Tour de France 2025 live: Grand Depart start time and stage 1 route as sprinters set for battle on streets of Lille
This year's Grand Depart is held in Lille in northern France with stage one beginning and ending in the city near the border with Belgium. It is territory with which plenty of the riders will be familiar from Paris-Roubaix, though the cobbles to be negotiated today are nothing like as punishing, with a fast and furious sprint finish anticipated. For riders like Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan, this will be a golden opportunity to take the first yellow jersey.
But could there be a surprise in store? Defending champion Tadej Pogacar has redefined many of the sport's traditional parameters and could yet launch a surprise bid for victory here, even on flat terrain – with fellow general classification giants Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel for company, a thrilling three weeks could well be in store...
Tour de France Stage 1 live
2025 Tour de France gets underway with the Grand Depart held in Lille | Live on TNT Sports and ITV
Defending champion Tadej Pogacar and rival Jonas Vingegaard are the favourites
2018 winner Geraint Thomas is competing in his final Tour
Sprinters are set to do battle for first yellow jersey on flat run-in to Lille
Tour de France 2025
The 2025 Tour de France will be the 112th edition of the race, as Tadej Pogacar aims to defend the yellow jersey and win the fourth Tour of his career.
The route begins in Lille, Normandy before making a clockwise route around France, via the Pyrenees and then the Alps, before the finale in Paris. The race will return to its roots with all 21 stages taking place in its homeland, the first exclusively French Tour for five years.
This will be the last year that the famous race is shown live on free-to-air TV in the UK, for the forseeable future, after TNT Sports bought exclusive rights.
Flo Clifford5 July 2025 11:03
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