“The Col de la Loze is the 21st century pass,” warns the director of the Tour Christian Prudhomme

The runners of the Tour de France will go from Vif, in Isère, Thursday, to climb in particular the Col de la Loze, in Courchevel, for the 18th stage.

“The Col de la Loze is the 10th century pass, because there are terrible slope ruptures”warns Thursday, July 24, the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, at the microphone of Franceinfo, before departure Thursday July 24 at 12:30 p.m. from the 18th stage between Vif (Isère) and the Col de la Loze, in Courchevel (Savoie). “It will be the first time that the runners will have set up the Col de la Loze on the Courchevel side”recalls Christian Prudhomme.

The large loop lasts last time on the road to this legendary collar in 2023, but had taken the other side, from Méribel. The Austrian Felix Gall won on this stage, and Tadej Pogacar, the current yellow jersey, had cracked. The Slovenian had been distanced by more than five minutes in one stage by the then leader and future winner of this edition of the Tour, the current 2nd in the general classification, the Danish Jonas Vingegaard.

“Even if this climb is a little less rough on the side of Courchevel, there are still extreme percentages for an arrival at more than 2,000m, where the differences are considerable between the favorites of the general classification”analysis Christian Prudhomme. With its 2,304m above sea level, the Col de la Loze is the “roof” of this 2025 edition of the Tour de France.

For the director of the Grande Boucle, this Savoyard pass, classified out of category and whose ascent of the day is 26.4km long at 6.5%, is a “Sort of myth that creates, the yellow jersey of the new passes in the Tour de France”.

This 18th step can be considered as “The Reine Stage” From this 2025 edition. 171.5 km long, she will see the Col de la Loze as a final bouquet. Previously, the peloton will have to climb two other classified passes out of category: the glans (21.7km ascent at 5.1% average slope) and the Madeleine (19.2km at 7.9%). In total, the stage of the day displays 5,450m of elevation gain.