Tour de France 2025 Route stage 12: Auch

Tour de France 2025 Route stage 12: Auch - Hautacam

Thursday, 17 July – While the climbers can take it easy in stage 11, stage 12 is another kettle of fish entirely. The peloton faces 3,850 metres of elevation over an 181-kilometre course, with nearly all the climbing packed into the last 60 kilometres.

The stage kicks off in Auch, the town that hosted an intermediate sprint back in 2022. We are talking stage 19 here. Later that day, Christophe Laporte took the stage win in Cahors.

Sticking with 2022, the Tour finished in Hautacam the day before Laporte won in Cahors, and green jersey Wout van Aert put in a massive effort on the finishing climb. With GC rivals Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard on his wheel, he pulled so hard at the front, that Pogacar cracked and lost contact. Van Aert kept pushing for his leader, and then it was up to Vingegaard to finish the job. Just three days later, the Dane was crowned Tour de France winner for the first time in his career.

Will it inspire Vingegaard to do something special again? For one thing, the run-up to the Hautacam climb is not as hard as it was three editions ago. Back then, the riders had to conquer the Col d’Aubisque and Col de Spandelles before the climb to the line loomed. This time, they tackle the Col du Soulor (11.9 kilometres at 7.3%) and the Col des Bordères (3.1 kilometres at 7.6%) before reaching the foot of the finishing climb. Over the last 13.6 kilometres, the road rises at an average of 7.8% to Hautacam. The toughest part comes halfway up, where the gradient kicks up to nearly 11% for 2 kilometres.