LIVE stage 6 Tour de France 2025 | Finish perfect for Pogacar, but how cunning will Van der Poel be?

The stage of just over 200 kilometers starts in Bayeux. The French city is steeped in history: many will know the Bayeux Tapestry, the 70-meter-long embroidery depicting the legendary Battle of Hastings. Thanks to that battle, William the Conqueror became King of England and forever changed the history of the Anglo-Saxons. He is buried in Caen, where Wednesday’s time trial took place.

For the first time, the race will head south. There, an intermediate sprint awaits after 22 kilometers, which may make the fight for the day’s breakaway even more interesting. Right after that comes the first climb: the Côte du Mont Pinçon is a beautiful two-step climb. Twenty kilometers later, the Côte de la Rançonnière is the second tough challenge. A difficult opening phase, where the pace could be very high.

The middle section of the stage is, on paper, the easiest, but there isn’t one single meter that’s truly flat. From the Forêt domaniale des Andaines, the peloton rides on to Barenton, after which the route shifts more towards the northwest. Then they head into the next hilly phase, where the real finale begins. The Côte de Mortain (1.6 km at 8.4%) lies 65 kilometers from the finish and is the first of four (official) climbs.

Not long after comes the Côte de Juvigny-le-Tertre, but that one isn’t as tough as the previous little climb. The hills in the rest of the finale aren’t that difficult either. The Côte de Saint-Michel-de-Montjoie and the Côte de Vaudry aren’t very hard, but the latter is less than 5 kilometers from the finish. At 1.2 kilometers with an average of 7.1%, it can really hurt, especially after more than 3000 meters of climbing. And after the descent, they arrive in Vire Normandie, which also isn’t flat.

Once they pass under the flamme rouge, it’s still fairly easy. However, the final 700 meters are brutally steep: they average 10.2%, with the steepest sections reaching up to 14%. A viciously punishing finish, where the legs will feel incredibly heavy after the rest of the stage. The last corner comes about 200 meters before the line, and that left-hand turn is quite sharp. Whoever gets through there first has a good chance, but with these gradients, it could also be a trap to go too early.

Times
Start: 12:35 PM (local time) | 06:35 AM (EST)
Finish: 5:14 PM (local time) | 11:14 AM (EST)

Where the weather played a major role in the first few days, there’s no need to worry this time. It will be a warm, dry day without much wind. Maximum temperatures of 27 degrees, a light breeze from the north at wind force three: not a cloud in the sky!

In terms of elevation gain, the stage to Vire Normandie is the toughest of the Tour de France so far. With such a challenging finish, it’s hard to see anyone other than Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates – XRG) as the top favorite. If the yellow jersey wearer is feeling good, he will be very difficult to stop. Not even by Mathieu van der Poel, who is at a disadvantage in the final kilometer. But if he dares to take a gamble and joins the early breakaway… who knows. Could he take back yellow from the Slovenian?

The former world champion should never be ruled out. The same goes for Jonas Vingegaard, who put up great resistance against his Slovenian rival in the previous hilly stages. With more climbing meters and a steeper finish, the Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike might stand a better chance. He will certainly want revenge after his disappointing time trial. From Remco Evenepoel, we normally expect a bit less on a stage like this, after his time loss on Tuesday.

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We are basically listing the same names we saw in stages 2 and 4, and we will continue to do so. French hopes are once again pinned on Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) while Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) are looking to follow up their good performances. We expect a little less from Primoz Roglic and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), but if they get in their groove, it could be fun. 

Pogacar and Vingegaard both have great domestiques who could potentially score themselves in Normandy: João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) are in top form and might be able to take advantage of the right moment. Someone like Jhonatan Narváez can also handle such a stage well.

And what if we start looking outside the top of the GC? Then there are a whole bunch of attackers who might see their chance in the early break. Think of names like Neilson Powless,Ben Healy (EF Education - EasyPost), Simone Velasco (XDS-Astana), Ivan Roméo (Movistar), Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) and Axel Laurance (INEOS Grenadiers).

Top favorite:Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG)
Outsiders: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step)