Beginner's guide to the Tour de France

For a pro cyclist, the ultimate accolade is to be picked by their team to ride the Tour de France. But most will finish hours behind the eventual winner - if they finish at all. Here’s our beginner’s guide to the Tour de France, its route, the riders and the contenders.

The Tour de France is tough. This year’s race is the 112th edition and covers 3,320km (2,063 miles) spread across 21 stages with over 51km of vertical gain and just two rest days. 

In the 2024 Tour the winner, Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, completed the race in just over 80 hours - an average speed of over 40km/h. The slowest finisher, Mark Cavendish, was over six hours behind and of the 176 starters 35 dropped out before the end of the race in Paris.

The Route

This year, the Tour de France follows a rather traditional route and stay fully within France itself. In many years, there's a start abroad, as will be the case in 2027, when the race will start in Edinburgh and the opening three stages will take place in the UK.

The 2025 Grand Depart will take place in Lille, with three stages in the north of France, before the race heads through Normandy and Britany. These early stages are flat or lumpy and favour sprint finishes, breakaways or riders with a punch on shorter uphill finishes.

It's only on Stage 10 that the Tour hits more mountainous terrain, racing through the Massif Central to finish atop the Puy de Sancy. Subsequently, the Tour makes its usual trips to the Pyrenees and then the Alps.

On the way, there are two individual time trial stages, 33km on Stage 5 and a hill climb of just 11km from Loudenvielle to Peyragudes on Stage 13.

This year, the final stage returns to Paris, having been displaced to Nice in 2024 by the Olympics. For years, the final stage has started in the outskirts of Paris, riding into the centre for laps of a finishing circuit on the Champs-Élysées. 

It’s a tradition that the race leader isn’t challenged on this stage, which starts with a processional ride with photo ops and the about-to-be race winner sipping champagne. The racing starts once the riders reach the Champs-Élysées, with a chance for the sprinters to gain the kudos of the final stage win.

The Teams

Each team will have a leader, although not all will be aiming for overall victory. There may also be other specialists in the team like a time trial expert or a sprinter, but the focus will be on the leader, with the balance of the team made up of riders there to help him meet his objectives - the domestiques. 

There’s a big range in team budgets, with the best funded teams like UAE Team Emirates XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike tending to hoover up the top riders and dominating the overall competition. Less dominant teams will aim for stage victories or their riders may feature in breakaways, where the smaller number of riders at the front of the race will ensure media coverage.

Races Within Races

General Classification contenders

The biggest prize is the race for the yellow jersey, worn by the overall race leader. The jersey almost always changes hands several times during the race. 

The contenders for the overall race win, the General Classification or GC riders, may first show their colours on Stage 10 in the Massif Central or wait until the race arrives in the Pyrenees on Stages 12, 13 and 14.

GC riders have to be good at everything, but ability to climb and win high mountain stages is key to building a high overall position. They also need to be good time triallists - a poor race against the clock can see them drop down the overall standings.

Sprinters

Although the focus is on the overall race between the General Classification contenders, there’s considerable kudos to be gained from a stage win. Flatter stages with wide, flat finishes are usually the domain of the sprinters. Powerful riders, they can put out prodigious power numbers in the race for the line. 

But they can usually only sustain that power for a short period, so they rely on a lead-out train of other riders from their team to bring them to the front of the race at the right point to unleash their final sprint. Some teams will be built around their sprinter, with now-retired Mark Cavendish being the master of the sprint stage for many years, helping him to rack up a record 35 stage victories between 2008 and 2024.

With high speeds and many riders jostling for position, sprint finishes are dangerous and it’s not uncommon to see mass pile-ups on the approach to the line. If a rider is caught up in a crash within 3km of the finish, race rules mean that he is given the same time as the bunch, so highly placed riders on general classification aren’t penalised.

Sprinters also have their own competition: the Points Classification with the leader wearing the green jersey. Points are awarded based on finishing position for the highest placed riders on flat stages, while all stages also have intermediate sprints where riders can pick up a smaller number of additional points. 

Sprinters don’t fare so well on mountain stages and often they’ll retire from the race ahead of runs of high mountain stages if they’ve won a stage or two already. They’ll typically form a bunch, called the Autobus, and ride mountain stages together, way behind the stage leaders.

All stages have to be completed within a time limit, based on the stage winner's time though, so the straggling riders have to be careful to arrive at the stage finish inside this or they risk being eliminated.

Puncheurs

Another group of riders who aren’t good enough climbers to win the overall race but have an opportunity to win less mountainous stages are the puncheurs. They’re riders who can put out enough power to escape from the bunch or win the shorter uphill finishes typically found on stages early in the race and hilly stages mid-race.

They’ll often have the power to win out ahead of sprinters on trickier, less flat finishes too. A classic example is Mathieu van der Poel, who has used his ability to win punchy finishes and intermediate sprints to win stages. He's likely to be prominent on the more hilly of the first few stages through Northern France. In previous Tours, he's acted as lead-out to his team's sprinter Jasper Philipson on sprint stages too.

Climbers

There’s another competition for the climbers: the King of the Mountains, with the leader wearing the polka dot jersey. There will be designated climbs on road stages with the first few riders to the top gaining KOM points.

Climbs are graded from category 4 up to category 1, but a few of the largest climbs in the high mountains get an HC (Hors Categorie - beyond categorisation) rating. The points available differ with the categorisation.

Although often the domain of pure climbers, the GC winner may take the King of the Mountains competition on the way to overall victory.

Domestiques

Meaning servant, domestique is a dismissive term for riders who will be highly competent in their own right to justify their inclusion in the team. But their ambitions will be suppressed in favour of the team leader. 

Domestiques will help protect and position their leader and shepherd him through the race, bringing up water bottles and food and pacing him back to the bunch if he has a crash, a puncture or a mechanical problem. They’ll also help set the pace by riding at the front of the bunch when needed.

Some domestiques will have specialist roles too. GC contenders will typically have a number of climbing domestiques who can stay with them, provide assistance and help set the pace in the high mountains and potentially win stages themselves. Sprint teams will have domestiques who can form a lead-out train for their sprinter leader.

The Contenders

Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates XRG won the race in 2024, as well 2020 and 2021 and has been the man to beat through most of the 2025 season, winning many of the main one day races he's entered. 

His main competitor is likely to be Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), who won the Tour in 2022 and 2023, but Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora Hans Grohe) could also be a contender. All three teams have strong riders waiting in the wings if their GC stars falter and there are riders with other teams who could put in a strong showing.