Tour de France. Rouen, Caen, Bayeux-Vire, the latest indiscretions on the route of the stages in Normandy

The Tour de France returns to Normandy in 2025. From Tuesday July 8 to Thursday July 10, the peloton will make stops in Rouen, Caen, Bayeux and Vire. What will the steps look like? We take stock of the latest indiscretions, two weeks before the official presentation of the course.

Nine years after the Grand Départ in the English Channel, the Tour de France is back in Normandy. Last December, Thierry Gouvenou, official tracker of the Grande Boucle, told us that the biggest cycling race in the world “was not intended to move away” of the region.

“He will come back one day, certainly in a strong enough way“, he told us, a grin at the corner of his mouth. The former professional rider didn’t lie. In 2025, the Tour will spend three days in Normandy, including two in Calvados, and a whole day in Caen.

After starting in the North with three stages designed for sprinters and punchers, the Tour caravan will head west. The 4th stage will leave from Amiens on Tuesday July 8. According to our information, she should arrive in Rouen. As for the profile of the stage, it is not yet known.

The Seine-Maritime prefecture has already welcomed 16 arrivals since the creation of the event. The last two times, sprinters won: André Greipel in 2012 and Jaan Kirsipuu in 2002. Did the organizers manage to find a more selective finish to avoid a mass sprint? Response on Tuesday October 29, the official unveiling day of the 2025 route.

We had to wait almost 20 years to see the Tour de France in Caen again, since 2006 and the sprint victory of the Spaniard Oscar Freire. Still, it’s not for lack of trying to get his way. Since 2015, the Caen town hall has applied. A joint application with Portsmouth was even considered in 2019, in vain.

2025 is therefore the good year. And it’s an understatement to say that Wednesday July 9 will put the City of a Hundred Steeples in the spotlight! On the occasion of its Millennium, Caen is hosting a time trial, a fantastic opportunity to highlight the Lower Normandy capital. Here too, nothing has filtered out on the route, even if the runners should not stray far from the town.

On the other hand, we managed to find out more about the 6th stage between Bayeux and Vire, Thursday July 10. A year ago, Thierry Gouvenou declared to La Manche Libre: “Between Bessin, Bocage, Pays d’Auge, Normandy Switzerland and the seaside, there is plenty to do.” Has the Virois native Tour managed to fit all these postcard landscapes into one single stage?

According to our indiscretions, after an unprecedented departure from the capital of Bessin, the runners could pass through Villers-Bocage and the Monts d’Aunay, to reach the coast of Mont Pinçon, the highest point of Calvados. On the way, the peloton would take the youthful roads of a certain Kévin Vauquelin, winner of the 2nd stage of the last Tour de France.

Our little nose also tells us that the end of the stage will pass through Sourdeval and Champs-du-Bout before a “punchy” arrival in Vire, which has not hosted the Grande Boucle since 1997. In between, where will the runners?

A loop on the Landing Beaches from the first kilometers is possible, but not as much as a detour through the Suisse Normande, a demanding playground, conducive to dynamizing the race. It is also a great opportunity to allow Guillaume Martin, the best French runner in recent editions, to greet his loved ones in the north-west of Orne.

To discover the definitive, official route, just a little more patience. ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, will reveal the route on Tuesday October 29, around noon. France 3 Normandie will be there, of course.