Tour de France 2025 - 17th stage: Bollène - Valence | 160.4 kilometres | 1650 vertical metres
The 17th stage probably harbours the last chance of a bunch sprint, as the finale in Paris has been made very difficult by the Montmartre loop. Accordingly, the sprinters' teams will be working hard to control the breakaways, who will certainly try their luck.
The approach to Valence is flat. The last five kilometres are straight ahead on the D86, with four roundabouts to pass. 600 metres before the finish, the road turns left, the finish on the Boulevard Franklin Roosevelt is straight and 6.5 metres wide. Space and visibility will not be a problem, the sprint trains can drive their captains into position. Of course, everyone will try to keep to the left-hand side of the road, as this is the shortest route to the finish.
In a sprint, explosiveness, stamina and top speed are the decisive factors. Explosiveness is what counts most in a short sprint. If the sprint starts late, the rider who can accelerate most explosively wins. There is then no time to overtake from the slipstream. In a longer sprint, stamina is crucial, but so is the final speed that can be achieved, which in turn depends very much on aerodynamics. For sprinters, the trick is to develop maximum power by crouching low over the bike. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), winner of stage nine, looked better in this respect than Jonathan Milan (Lidl - Trek), who is also taller (1.93 m) and heavier (86 kg) and certainly generates more power. Milan has already been measured at 1940 watts peak power in a sprint - a tremendous performance. Milan can also ride a very long sprint; in the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2024, Milan achieved an average of 1640 W over 20 seconds.
Who rides the faster bike, Milan or Merlier, when the sprint goes over 250 metres at full speed? We give our sprint avatar a weight of 85 kilograms and the Herculean strength of Jonathan Milan.
The number of the day: four hundredths of a second
With Milan's power profile, our avatar reaches around 74 km/h. Milan's Trek Madone and Merlier's Tarmac SL8 cross the finish line at exactly the same time in our simulation. So it won't be down to the bike when the two duel again. Even faster would be the Van Rysel RCR-F Pro, which would save four hundredths.
The (almost) complete field at a glance*
The table shows the driving times for a 250 metre sprint with Jonathan Milan's power profile. The bikes with the best aerodynamics are at the top.
*) The calculations are based on the bikes tested by TOUR in the laboratory and wind tunnel. The bikes at the Tour de France may differ in some details. Of course, we have not yet been able to analyse last-minute prototypes. Background to the simulation.
Our expert
Robert Kühnen studied mechanical engineering, writes about technical and training topics for TOUR and develops test methods. Robert has been refining the simulation calculations for years and they are also used by professional teams.
