Tadej Pogacar (center) is vying for his fourth Tour de France victory.
The 112th edition of the Tour de France is underway, culminating in the iconic finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday, July 27.
Over the course of three weeks, riders will navigate six mountainous stages, including challenging ascents in the Pyrenees and Alps, covering a total distance of 3,320km (2,063 miles).
The race also features two individual time trials, the second of which includes a steep climb to the Altiport in Peyragudes.
BBC Sport provides a comprehensive look at all 21 stages of La Grande Boucle, analyzing the key moments where the race could be won or lost.
This page will be continuously updated throughout the Tour, featuring the stage winner and a brief recap following each stage.
Jasper Philipsen became the first sprinter since 2020 to don the yellow jersey on the opening day.
Winner: Jasper Philipsen
Report: Philipsen triumphs in stage one, claiming first yellow jersey
Jasper Philipsen was the first rider to wear the coveted yellow jersey this year, securing the maillot jaune for the first time in his career.
A sprint finish was widely anticipated after a flat stage starting and ending in Lille. Alpecin-Deceuninck’s lead-out train expertly positioned the 27-year-old, allowing him to seize his 10th stage victory.
Crosswinds contributed to a chaotic opening day, causing the peloton to split approximately 17km from the finish, with most of Philipsen’s teammates in the leading group.
Mathieu van der Poel secured his second career stage win at the Tour de France.
Winner: Mathieu van der Poel
Report: Van der Poel edges Pogacar in stage two sprint finish
Mathieu van der Poel narrowly defeated Tadej Pogacar in a sprint finish to claim stage two of the Tour de France and seize the leader’s yellow jersey.
The Dutch rider, who also won the same stage in 2021, held off the three-time Tour champion at the finish line after surging to the front with 500 meters remaining on the longest stage of this year’s race, a rolling 209.1km route from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Tim Merlier’s only previous Tour stage victory came in 2021.
Winner: Tim Merlier
Report: Merlier pips Milan in crash-marred stage three of Tour
Tim Merlier edged out Jonathan Milan at the finish line in a sprint to win a crash-marred stage three of the Tour de France.
The Belgian narrowly defeated the Italian, with Germany’s Phil Bauhaus finishing third on a day when Mathieu van der Poel retained the race leader’s yellow jersey and stage one winner Jasper Philipsen was forced to abandon the race.
Tadej Pogacar is aiming for his fourth triumph at the Tour de France.
Winner: Tadej Pogacar
Report: Pogacar claims 100th victory on stage four of Tour
Defending champion Tadej Pogacar outsprinted Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Vingegaard to claim his 100th professional victory on stage four. The result leaves the Slovenian level on time with the Dutch rider at the top of the general classification, with Van der Poel retaining the leader’s yellow jersey on count-back.
Remco Evenepoel is the reigning world and Olympic time-trial champion.
Winner: Remco Evenepoel
Report: Evenepoel wins stage five as Pogacar claims yellow jersey
Remco Evenepoel won the individual time trial on stage five of the Tour de France, while Tadej Pogacar seized the yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel.
The Belgian rider averaged 54kmh to finish 16 seconds faster than Slovenia’s three-time champion Pogacar, with Italy’s Edoardo Affini finishing third, 33 seconds behind.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard had a day to forget, losing more than a minute to Pogacar in the general classification.
Ben Healy’s only previous Grand Tour stage win came at the Giro d’Italia in 2023.
Winner: Ben Healy
Report: Healy claims first Tour win as Van der Poel regains lead
Ireland’s Ben Healy launched a stunning solo attack to win his first Tour stage, while Mathieu van der Poel regained the yellow jersey.
Healy and Van der Poel spent most of the hilly stage in an eight-man breakaway before the EF Education-EasyPost rider broke away with 42km remaining.
Van der Poel did enough to regain the race lead by one second from Tadej Pogacar, who eased in at the front of the peloton with his main general classification rivals.
Pogacar beat rival Jonas Vingegaard to the line.
Winner: Tadej Pogacar
Report: Pogacar wins stage seven to regain race lead
Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar reclaimed the race lead from Mathieu van der Poel, who is still suffering after a grueling day on Thursday.
Stage seven had the same finish as it did in 2021, when Van der Poel claimed his first stage win on the iconic Mur-de-Bretagne climb.
But the Dutch rider was unable to challenge Pogacar here, as the three-time winner edged out Jonas Vingegaard in a sprint for the line, with British rider Oscar Onley completing the podium.
Milan won on his Tour de France debut.
Winner: Jonathan Milan
Italy’s Milan wins stage eight following a bunch sprint.
Lidl Trek’s Milan beat Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike on the flat 171.4km stage into Laval’s Espace Mayenne.
Milan, 24, waited patiently in the wheels of Mathieu van der Poel and Kaden Groves, both of Alpecin-Deceuninck, in the final 200 metres before using his immense power to launch himself towards the line – with only Van Aert able to cling on behind.
Australian Groves finishes third.
Tim Merlier collected his second win and Soudal Quick-Step’s third in this edition of the Tour.
Winner: Tim Merlier
Report: Merlier wins sprint finish as Van der Poel denied epic breakaway triumph
Tim Merlier won stage nine of the Tour de France in a sprint finish after Mathieu van der Poel’s hopes of an audacious breakaway victory were dashed inside the final kilometer.
Van der Poel and his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jonas Rickaert attacked at the start of the 174.1km run from Chinon to Chateauroux, and the Dutch former world champion produced a gutsy effort that just fell short of delivering his second win in this year’s race.
