The first stage of the Tour de France 2025, 185km long from around Lille this Saturday, could be animated by edges if the wind is invited as planned at the party. Enough to spice up this big departure a little more.
What if the weather came to play a bad round at the 184 runners engaged on the Tour de France 2025? From the real departure scheduled this Saturday at 1:40 pm from the Lille metropolis, low clouds should be there, and come to compete with the sun, but it is then that things could seriously be bodied.
According to the latest weather forecasts, the chances are great to see this first step promised to a sprinter end in the rain, with a scheduled arrival in Lille between 5:36 p.m. and 5:58 p.m. according to the organization’s hourly calculations. What spice up a little more an announced electric final with several sensitive points in the last five kilometers (retarders, central media) and four to five 90 ° turns likely to give cold sweats to the peloton.
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Favorites already trapped?
With the challenge of winning the first yellow jersey of this tower, nervousness will win all the teams and not only the sprinters. Beyond the rain, a southwest wind of around 20km/h is expected during the day with bursts of up to 50km/h. Enough to cause possible borders and already sow discord in the peloton?
“It can completely happen,” prevailing Jérôme Coppel, former runner and consultant on this Tour for RMC. As a reminder, the objective of a border is to break the peloton in different parts. Depending on the wind, a formation chooses one side of the road and accelerates by protecting only its men, in Indian line to the right or left of the road according to the wind, so as to leave the opponents in the “border”.
Those who find themselves in the border no longer have the shelter of the wind and must provide more significant efforts to stay in contact. Often, they make a new border and so on, in order to enjoy the suction and try to replace themselves. “All the runners will be in Cran, there will be no need for a lot of wind for it to break,” says Coppel.
“I expect breaks, but I still think that the favorites will be ultra vigilant. The risk will be on the released parts where certain teams may want to try a blow. It is not impossible for a general leader to be stupidly trapped.” The organizers, who predicted a first week of all dangers, are waiting for that.