With the high mountains of the 2025 Tour de France completed and the GC standings well defined, the penultimate stage of this year’s race will surely be one for the breakaway and especially those teams still desperate for a stage victory.
The 184.2km stage from Nantua to Pontarlier goes north via the hills of the Ain, Jura and Doubs regions in the east of France, not far from Lake Geneva.
The rolling hills and country roads will make it a difficult stage to control, with teams depleted of both manpower and energy after such an intense three weeks of racing. That all makes for a painful day in the saddle but also gives a huge opportunity for those who have something left in their legs and are hunting a stage victory.
Nantua has hosted a stage start just once before in the Tour, in 2017, for a stage to Chambery won by Rigoberto Urán. Pontarlier has more cycling history and the Tour du Doubs finishes there every April.
The Tour last visited Pontarlier for a stage finish in 2001 when Erik Dekker was part of a 14-rider breakaway that finished over 35 minutes ahead of the GC leaders. It would be fascinating if history repeated itself on Saturday. It is unlikely in modern cycling but is possible due to the fatigue in the 2025 peloton.
Watch out for riders fighting for the Combativité award, with Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) surely given a final day of freedom to go on the attack. He could be joined by the best French and Belgian riders hunting for success and the likes of Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal-QuickStep), Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers), Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech).
The early part of the stage is ideal for launching and selecting a strong breakaway.
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The Col de la Croix de la Serra comes after just 10km and climbs for 12km at 4%. It is soon followed by the shorter but steeper Côte de Thiesy. The break of the day will surely have formed by this point, with the rolling hills offering them a chance to extend any lead before the peloton begins a serious, organised chase. Who will do the work if UAE Team Emirates-XRG decides not to ride on the front?
The intermediate sprint is in Chaux du Dombief after 72.3km and so is unlikely to be contested by the sprinters.
The final 60km includes two more categorised climbs and many other hidden hills of different kinds. Each are places for attacks from the break before the flatter and straighter final kilometres into Pontarlier.
The last five kilometres are on major roads, with a sweeping and rising final two kilometres and slight kinks in the road in the final 500 metres to the finish line in the centre of Pontarlier.
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
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