Tour de France: How does Montmartre influence the race?

Tour d'Honneur, champagne with the race director before the start? It may well be that the usual Tour de France finale scenario will not take place in 2025. At least that's what Jens Voigt, who makes the predictions for the individual stages for TOUR readers, believes. The reason: the route of the upcoming edition will be massively changed compared to the traditional course. At a press conference in Paris today (21 May 2025), race organiser ASO presented the details of the route for the final stage together with the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. Looking at the elevation profile, Jens Voigt says: "There will be no bunch sprint." The big showdown between the fastest men in the peloton was the usual scenario in previous years, when the final stage was largely flat on the Champs-Élysées. The Parisian boulevard has been the venue for the final finish since 1975 - with the exception of last year, when the Tour moved to Nice because of the Olympic Games in Paris. Now the race is returning to the traditional finish - but with a different final lap.

Attacks on yellow instead of a bunch sprint?

For the 50th anniversary, the course planners led by race director Christian Prudhomme have come up with something special. There are no largely flat final kilometres, but the last three laps lead over the Butte de Montmartre - the hill in the middle of the Parisian entertainment district on which the famous Sacré-Coeur basilica stands. The climb over Rue Lepic (1.1 kilometres with an average gradient of 5.9 per cent) was part of the Olympic road race last year. Remco Evenepoel launched his winning attack here in front of large crowds on his solo ride to gold. Although the peloton at the Tour de France will be larger than the starting field at the Olympics, experts like Voigt believe that almost everything about the usual stage course in Paris could change. The race is too important for there to be a non-attack pact on the demanding course - too many professional cyclists could sense a chance of success, including the overall best. Voigt even believes that attacks on the yellow jersey cannot be ruled out. The narrow road to the Sacré-Coeur will cause a hectic pace in the peloton, estimates the former pro, and good positioning is already important on the first of three crossings. Voigt compares it to the risky approach to the Arenberg forest at Paris-Roubaix in the past, before additional safety measures were introduced.

Criticism by Vingegaard and Evenepoel

"The climb up the Rue Lepic and the visit to the Sacré-Coeur will shake up the usual scenario and transform the 21st stage into a prestigious classic with an extraordinary character," reads the press release from organiser ASO. The new route was inspired by the Olympic course last year, when, according to the organisers, around 500,000 spectators crowded the route section. The planned new route had already been criticised by some renowned professional cyclists, such as Tour co-favourites Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. Two-time Tour winner Vingegaard said: "There will be 150 of us fighting for the best position on a very narrow climb. That will bring extra stress, more than we need."