The battlefield
The last stage of the Tour de France isn’t a difficult one in terms of gradients. Only one small hill will is categorized for the King of the Mountains price. The final circuit is the most prestigious. For many riders, it means the end of the suffering. For the sprinters still in contention, it’s the Grand Finale. Possibly they’ll have fought at Utah Beach, Angers, Limoges and Bern. Paris is their last chance for winning a stage or one more stage. It might as well be decisive for the green jersey.
Eyes on the prize
All riders who experienced it before talk about the goose bumps they felt after winning on the Champs-Elysées. Mark Cavendish is one of them. “I’m going to start the Tour de France for the tenth time”, the British sprinter said. “I’m here to win a stage. If it could happen in Paris, it would be wonderful.” He holds the record of stage wins (26) among the 198 riders of the 103rd Tour de France. Since Cavendish last won the conclusive stage in 2012, Marcel Kittel made it twice and André Greipel is the defending champion. A runner up last year, French up and coming sprinter Bryan Coquard dreams big.
A blast from the past
Paris has always been the finishing point of the Tour de France. From the early days till the 60s, the peloton arrived at the Parc des Princes stadium until it was renovated. La Cipale, a velodrome in the east side of the French capital, became the venue for Eddy Merckx’ celebrations of his five winning Tour de France. But a major change occurred in 1975 when the finishing line was drawn for the first time on the Champs-Elysées. French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing walked out of the Elysées palace to congratulate his compatriot Bernard Thévenet who had defeated Merckx. Walter Godefroot was the first stage winner on the Champs-Elysées. The huge popular success was repeated every year since with many spectacular sprints like in 2003 when Australians Baden Cooke and Robbie McEwen rode for the green jersey but Frenchman Jean-Patrick Nazon won the race. Djamolidine Abdujaparov’s crash in 1991 also remained in the memories of many. So did the solo wins of Bernard Hinault in 1979, Eddy Seigneur in 1994 and Alexandre Vinokourov in 2005. However, the biggest drama was probably the 1989 edition. That year, to celebrate the 200 years of the French Revolution, the conclusive stage was an individual time trial in which runner up Greg LeMond dethroned race leader Laurent Fignon to win the overall classification.
