The bleakly beautiful moonscapes of Mont Ventoux will be the backdrop and terrain of one of the decisive final stages of the 2025 Tour d France on Tuesday. The 'Giant of Provence' is the first, and arguably the most crucial, of the Tour's third week mountain battles.
Follow all the action in our Tour de France Stage 16 live report
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) believes the Tour de France GC battle to not be over despite lagging behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) by 4:13. That is over a minute more than Pogačar's 3:09 margin over the Dane at the same point in the 2024 race, so if Vingegaard wants to try and impact on the Slovenian, the Ventoux is an opportunity he can ill afford to miss.
The Dane can take hope from the fact that when the race last went over the Ventoux in 2021, he managed to drop Pogačar close to the summit, even if Pogacar then caught him on the long drop to the finish.
If Vingegaard manages to repeat that feat on Tuesday, the fact the race finishes at the summit of the Ventoux this time round, not in the valley below, would mean any time gained by the 2022 and 2023 Tour winner would be impossible for his successor to recover.
Vingegaard can also take heart from his much improved climbing performances in the second part of the Pyrenees and perhaps signs of Pogačar fatigue and slight illness.
The list of stand-out winners on the summit of Mont Ventoux range from Charly Gaul in 1958 through to Eddy Merckx, Bernard Thévenet, Marco Pantani and Chris Froome. Those names will surely act as inspiration to Pogačar, too, to try and add a fifth stage win to his 2025 tally of success. The exposed, often wind-strick climb should produce a Pogačar- Vingegaard showdown
Yet the Ventoux is never a predictable beast.
If Pogačar suffering in 2021 was a surprise after his domination of the first two weeks, the climb is rarely uneventful in itself.
In 2016, the race's last summit finish, the stage was reduced in length to Chalet Reynard, half-way up the climb, because of high winds. The sight of yellow jersey Froome running towards the finish, desperate for a bike change after he was poleaxed by a race motorbike, remains one of the most emblematic images of his career.
The weather is set to be good on Tuesday and the finish line - for now at least - remains at the top. However, the Ventoux's weather conditions are notoriously fickle and as one of the highest peaks in the whole of the region, with its brilliant white scree slopes of the upper half visible for many miles around, in that as in many other senses, the Ventoux remains a mountain with laws of its own.
The high winds that blast across the top when it's dead calm in the valley below are just one example of the uniqueness of Mont Ventoux.
So too are its relentlessly rising slopes. These rarely fall below 9% in the first nine kilometres and the final two kilometres. The Ventoux has no false flats or small descents to alleviate the pain during its 15km length. All the way from the village of Bedoin to the weather station at the top, there is literally no respite from the pain.
The fear and respect for Mont Ventoux
Mont Ventoux offers three main additional complications this July.
The first being it comes directly after the rest day. After a day without racing, a tough challenge on the opening stage of the second and third week can benefit some riders, but others often find themselves struggling to get back into race rhythm. Factor in a climb as long and arduous as the Ventoux and a chink in a rider's armour could suddenly blow wide open.
Secondly there's the question of summer heat. Temperatures are forecast to rise above 30 degrees on the lower slopes of the Ventoux and surrounding area after a long spell of racing across the flatlands of southern France.
Thirdly, the Ventoux is the only categorized climb of the day, with 133 kilometres of rolling roads followed by 22 kilometres of gentle uphill gradient, and then 15.7 kilometre of a lone Hors Categorie climb to the summit finish.
Almost all the vertical climbing of the stages total of 2,950 metres are in the finale. This should virtually ensure that nobody suffering on the climbs is outside the time cut, but it also will likely see a huge pack at the foot of the ascent. Positioning, then, will be critical.
Pogačar and Vingegaard's GC battle is surely going to be one main attraction of the Tour's 19th visit to the Ventoux. For those not involved in the fight for the overall and who aren't specialist climbers, going up a mountain as mythical as the 'Giant of Provence represents a very special occasion all the same.
"I've never been up it, but it should be nice with the crowds, something to remember," Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) told Cyclingnews during the rest day.
"We'll see how the race unfolds, stay with the group you fit into best. I think there'll be two different levels on the mountain and once you settle into your rhythm, it's probably not a climb most people can win on or even get a result on.
"If I'm not with the group, I'll just be enjoying what there is to offer. I grew up watching the crowds on the Ventoux as a kid and it just looks absolutely amazing. I'm really looking forward to that."
Stage 16 of the Tour de France will start from Montpellier after the second rest day. The race heads in a northeasterly direction through Provence, concluding with a summit finish on the iconic Mont Ventoux (15.7km at 8.8%).
There has not been a finish atop the Géant de Provence at the race since 2013, when Chris Froome won in the maillot jaune on the way to his first Tour de France victory. However, the climb was featured as recently as 2021, where the riders took on two different ascents before descending down the other side to the finish in Malaucène.
The riders will climb from the town of Bédoin up to Chalet Reynard, where stage 12 of the 2016 Tour de France finished after being shortened due to high winds. They will then enter the exposed area that the climb is renowned for, as the lack of tree cover leaves the riders completely open to the elements.
Mont Ventoux always leaves its mark on the Tour de France whenever it features in the race, from the tragedy of Tom Simpson in 1967, to Lance Armstrong versus Marco Pantani in 2000, or even Froome running without a bike in 2016. In its most recent inclusion, we saw Jonas Vingegaard distance Tadej Pogačar for the very first time, which could be a sign of things to come for this year’s race where they face each other again.
Stage 16 map and profile
Stage 16 Sprints
- Chàteauneuf-du-Pape, km. 112.4
Stage 16 Mountains
- Mont Ventoux (HC) km. 165.3
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