatel.
The first summit finish would be on the penultimate stage and was the most critical day of racing, with major elevation gain and the summit finish on the Col de la Madeleine.
"What you see is that the Tour as a whole is harder than previous years - we've made a step up. So we've designed the route with the idea of wanting to put on something more difficult. From the Thursday to the Sunday it's either medium- or high-mountain stages," Rousse said.
From the cross-country route reveal for the women, Prudhomme announced, "It's time", and then went directly into the men's route, which was already known to have the Grand Depart in north-east France in Lille.
There would be 10 uninterrupted stages in the opening week, as stage 10 would take place on the national holiday, Bastille Day, taking the peloton into the Massif Central. There would be three climbing days in the second week, including Hautacam on stage 12, a mountain time trial on stage 13 and a trio of monster climbs on stage 14 - Tourmalet, Apsin, and Peyresourde.
The third and final week begins with the finish atop Mont Ventoux, which was last a stage finish in 2013, and also features Alpine climbs on stage 19 with that finish on La Plagne. Then it's back to Paris for the Champs Élysées finale, returning after the departure last year for the Olympic Games.
The first half of this year's Tour has a fair amount of punchy terrain but the second half of the race is all about the mountains, with two time trials totalling 44km placed in the middle.
"We have a flat opening week but it's deceiving to the eye. For 15 years we've looked to put difficulties among the flat, but here we do so in a systematic manner, with four finishes made for the puncheurs in the opening week. Then the second part of the Tour de France we launch into the mountains," Prudhomme told the crowd.
"Last year, for me, the best stage was the one in the Massif Central. The department of the Puy de Dome is always spectacular. For us, the Pyrenees and the Alps are indispensable, but what we've wanted to do and to show is that the race can play out elsewhere."
