Armchair guide to the Tour de France
03 JUL 2025
The 112th edition of the Tour de France begins on Saturday night in Lille, when the peloton embarks on a three-week journey that will cover more than 3300km and eventually lead them to Paris.
While all eyes will be on the battle for the yellow jersey featuring superstars Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, 10 Australian riders will be playing an important role in their own team’s objectives including Ben O’Connor who will lead Jayco-AlUla’s general classification hopes.
To bring you up to speed, we’ve prepared the following five-minute guide, thanks to some expert input from commentator Matt Keenan who is about to call his 19th consecutive Tour de France.
WHEN: Saturday, July 5 to Sunday, July 27
TOTAL DISTANCE: 3338.8km
CAN’T MISS STAGES
Stage 6 – Bayeux to Vire Normandie (201.5km)
Second longest day of the Tour, lots of constant, punchy climbs makes for a dangerous day, plenty of opportunities for a breakaway or for the contenders to put time into their rivals. Six categorised climbs in total.
Stage 13 – Loudenvielle to Peyragudes (10.9km)
Mountain time trial, last 8km uphill at average gradient of 7.9 per cent. Could see some decent gaps appear particularly inside the final kilometre which is 13 per cent.
Stage 14 – Pau to Luchon-Superbagneres (182.6km)
5000m of climbing in the Pyrenees, taking in the famous Col du Tourmalet, followed by the Col d’Aspin, and Col de Peyresourde before the final climb to the finish. A brutal day.
Stage 16 – Montpellier to Mont Ventoux (171.5km)
The first finish on top of Ventoux since 2016. A mostly flat first 150km before the fireworks arrive in the final 15.7km climb to the top at an average gradient of 8.8 per cent.
THE AUSSIES
HARRY SWEENY (QLD)
Team: EF Education – EasyPost
Age: 26
Tour de France starts: 1
Making his first appearance at the Tour since 2021 with Lotto when he finished 14th in the young rider classification, and was third on Stage 12 from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Nimes. Rode the Vuelta last year and this year at Paris-Nice before the Classics.
Matt Keenan’s take:
“Harry has had the Tour on his list since planning in October of last year, this was always going to be one of his big targets. He’s one of the team’s key workhorses and they have a team going hunting for stage wins. A strength of Harry is he is climbing really well and helps teammates get in a breakaway. He’s a super domestique, a real Swiss army knife, who will be involved in every element of the team getting into a break to try to win stages, and might even get his own chances as well.”
KADEN GROVES (QLD)
Team: Alpecin-Deceuninck
Age: 26
Tour de France starts: 0
Nine-time Grand Tour stage winner including his maiden victory at this year’s Giro d’Italia, and won the points classification in last year’s Vuelta a Espana. Former Australian Road Cyclist of the Year, Groves was fifth at Milan-San Remo in March.
Matt Keenan’s take:
"Kaden is one of the best sprinters in the world in his own right, but at the Tour de France he will be part of the lead-out for Jasper Philpsen who is the team’s priority. This is his debut at the Tour and he has a great attitude, he’s already shown a willingness to work for Philipsen, but if anything goes wrong with Jasper, then Groves will get his chance. He proved earlier in the year at Milan-San Remo he can play a really strong team role because he was there to support Mathieu Van Der Poel and finished fifth himself in a sprint for fourth behind Michael Matthews. So distance is no problem, he’s one of the fastest guys in the world and is totally selfless.”
BEN O’CONNOR (WA)
Team: Jayco-Alula
Age: 29
Tour de France starts: 3
The 29-year-old has had stage wins in all three Grand Tours, including the Tour de France in 2021. He was second overall at last year’s Vuelta a Espana and world championship road race behind Tadej Pogacar. Made his WorldTour debut at the Santos Tour Down Under in 2017 and will lead Jayco-AlUla at the Tour de France this year.
