A beginner's guide to the Tour de France

In the 2025 Tour de France, there are 21 stages, covering a distance of 3,320 km (2,063 miles) with a total of 52,500 metres of elevation. These stages can vary each year, from extreme mountain stages with iconic climbs such as Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux, to flatter stages that end in a bunch sprint, and even stages against the clock. The stages against the clock can either be an individual time trial (ITT), where riders complete a timed solo effort, or a team time trial (TTT), where riders complete an effort together. 

However, in modern Tour de France history, team time trials are a rare inclusion, with the last one featuring in the 2019 edition of the Tour, on the second stage around Brussels, Belgium. Individual time trials can vary, depending on the organiser's preference, featuring either a gruelling flat effort or a mountain climb in an attempt to shake up the results.

Typically, within Grand Tours, numerous stages are won by a breakaway. A breakaway is where riders who are not in the fight for the general classification will go and look to grab an elusive stage victory. Breakaway stages are most prominent during the Tour during the second and third weeks.

For more information on the 2025 Tour de France stages: 2025 Tour de France route - Stage-by-stage guide.

The start of the Tour de France is known as the Grand Départ ('Big Start'). Occasionally, the first few stages of a Tour take place in a foreign country. The first foreign Grand Départ was in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1954. 

Foreign cities bid to host the Tour Grand Départ due to the potential benefits to the local economy through the influx of tourism to the region. Recent foreign starts have been hosted by Italy in the 2024 Tour and the Basque Country in 2023. For the 2025 edition, there will be a home Grand Départ as the Tour begins in Lille. Upcoming editions of the Tour will start from Barcelona in 2026 and the United Kingdom in 2027.

In the 2025 Tour de France, 23 teams will line up for the start in Lille, July 5. These 23 teams consist of all 18 UCI WorldTour teams, with five teams given a wildcard spot (2 wildcard spots are given to the best UCI ProTour teams from the last cycle, Lotto and Israel-Premier Tech, with the remaining three wildcards at the discretion of A.S.O., the race organiser. Uno-X Mobility, TotalEnergies and Tudor Pro Cycling were the recipients of these three wildcard places for the upcoming 2025 edition.

The Tour de France is a huge logistical challenge, with around 4,500 people working in total across the Tour. For teams, they typically bring around 20-30 staff members, depending on their budget. The riders' support staff will consist of:

• Coaches/ Sports directors: They are responsible for the strategy of the team
• Soigneurs: Provide personal care to the riders
• Mechanics: Maintain and repair the bikes
• Press officer: Media relations
• Hospitality Manager: Manages team logistics and accommodation
• Other support staff: Drivers, chefs, nutritionists

The yellow jersey (maillot jaune) is given and to be worn by the leader of the general classification (GC). The general classification is the total time combined of all of the stages completed, and the rider who has completed the race in the quickest time at the end of each stage will be the leader and wear the yellow jersey. The winner of the Tour de France is the rider who leads the general classification at the end of the 21st and final stage.

Time bonuses have a big role to play in the fight for the yellow jersey, with 10, 6, and 4 seconds on offer for the first three riders to finish each of 21 stages of the Tour. Not only that, there are also bonus sprints dotted throughout the entire Tour, where riders can earn 8, 5, and 2 seconds for being one of the first three riders at these sprints. The time bonuses are crucial as the seconds earned are deducted from a rider's general classification time, and this is hugely beneficial as the aim is to complete the Tour de France in the shortest time possible to become champion.

At the start of some Tours de France, you can expect to see riders who will not be competing towards the business end of the race fighting for the right to wear the famous yellow jersey. Wearing the yellow jersey also means that you are expected to honour the jersey and control the race alongside your team. This means that teams such as UAE Team Emirates-XRG, with Tadej Pogacar and Visma | Lease a Bike with Jonas Vingegaard, are happy to let other riders who aren't a threat in the mountains look after the jersey in the early stages of the Tour.

Full yellow jersey explainer available here: Tour de France jerseys: Explainer.

Check out the past winners of the yellow jersey: Tour de France winners list: complete year-by-year podium results (1903–2024)

The white jersey first appeared in the 1968 edition of the Tour de France to reward the combined classification leader. That was until 1975, when it was changed to what the jersey is today, which is rewarding the young riders. 

The white jersey, or maillot blanc, is awarded to the best-ranked rider in the general classification under the age of 25. In 2025, the competition is open to riders born on January 1, 2000, onwards.

In the past five editions, Tadej Pogacar has won four, with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) winning the white jersey in the 2024 Tour. 

The green jersey or maillot vert is awarded to the leader of the points classification. Typically, this jersey is one for the sprinters of the Tour. This is due to the sheer number of points riders can accumulate through placing in the top ten on stages (50 for the winner), with the points increasing depending on the finishing position. 

Not only that, but points can also be obtained through intermediate sprints (20 for the winner), which are on every stage and are there to incentivise strategy. Past winners of the green jersey have included Biniam Girmay’s historical ground-breaking 2024 Tour, Jasper Philipsen’s in 2023 and Wout van Aert’s monstrous 2022 Tour, where he won green. 

Peter Sagan holds the record for the most victories in the points classification at the Tour de France with 7 victories between 2012 and 2020.

Full list of the past green jersey winners: Tour de France green jersey winners: full list (1953–2024).

The polka dot jersey, or maillot à pois, is given to the rider who has scored the greatest number of points in the King of the Mountains [KoM] classification. Riders can score points on climbs separated into five categories as follows: 4, 3,2,1, H.C. Hors catégorie [HC] are the climbs with the most available points on offer, with 20 points given to the first rider to cross the line. 

Normally, the polka dot jersey is won by a rider who competes for the climbs across the Tour on the breakaway, but with the aggressive racing in modern cycling, GC contenders have the potential to also win the polka-dot jersey. Jonas Vingegaard was the last rider to achieve this feat back in 2022 when he claimed both the yellow and polka-dot jerseys.

A full list of the past winners of the polka-dot jersey: Tour de France king of the mountain winners: full list (1933–2024).

The team classification in the Tour de France is calculated by adding together the times of the three fastest riders from each team on every stage. The cumulative total of these daily sums determines the team’s overall time. The team with the lowest total time at the end of the race wins the team classification. Past winners of this classification include: Bahrain – Victorious in 2021, Ineos Grenadiers in 2022, Visma | Lease a Bike in 2023, and UAE Team Emirates – XRG in 2024.

Each stage has a time limit, calculated as a percentage of the winner’s time. Riders who finish outside this limit are usually disqualified, unless the jury makes an exception (often for large groups delayed by crashes or bad weather). On difficult mountain stages, you will see riders who have been dropped from a big group called the 'gruppetto', which is where a big group or groups cooperate to make the time cut of stages. Typically, you will see sprinters within a grupetto fighting to make the time cut.

The Tour has strict rules. Riders and teams can receive:

• Time penalties (drafting behind cars, dangerous behaviour)
• Fines (illegal feeds, incorrect clothing, littering)
• Disqualifications (repeated offences, doping, extreme unsporting behaviour)
• Yellow cards - given for dangerous moves - two in the same race lead to a disqualification