Tour de France 2025 - Stage 12: Voigt's preview: The boss begins the dismantling

Stage 12 | Thursday, 17 July 2025 | Auch - Hautacam | 180.6 kilometres | 3850 vertical metres

Jens Voigt's assessment of the 12th stage

Today we experience the first high mountain stage of this tour in the Pyrenees. The day is important for all classification riders. It goes over the Col du Soulor (1st category), the Col des Bordères (2nd category) and the final climb over 13.6 kilometres up to the classic mountain finish in Hautacam - a climb of the highest category HC (Hors-Catégorie). However, the first 120 kilometres including the Côte de Labatmale (4th category) will probably be pure transport. It won't matter at all whether a breakaway group gets away early or not.

The Soulor marks the right start to the race: many champions have historically used the first mountain stage to show their dominance: Merckx, Hinault, Contador or Froome. Today, the future Tour winner will probably start by dismantling his rivals. At the first mountain top finish, people like to show: I'm the boss! Jonas Vingegaard laid the foundations for his overall victory in 2022 on the way to Hautacam - with an incredibly strong helper Wout van Aert.

One more general thing about the Pyrenees: compared to the Alps, they are somewhat wilder and less developed, the roads are usually narrower and the tarmac is somewhat rougher and of poorer quality. The mountains are a little steeper, but also a little shorter. The mountains are beautiful because many Basque fans create a great atmosphere there.

Schedule, TV coverage & live stream of the 12th stage of the Tour de France 2025

• Neutral start: 13:10, sharp start 13:25
• Estimated arrival time: between 17:32 and 17:58
• TV broadcast: ARD 14:10-18:00, Eurosport 1 13:00-18:00
• Live stream: sportschau.de, Discovery Plus (fee required)
• All stages of the Tour de France 2025 at a glance

Highlights of the 12th stage

• 16:30: Now it's time for the Col du Soulor, the first high mountain pass of this tour (1st category), followed by the Cold des Bordères (2nd category)
• 17:20: Who's the boss? The first big showdown between the top favourites is expected to take place at the mountain arrival in Hautacam (first HC category of this Tour)

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.