Matt Keenan’s take:
“He’s the Aussie with the most pressure on his shoulders at this year’s Tour. He’s gone to the Australian team to be leader and last year had the season of his life – fourth at the Giro, second at the Vuelta and worlds – so it will be really hard to have a season equal to that. Has been fourth at the Tour before so if he replicates that, it would be enormous, but he’s got to race the way he always has – in big breakaways. The year he finished fourth (2021) he won stage nine, had time up his sleeve and just defended and defended from there. He has to take a big risk to get a big reward but he’s absolutely capable.”
LUKE DURBRIDGE (WA)
Team: Jayco-AlUla
Age: 34
Tour de France starts: 9
Australia’s reigning national road champion, Durbridge is one of the most experienced riders in the international peloton and set for his 10th Tour de France. Durbridge is also a four-time national road time trial champion to go with his two road titles.
Matt Keenan’s take:
“Luke is the ultimate workhorse. They’re going to have Dylan Groenewegen for the sprints, and will be all in to win the first stage and take the yellow jersey, so Durbo will be trying to catch the breakaway and help out with the lead-out. He and Michael Hepburn are the only originals from the first GreenEDGE team still there, so he’s very experienced and like a captain on the road.”
LUKE PLAPP (VIC)
Team: Jayco-AlUla
Age: 24
Tour de France starts: 0
Plapp has rocketed into his Tour de France debut on the back of a successful Giro d’Italia in which he claimed his maiden Grand Tour stage win and was seventh in the time trial before succumbing to illness in the final week. Australia’s three-time national road and time trial champion.
Matt Keenan’s take:
“The addition of Luke to the Jayco team is a big step in the triple Australian champion’s career. This was part of the original plan for the season but post a stage win at the Giro d’Italia, followed by abandoning early, due to illness, it’s time to make his Tour debut. He will be expected to support Ben O’Connor in the mountains, however, the first big test for Luke will be the Stage 5 individual time trial. He was on target for a TT bronze medal at the Paris Olympics before crashing so I’m looking forward to seeing how far off he is from The Big Three, Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel. And as he showed at the Giro this year, if given the green light a stage win, late week two, early week three in a medium mountain stage, is a genuine possibility."
JACK HAIG (QLD)
Team: Bahrain Victorious
Age: 31
Tour de France starts: 5
A strong and experienced climber, Haig finished third in the Vuelta a Espana in 2021 and has had multiple top-five finishes in both the Criterium du Dauphine and Paris-Nice.
Matt Keenan’s take:
“Jack Haig will play a key mountains support role. The team will start with Santiago Buitrago aiming for a top-five finish and for him to achieve that he’ll need Jack by his side in the high mountains. Jack will also guide young French hope, Lenny Martinez, in pursuit of stage wins in the mountains. Lenny’s dad won a mountain bike gold medal at the Sydney Olympics and his grandfather won the Tour de France king of the mountains title in 1978. There are high expectations on Lenny.”
ROBERT STANNARD (NSW)
Team: Bahrain Victorious
Age: 26
Tour de France starts: 0
Stannard is set to make his Tour debut and will play an important role working for the team’s sprinter, Phil Bauhaus. Stannard’s road to Le Tour this year includes the Santos Tour Down Under in January, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Criterium du Dauphine in addition to a packed Classics campaign which included lengthy stints in the breakaway at both Amstel Gold Race and La Fleche Wallonne.
Matt Keenan’s take:
"Robert Stannard will be the team’s everywhere man. The ultimate support rider. He’ll be most important in helping Phil Bauhaus win a sprint stage and getting Fred Wright into a winning breakaway.”
CALLUM SCOTSON (SA)
Team: Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
Age: 28
Tour de France starts: 0
Former track star poised for his Tour de France debut having ridden the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana six times. Did Paris-Nice, Romandie and Suisse in the lead up to the Tour where he will play an important role for his French team.
