Van Aert is an all-around rider who can sprint (won the 2022 green jersey), climb (often a key worker for Vingegaard), time trial (Olympic bronze medalist) and excel in one-day races (second in the road race at the Olympics and worlds). In 2025, van Aert was second at cyclo-cross worlds, fourth at Paris-Roubaix and then helped Yates win the Giro.

The 2025 Tour de France will be broadcast live on ITV4 in the UK, in what is the last year of free-to-air coverage of the race before it is exclusively shown on TNT Sports and Discovery+. 1 5 July 2025 Lille Métropole → Lille Métropole 184.9

Mathieu van der Poel made it two wins from two stages for Alpecin-Deceuninck at the 2025 Tour de France, winning a frantic stage into Boulogne-sur-Mer on Sunday afternoon and taking over the race lead from his team-mate Jasper Philipsen.

It then heads towards the Pyrenees via the Massif Central, with three back-to-back mountain tests in the south of France on stages 12, 13 and 14. There is then the return of Mont Ventoux, before the Tour heads to an Alpine conclusion, with 5,500m of elevation tackled on stage 18 to Courchevel, the most of next year's race.

Follow live text updates on stage one of the Tour de France in Lille, with Jasper Philipsen and Biniam Girmay expected to compete for win in sprint finish.

The Visma-Lease a Bike team of Jonas Vingegaard were the protagonists, with several contenders for the overall classification — including Remco Evenepoel — distanced as the echelons formed. That main part of the peloton, which also contained Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas, ended up losing 49 seconds to the stage winner.

A star-studded peloton are set for a three-week battle royale over lumps, bumps and mountains as the Tour de France gets underway.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.

The 112th edition of the Tour de France will start this weekend as the world’s biggest cycling event gets going. Winning this event is often the highlight of a cyclist’s career, along