European Cycling Championships 2025: Route, schedule, TV coverage & live stream

The road to the European title will be particularly hard work in 2025: the organisers of the Boucles Ardèche-Drôme region are presenting a challenging route that favours cyclists with strong climbing skills. The provisional start list for the title fights includes top stars such as Tour winners and world champions Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard as well as double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel.

The Val d'Enfer as a key point

The European Championship course covers parts of the route of the Faun Ardèche Classic one-day race, which includes the climb to Val d'Enfer. Romain Grégoire (2025), Juan Ayuso (2024) and Julian Alaphilippe (2023) recently won there. "The Val d'Enfer is aptly named," said French national coach Thomas Voeckler on the website of the French cycling federation FFC, emphasising: "It's a tough, treacherous climb." The road is 10.5 per cent steep over 1.5 kilometres. The key section will be ridden over six times for the men and three times for the women. The finish of each road race is in Guilherand-Granges.

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Too heavy for sprinters

Tour winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has announced her intention to compete in the women's race, combining her home European Championships with the World Championships in Rwanda. The German national team sends in Liane Lippert who could have a good chance on this course. The demanding course is likely to be too difficult for pure sprinters. Defending champion Tim Merlier, for example, will not be starting. "When the racers come to the Val d'Enfer, they already have a few other climbs under their belts. This could also be something for climbers. One thing is certain: there will be no title for a second-class racer," said Voeckler after his route test by bike. The time trial competitions all lead to Étoile-sur-Rhone - on the other side of the valley. The course is largely undulating, although there is a long climb of 60 metres on the last kilometre to the finish.

European Cycling Championships 2025 - routes & schedule at a glance

Wednesday, 1 October 2025

Junior women's individual time trial: 12.2 km, 100 metres in altitude (Allex - Étoile-sur-Rhone)

Individual time trial juniors, U23, women and men elite, 24 kilometres each (Loriol - Étoile-sur-Rhone), 200 metres altitude difference

Thursday, 2 October 2025

Mixed relay team time trial, U19 and elite, 20.2 km (150 vertical metres)

Friday, 3 October 2025

Road race U23 (women), 85.7 km (1536 vertical metres)

Junior women's road race, 62.9 km (865 vertical metres)

Junior road race, 103.4 km (2000 vertical metres)

Saturday, 4 October 2025

Road race U23 (men), 121.1 km (2470 vertical metres)

Women's elite road race: 116.1 km (1570 vertical metres)

Sunday, 5 October

Road race, men elite: 202.5 km (3306 vertical metres)

European Cycling Championships 2025: TV broadcast & live stream

Only the elite women's and elite men's road races can be seen on free TV. Eurosport 1 will be showing the women's race on Saturday from 15:00-17:20 and the men's race on Sunday, also from 15:00-17:20. Both competitions can also be followed in the paid live stream on Discovery Plus. The elite women's and elite men's time trial competitions as well as the mixed relay will also be shown there.

European Cycling Championships 2025 - Broadcast times