Matt Keenan’s take:
“For the past four years, France’s number one team, Decathlon Ag2r, has relied a lot on Australia’s Ben O’Connor. This year they have Callum Scotson on the team. Callum has ridden multiple Giro’s and Vuelta’s, but this is his first appearance at the Tour de France and a 28, it’s overdue. He has all the qualities of a great domestique, particularly in supporting their leader in the mountains, Felix Gall. Callum won’t be with him in the super high mountains but will be one of the most important support riders on all other terrain. Callum is yet to win a pro race, so I don’t expect a Tour stage win from him to open his account. But he will be all systems go to support his team to get a win. One stage win from the team would make for a successful Tour.”
MICHAEL STORER (NSW)
Team: Tudor Pro Cycling Team
Age: 28
Tour de France starts: 1
Comes into the Tour de France after finishing 10th on GC at the Giro d’Italia, winning Tour of the Alps and placing fifth at Paris-Nice this season. Storer is a two-time stage winner at the Vuelta a Espana.
Matt Keenan’s take:
“After a brilliant start to the season and 10th overall at the Giro d’Italia, Michael Storer is a late call up to the Tudor Pro Cycling Tour team. The Tour wasn’t part of Michael’s plans for the season but the team needs him. As one of the wildcard invitations to the race, the team is all-in for a stage win. Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi and Matteo Trentin have all won stages in the past and there’s no reason why at least one of them can’t do it again. But as we saw at this year’s Paris-Nice, where Alaphilippe sacrificed his own chances for the Western Australian, in the mountains Storer is the team’s best option. I expect to see Michael in plenty of breakaways in the mountain stages. Maybe even chases a win in the King of the Mountains classification, which he has previous won at the Vuelta a Espana.
JARRAD DRIZNERS (SA)
Team: Lotto
Age: 26
Tour de France starts: 1
Made his Tour de France debut last year and despite being the second youngest rider on the team, he served as their road captain. His Tour prep this year includes Catalunya and Romandie.
Matt Keenan’s take:
“Jarrad is mature beyond his years and the team’s lead riders see him as their bodyguard. A protective big brother on the road and he will play the same role this year. After a four-year drought the team won a stage last year and a win this year is on the cards again. They have Arnaud De Lie for the sprint stages and Lennert van Eetvelt for the medium mountain stages. Jarrad’s role will be to protect them, while making key quick decisions on the road. He also continues the strong Australian connection at the Belgian team, which has previously been led by Robbie McEwen, Cadel Evans and Caleb Ewan.”
LIFE ON TOUR
Matt Keenan has arrived in France to commentate on his 19th Tour de France.
A regular at the Santos Tour Down Under, Keenan has travelled to France for every one of them, with the exception of two during Covid.
He describes a typical day covering the Tour de France below:
“Wherever I am I try to get up and do 30 minutes of exercise, I always feel better after that, sometimes it’s a run, or if I’m pushed for time I’ll just do push-ups and sit-ups in my room.
“I’ll then have breakfast and get in the car to drive the stage finish, usually about 30 minutes or so.
“That’s when I’ll do my research by reading quotes from riders on the day before, check in on any injury updates, and spend an hour going through the information book on things such as the churches or chateaus the peloton will ride past that day.
“Commentary on the race itself is usually 12noon to 6.30pm, then we get in the car and drive to where the stage finishes the next day.
“Sometimes that can be 200 or 300km each night, finding somewhere to eat along the way. 50 per cent of the time that’s a nice restaurant, the other 50 per cent it’s a salad and baguette from a service station.
“Normally I’m at the hotel by 11pm that night and try to get a decent night’s rest before doing it all again.”
This differs to when Keenan calls the Giro d’Italia or Vuelta a Espana which he does from the SBS studio in Australia. But that also poses its unique challenges.
“It’s nightshift basically,” he sayd.
“I get to the studio about 6.30pm and spend two hours doing some final bits of research and preparation and a social media video.
“Commentary goes from 8.30pm to 1.30am, I generally leave the studio at 2am, home by 2.30am and in bed by 3.30am.
“I’ll try to sleep until 10am, then I’ll get up, exercise, do some life admin and research, pick up the kids from school and spend time with them, have dinner and then it’s time to head to the studio again.”
