23 days, 184 cyclists: Everything you need to know about the 2025 Tour de France

NBC News

2 days ago

The cycling world is gearing up for another showdown between titans Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard in the 112th edition of the Tour de France, which departs Saturday from Lille.
This year, the Tour stays entirely in France and features a grueling but stunning ride through the Pyrenees and the Alps. It ends in Paris on July 27, the 50th anniversary of the first time it ended on the famed Champs-Elysees.
Pogačar, of Slovenia, and Vingegaard, of Denmark, have won the last five Tours between them, and Vingegaard — who lost to his rival by more than six minutes last year — is out to settle the score.
But beating Pogačar has proven nearly impossible. He has won three Tours, nine one-day races called Monuments, the World Championship Road Race and the 2024 Giro d'Italia, Italy's grand tour. He signed cycling's biggest contract last year with his current team, UAE Team Emirates XRG, for $58 million over six years. While that might seem small by U.S professional sports standards, it's astronomical for the peloton.
With so much money on the line, the stakes are higher than ever.
Can anyone beat Pogačar?
'Everything the light touches is Tadej's kingdom,' Pogačar's teammate Mikkel Bjerg, of Denmark, astutely points out in season three of the Netflix series 'Unchained,' which goes behind the scenes of the Tour de France.
Bjerg made the observation last year from a skyscraper in Abu Dhabi, but the statement remains true. Pogačar has already solidified his place as one of the greatest cyclists of all time. At 26, he is seeking his fourth title at the Tour this year. If he does take home the yellow jersey, he will have won all three Grand Tours of 2025.
Meanwhile, Vingegaard is angling for a third victory. His loss last year to Pogačar came on the heels of a horrific crash at the Itzulia Basque Country race in Spain that required nearly two weeks of hospitalization. As he landed near a concrete ditch, he sustained lung damage and rib and collarbone fractures, and he was carried away on a stretcher.
Still, Vingegaard rode to second place in the Tour. He has spent most of this season training away from the cameras and racing only a handful of times. At the Critérium du Dauphiné race in the spring, the old Vingegaard seemed to be back.
The biggest question now is whether a recovered Vingegaard can take on the reigning champion.
Will Primož Roglič finish the race?
Time is running out for Roglič, 35, to shake whatever curse has caused him to crash out of three Tours de France. Last month, Roglič was forced to abandon the Giro d'Italia after yet another crash, and the pressure is on for him to perform well after he joined a team whose title sponsor is the energy drink Red Bull.
Roglič, a former Olympic ski jumper, has had luck in the past. He won titles in the Giro and the Vuelta a España, the Spanish grand tour, and in the Olympic road race, but the Tour de France has remained out of reach. In 2020, he came in second to Pogačar.
The road decides the race
This year, the route itself could determine winners or losers. Saturday's opening stage is expected to launch what is referred to as a bunch sprint, when a large group of riders all accelerate toward the finish line at the same time. That could be the case on Day 1, when the peloton will be its largest before crashes or illness force some contenders to abandon.
At least one sprinter, Alpecin–Deceuninck's Mathieu van der Poel, recently told reporters he worried that the stage's bunch sprint could pose serious safety risks. His teammate Jasper Phillipsen, already known as an aggressive rider who has drawn criticism for his tactics both inside and outside the peloton, told reporters at a pre-Tour news conference that he expected risks to be taken.
The final stage on July 27 is also controversial among the cyclists. Rather than take the usual ceremonial ride into Paris with a paradelike finish that ends with a sprint, riders this year must tackle narrow cobbled streets as they climb Montmartre Hill three times. The area is a maze of narrow streets that was featured last year during the Summer Olympics.
An uphill finish adds suspense to a normally low-key last day. Historically, the overall winner of the Tour de France has already been decided before the last stage based on cumulative time standings from the previous three weeks. But a tough climb means more riders can go for the general classification, or winner of the race, if time standings are tight. That could lead to a nail-biting race to victory.
According to The Associated Press, the last time a final stage was decisive was in 1989, when American Greg LeMond won his second Tour de France.
Young Americans
Cycling has had a tough time rebounding in the United States since Lance Armstrong's doping scandal. But Visma–Lease a Bike has two top riders who are quickly putting the United States back on the map.
Two years ago, Sepp Kuss, of Durango, Colorado, went from super domestique to Grand Tour winner at the Vuelta a España. Domestiques set the pace for team leaders, chasing and attacking opponents and even shielding their leader from headwinds that can slow him down.
A tireless and reliable lieutenant, Kuss stepped up to briefly act as team leader in 2023 and became the first American in a decade to win a Grand Tour. He is expected to be a key worker for Vingegaard in the mountains this year.
Joining Kuss and Vingegaard will be Matteo Jorgenson, who was born in Walnut Creek, California, and raised in Boise, Idaho. He has been on the team for only two seasons but has already claimed victories at some of the most elite spring races. He finished eighth overall last year at the Tour de France and has been mentioned as a likely contender for first in years to come.