This Thursday, ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, unveiled the first stages of the 2025 Great Loop, the big start of which will be given in Lille on July 5. For four million euros, the Nord department, the European metropolis of Lille and the Hauts-de-France region are getting a good deal, since the most prestigious cycling race will spend four days on the region’s roads. As for the runners, you will have to be strong in the sprint, strong on the hills and powerful against the wind. Cobblestone specialists who were counting on a few sectors of the Paris-Roubaix to fine their opponents will be disappointed, the 2025 route carefully avoiding these tricky passages.
In the more than century-old history of the Tour de France, the grand start of the race has only been given five times in Hauts-de-France. And the last time it took place in Lille was in 1994. Thirty-one years later, on July 5, 2025, it is therefore from the capital of Flanders that will be given the big start of the 112th Tour de France. “While the last three major starts will have been given from abroad, the Tour has chosen the North to return to France,” said Damien Castelain, president of the European Metropolis of Lille (MEL). Logical for the boss of the race, Christian Prudhomme, who studied and began his career as a sports journalist in Lille: “We had to return to an area that has a sense of celebration,” he insists.
The first three steps
It is therefore Lille which wins the jackpot by organizing the big start of the first stage, which also returns in a loop to Lille. That day, the runners will have to cover 185 km to finish with a big one-kilometer sprint. But before that, three classified hills, the first of one km at 7.6% to climb to the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette memorial. The second, the coast of Cassel, of almost 2 km, should break a few legs, not because of its 3.5% difference in altitude, but because it is almost entirely paved. The last is that of Mont Noir, presenting a difference in altitude of 6.4% just 45 km from the finish.
The second stage will leave Lauwin-Planque, near Douai, to reach Boulogne-sur-Mer, 209 km later. The organizer, ASO, believes that the winner of the day before, undoubtedly a sprinter, will have great difficulty keeping his yellow jersey. It is the last kilometers of the stage which will be decisive, with “a terrible finale”: three hills classified in the last 20 kilometers, including the coast of Saint-Etienne-au-Mont (900 m at 11%) and that of ‘Outreau (800 m at almost 9%).
On July 7, the 3rd stage will start from Valenciennes and end in Dunkirk. A 172 km route without any particular difficulty, except for a new passage on the coast of Cassel on its unpaved slope. At the end of the course, Christian Prudhomme nevertheless notes that the last 35 kilometers of the stage will be exposed to the wind. Difficulty or advantage, it is also the direction of the wind which will determine the shape of the race: “peloton split into several groups or mass sprint at the finish”.
It is undoubtedly on the 4th day of racing that the Tour will leave Hauts-de-France with a stage starting from Amiens, in the Somme. We don’t know any more, either about the route or the city of arrival. Regardless, “we won, the North is present”, already welcomes the president of the department, Christian Poiret. The four million invested equally with the metropolis and the region will be largely profitable. “Yes, we hope for extraordinary economic benefits,” acknowledges Damien Castelain, boss of the MEL, without giving an estimate but citing the “one hundred million euros of benefits for Bilbao in 2023”.