An emotional Ben Healy faced an anxious wait to find out if he had done enough to take the race lead.
Winner: Simon Yates
Report: Yates wins stage 10 on Bastille Day as Ireland’s Healy takes yellow
Britain’s Simon Yates took stage 10 of the Tour de France on Bastille Day, as Ben Healy became the first Irish rider to claim the yellow jersey since Stephen Roche won the race in 1987.
Yates, who claimed his second Grand Tour triumph at the Giro d’Italia in June, was part of a long-range breakaway and timed his attack superbly on the final ascent of the 165.3km stage to hold off Thymen Arensman.
Caleb Ewan won the stage the last time the Tour visited Toulouse in 2019.
Following a rest day, stage 11 offers a gentle return to racing, although the concluding 16km contains two kickers that could alter the composition of any fast finish to the line on Boulevard Lascrosses.
Six stage finishes have taken place at Hautacam.
The first real big day in the mountains could see fireworks in the GC race.
The route up to the ski resort at Hautacam, on the roads above Lourdes, takes the peloton on the route where five-time champion Miguel Indurain tore the race (and his rivals) apart in 1994.
More recently, Jonas Vingegaard rode away from Tadej Pogacar in 2022 on his way to his first overall Tour victory.
The airport runway in Peyragudes was used in a scene in the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
An individual time trial takes the riders from the valley floor up to the runway of Altiport 007 in Peyragudes.
After a flat start, there will be over 8km uphill, and no hiding place for the GC favorites in the race of truth.
A gradient of 7.8% ramps up to a punishing 13% in the final kilometer, and it could provide a strong indicator of who will be wearing the yellow jersey in Paris.
Superbagneres hasn’t hosted the Tour for 36 years.
A classic and mouth-watering mountain stage in the Pyrenees arrives at the end of week two.
Nearly 5,000m of elevation gain is packed into climbs up the mighty hors-categorie Tourmalet, followed by the Col d’Aspin and Col de Peyresourde.
On a day when the GC riders will need to be at their very best, the strongest climbers will focus on the fight for the King of the Mountains jersey and hope to contest the stage on the pull up to the ski resort of Luchon-Superbagneres.
The grueling 12.4km slog at 7.3%, which rises up to 10% in a couple of sections, should be the scene for an epic battle in the race for yellow.
Jasper Philipsen won the first of his eight Tour stage victories in Carcassonne in 2022.
A transitional stage arrives as the race heads from the Pyrenees towards the Alps, which looks suited to the strongman sprinters who can cope with some climbing.
The likes of Wout van Aert and Biniam Girmay should view this as a potential chance to triumph in the medieval finishing town of Carcassonne.
Chris Froome is the only British rider to have won a stage on Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France.
Stage 16 is a flat route until one of the most legendary mountains in Tour history comes into view at the end, with the potential to turn the race on its head.
With no categorized climbs all day before Mont Ventoux, and the intermediate sprint featuring 112km into the stage, it would be no surprise if the peloton remains largely intact until then.
In 2016, strong winds meant the finish was moved to Chalet Reynard halfway up the climb, as Thomas de Gendt won from the breakaway, and drama unfolded on the slopes behind with the yellow jersey, Chris Froome, initially running up the mountain after a crash.
The Tour is stopping in Valence for the fourth time in 10 years.
With two big Alpine tests still to come, the GC teams will probably play second fiddle to the sprint teams when it comes to trying to rein in any breakaways.
The last three winners of a Tour stage in Valence were Mark Cavendish (2021), Peter Sagan (2018), and Andre Greipel (2015), and the only thing likely to prevent a bunch sprint is the mistral winds that can be fierce in the Rhone Valley.
In 2023, Austria’s Felix Gall won the stage into Courchevel.
This year’s queen stage comes with more than 5,500m of elevation across 171.5km of racing and three legendary climbs, which makes it arguably the toughest run of the entire Tour.
All three ascents fall under the hors categorie, with the Col du Glandon, a 21.7km drag with sections at double digits, just for starters.
The Col de la Madeleine is shorter but steeper, and while there is a rapid descent, the rises in the road come sharply again on the monstrous Col de la Loze, a climb of over 26km with gradients hitting 11% as the Tour reaches its highest point.
Albertville was the host city of the 1992 Winter Olympics.
The last real mountain stage represents the final opportunity for those high in the GC standings to make a play for the yellow jersey.
The route from Albertville to La Plagne covers almost 130km, and includes five leg-sapping ascents.
Plenty of points will be up for grabs again in the race for the polka-dot jersey, but this is really a last-chance saloon in terms of the overall race.
Whoever is leading at the end of the day will be confident that, barring an unforeseen disaster, they will be standing atop the podium, draped in yellow on the Champs-Élysées.
This is Pontarlier’s first Tour appearance since 2009, when Alberto Contador won the stage to Verbier.
The penultimate stage sees the race snake over the hills of the Jura towards Pontarlier.
The rolling terrain should favor an escapee triumphing, while the GC teams protect their leaders.
The Tour will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first finish on the Champs-Élysées.
The Tour returns to its traditional Paris finish after relocating to Nice last year due to the Olympics.
However, it does so with a twist, given the cobbled climb up to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica features three times in a throwback to the road race in the 2024 Paris Games.
It’s a 1.1km ascent at a gradient of 5.9% added to the original finishing circuit in the French capital, designed to whittle down the field before a high-speed finish, albeit possibly without some of the pure sprinters.