Tour de France 2025 - Stage 1: Voigt's preview: Mass sprint for the yellow jersey?

Stage 1 | Saturday, 5 July 2025 | Lille - Lille | 184.9 kilometres | 1150 vertical metres

Jens Voigt's assessment of stage 1

The Grand Départ begins with a stage that starts and finishes in Lille in northern France. For the sprinters, everything is at stake right at the start - they feel a lot of pressure: victory on the day, yellow and green jerseys. There is no prologue, so no short individual time trial at the start. The route is 185 kilometres long, flat and uncomplicated and will probably end in a bunch sprint. At each of the 4th category mountain classifications, the first dotted jersey of the best climber will be at stake. The classification riders just want to get through the first day of the Tour safely and without losing time. But beware: everyone is very nervous on the first stage - so there is always a very high risk of crashing in the final stage. I can still remember my last start at the Tour de France in 2014 with the first stage in Harrogate, England. There is often only one tyre width between triumph and hospital - Mark Cavendish crashed badly back then.

The Grand Départ, the "big" start of the Tour de France with a team presentation and media appointments, is something special. All the riders get a new set of clothes, shoes and helmets, a brand new bike, perhaps with a special paint job. You can tell days in advance that the tour is something special. Many racers are proud to be at the start line at all. The teams have up to 30 riders and only eight are allowed to take part!

Schedule, TV coverage & live stream of stage 1 of the Tour de France 2025

• Neutral start: 13:10, sharp start 13:40
• Estimated arrival time: between 17:36 and 17:58
• TV broadcast: ARD 14:00-18:00, Eurosport 1 13:00-17:45
• Live stream: sportschau.de, Discovery Plus (fee required)
• All stages of the Tour de France 2025 at a glance

Highlights of the 1st stage

• 14:25: The battle for the mountain jersey begins: It's on to the Côte de Notre-Dame-de Lorette. Like the Côte de Cassel and the Mont Noir, this is a 4th category climb.
• 17:25 Fasten your seatbelts: The battle for the best positions for the first big bunch sprint of this Tour is expected to begin on the Boulevard Vauban in Lille

TOUR expert Jens Voigt

Nobody in the German-speaking world knows the Tour de France better: Jens Voigt competed as a professional in the most important cycling race a total of 17 times between 1998 and 2014. Only the Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel, the current record holder, has managed one more participation. Voigt knows the race from the perspective of the winner and the tireless helper in the team. He won two stages himself and wore the yellow jersey for one day each in 2001 and 2005. In 2010, as a team-mate in Team Saxo Bank, he accompanied Luxembourg's Andy Schleck to his overall victory (after the doping disqualification of Alberto Contador, who initially came first; editor's note). The 53-year-old Berliner currently works as a brand ambassador for the bike manufacturer Trek and as a pundit for the Eurosport channel.

For TOUR readers, the former pro gives his predictions for the course of the 21 stages, points out difficulties and things worth seeing. For each day's stage, he gives a tip on what role the course could play in the final standings in the individual classifications in Paris. If three of the jerseys are coloured, this means that this day could be decisive for this classification - i.e. overall classification (yellow), sprint/points classification (green) and classification of the best climber (red dotted jersey). We also give you the broadcast times of the TV channels in Germany (ARD and Eurosport) and their live streams - plus tips on when it might be particularly worth tuning in.