When is the Tour de France 2025 and how to watch
17 June 2025, 12:18 | Updated: 17 June 2025, 14:27
The 2025 Tour de France is just a few weeks away, with 184 of the world’s best cyclists set to take on 21 gruelling stages over three weeks in July.
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One of the highlights of the summer of sport, the Tour always brings many storylines and has been familiar to British fans in recent years with Mark Cavendish winning his record 35th stage last year.
The Manx Missile has now retired last year, but there is much to enjoy this time out with Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard set to renew their rivalry for the maillot jaune.
Here’s our guide to watching.
Read also: Tour de France to return to UK in 2027 with Scotland to host historic dual Grand Departs
How does it all work?
There are 21 stages, the first being on July 5 and the final day on July 27. There is a stage every day, apart from on July 15 and 21, the two rest days.
Every day the rider who wins a stage will be honoured at a presentation the same evening. But there is also an eye on the overall standings of the culmination of events over the whole race.
There are 23 teams of eight cyclists taking part. All of the teams will have goals and strategies - usually with several riders working for a team leader to try and win a stage, or place well in the overall classification.
The general classification winner will be the rider with the lowest overall time and will wear the yellow jersey, hoping to still be wearing it after the final stage in Paris.
Time bonuses will be awarded at the finish of each stage, with 10, 6, and 4 seconds awarded to the first, second and third riders respectively, meaning the first yellow jersey wearer will be the winner of the first stage and will carry at least four seconds over the second place into day two.
The race leader will wear the maillot jaune (yellow jersey), and the best-placed rider aged 25 or under will don the white jersey.
There are also points given out to finishers, with more of these awarded on flat stages. The leader of the points competition will wear the green jersey and is usually a sprinter, who can finish a flat stage quickly but would struggle to get over a mountain with the best.
Mountain goats have their own polka dot jersey. This is given to the rider with the most mountain points, given to the first riders over summits.
It is possible for a rider to be leading as many as four competitions, but they will only ever wear one jersey on the road! For example, if the mountain points leader is also the overall race leader, the polka dot jersey will be given to the second place finisher in that competition to wear on a stage.
How to watch on UK television
All stages will be broadcast live on TNT - which has taken over from Eurosport as part of the discovery+ deal.
Free to air highlights and stage coverage will be shown for one more year at least on ITV 4 - the broadcaster usually traditionally its nightly round-up from 7pm.
It is set to be the last year that ITV provides live coverage, although it may yet secure highlight provision from 2026.
Who are the Tour de France general classification favourites?
Cycling fans are wondering not if Tadej Pogačar will win his fourth maillot jaune, but how much he will win the Tour de France by.
The Slovenian destroyed Jonas Vingegaard, his long-time rival, to win last weekend’s warm up Critérium du Dauphiné and three weeks out from the grand depart is hot favourite for his fourth general classification.
However, the biggest of cycling’s grand tours is, of course, never a foregone conclusion.
Pogačar memorably clawed back a huge time trial deficit to triumph in 2020 over countryman Primož Roglič and was heavy favourite himself for the 2022 title when Vingegaard defeated him in the Alps.
The 2025 course will feature the legendary Mount Ventoux amid a number of summit finishes and there will only be one flat time trial - a 33km test in Caen on stage five. There will be a specific mountain time trial later on, a rarely run event which will offer an 11km test from Loudenvielle to Peyragudes.
All this could hurt the chances of Belgian Remco Evenepoel, Olympic time trial champion, who finished third last year. If he did falter, the bottom step of the podium could be within reach of Roglič - or potentially his exciting Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team mate Florian Lipowitz.
Pogačar is a 1/2 favourite on Oddschecker with Vingegaard at 5/2, Evenepoel is 14/1 and the Portuguese Joao Almeida, Pogačar's UAE team mate, is 25/1.
What are the other narratives and which other riders could stand out?
After becoming the first black African to win a Tour stage last year, Biniam Girmay went onto win two more and the green jersey for the most points won. The Eritrean sprinter has not been in such good form in 2025 and his Intermarché–Wanty team is not the powerhouse of his rivals but he is certainly one to watch.
There are six or seven stages that could favour a bunch sprint, including the Tour finale which is back in Paris this year after being moved to Nice in 2024 to make room for the Olympics. Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen has the strong Alpecin-Deceuninck team backing him up and Italian Jonathan Milan will be the focus of Lidl-Trek’s efforts.
Wout Van Aert is a modern day legend, and if the Belgian is allowed by Team Visma to have a day off riding in service for Vingegaard, he could threaten in a bunch sprint as much as a breakaway, mountain stage or a time trial.
What is the course for 2025?
It will all be in France, for one thing. The grand depart will be held in Lille and the first three stages will all be held around the Nord de France region.
Lille is only 90 minutes by Eurostar from London and provides a great opportunity for British fans to go and watch the action.
From there, the route will take in traditional hotspots - the Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges likely to sort out the general classification.
The final stage in Paris has a last day of school, relaxed atmosphere, with riders drinking champagne on the Champs-Élysées after one final sprint.
And the Tour de France femmes?
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is back for the fourth time and will offer female riders nine stages from July 26 to August 3. These will be a mixture of flat, hilly and mountain stages.
Twenty-two teams of eight riders will set off and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma is looking to defend her title, having won by just four seconds last year over Demi Vollering.
TNT will be broadcasting the race for British audiences.
