Key events
51km to go We have another couple of escapists, Xabier Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.) and Thibault Guernalec (TotalEnergies) have managed to eek out a half-minute lead.
58km to go Veistroffer has been swallowed up by the peloton.
61km to go Veistroffer is still out front on his own and has taken the 25 intermediate sprint points. Pedersen, for what it’s worth, came through fifth to add 12 points to his total.
Thanks for your emails on the final stage. Here’s a few of them. Let’s kick off with Patrick Lockley, who writes in: “The final stage basically a rest day for 90 per cent of the riders, chance to wave at your mum, wife and children – just needs a brass band playing entry of the gladiators to complete the irrelevancy.
“For the others a stage win, impress you employer, resolve contacts for next season, and everybody chatting to their mates about their holidays.
“I watch or attend all the stages except the time trials (boring) and the Paris final stage (boring).”
Rudd Hughes (great name): “I can understand why the riders might want to use this day to relax after three gruelling weeks, but last year, even though it was neutralised, was a thrilling race, and race is the key word. Maybe Tadej won’t be able to stifle his racer instinct today.”
Ger Nugent (also a great name): “Winning teams, in most sports, get a lap of honour and/or a welcome home open top bus. This is the equivalent for the Tour.
“On the other hand they’ve only ridden slightly less than 3,300kms in three weeks, mountain climbs, scourging heat, wildcat anti-doping testing, so maybe a mad all out fully competitive stage to give us something interesting to watch at long last.” I sense irony here.
I dare say it will turn into a race soon,” writes Dan Levy. “But it does seem a bit silly to have a day that can’t change the overall result.”
Jeremy Moxham is firmly in the ‘make it a real stage camp’: “I would like the Tour de France to come down to the wire with a ‘proper stage’. Granted, with the time gaps this year (and the rest of the GC standings) we would probably be wondering only about third place, but a recreation of Fignon v LeMond some time in the future would be exciting. All to play for in the final Sunday? Yes please!”
71km to go Slock and co. have not been permitted to go and are being reeled in but his teammate Baptiste Veistroffer has now gone out alone.
74km to go We have an attack! Liam Slock (Lotto–Intermarché) has burst off the front and taken a handful of riders with him.
75km to go The riders are getting into their saddles now and it looks like we’ve got some racing. The peloton is still together but the pace is quickening.
Well this is a treat. My colleague Amy Sedghi, who is usually a regular on the Tour blogging beat, has emailed in to from her maternity leave: “Hi to the readers from me and from the latest addition sporting her polkadot jersey! Sad to be missing blogging the chaos and festivities of the Tour but hopefully I’ll be back at it next year!”
83km to go We’re still honouring each of the jerseys, so no racing, but some lovely shots of Paris.
88km to go We’re off, with the four classification winners leading a slow rollout. It looks like we’re going to get a processional lap before the serious racing starts. No sign of any champagne, yet.
What do you, the reader, make of this stage? I find it quite strange as sporting spectacle. The pageantry is nice, but I’d prefer more of a proper stage. Send me an email via the link at the top of the page with your thoughts.
It’s not long now until the rollout of the final stage, I’m not sure how this will play out initially given the precessional element.
Here’s a reminder of what happened yesterday, Jeremy Whittle’s report from Alpe d’Huez:
A quick look at today’s stage in Paris:
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William Fotheringham’s stage guide
William Fotheringham
Stage 21, Sunday 26 July: Thoiry to Paris Champs-Élysées, 133km
The experiment last year with climbs of the Butte Montmartre was a success, an epic win for Wout van Aert in spite of rain meaning that the stage did not count for the overall; it’s back again, but the circuit is extended so there are 10km from the top of the climb to the finish on the Champs. No Van Aert this year so watch out for Classics specialists such as Pedersen or Van der Poel, if he is still in the race. That’s assuming Pogacar takes a back seat, but I’d be hedging my bets on that.
Preamble
In a Tour de France where the events away from the road have often been more prominent than the racing perhaps it was always going to end like this. A race seared in its early stages by a heatwave, now sees its finale shortened to divert vital services to the south of France to help battle the wildfires that have gripped the region and seen nearly 200,000 people evacuated.
The riders have already done their pre-stage presentation in Thoiry, then been bused into Paris where the shortened 89km stage now starts and ends. The Tour is all over, bar the shouting, everything except the winner of stage 21 has been settled.
Yesterday Mads Pedersen, Richard Carapaz and Isaac del Toro all secured their desired jerseys. Pedersen put the point classification out of reach of Jasper Philipsen with an incredible effort over the Galibier to win another intermediate sprint, Carapaz pocketed the polkadots with scintilating performance in the mountains that saw him win his second stage of this year’s Tour, while Del Toro saw off Paul Seixas, with a mighty assist from Tadej Pogacar, in the battle for the young rider’s white jersey. Pogacar, of course, had effectively made the maillot jaune his since his attack on the Tourmalet on stage six. Today will the Slovenian will be officially crowned champion for a fifth time. He could win the stage too.
The route now takes in three trips up Côte de la Butte Montmartre, as well as a few laps of the Champs-Elysées and has the feel of a spring classic. Mathieu van der Poel is an obvious pick as the winner, Pogacar and Pedrsen too but the sprinters can’t be ruled out if they can survive the climbs. On a weary end to the Tour, whoever takes the initative today should well be the winner.
