Eight in the lead on the Champs-Elysées
167 riders started stage 21 in Montgeron. They celebrated the end of the Grande Boucle as Chris Froome (Sky) was eyeing his first victory of the year, which is the overall classification of the Tour de France. Cyril Gautier (AG2R-La Mondiale) caught the occasion to propose Caroline to marry him via a written message live on the worldwide broadcast. Once they arrived on the Champs-Elysées, Daryl Impey (Orica-Scott) attacked and created a front group of nine riders with Imañol Erviti (Movistar), Miki Schär (BMC), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Julien Vermote (Quick-Step Floors), Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) and Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert). King of the Mountains Warren Barguil (Sunweb) had a flat tyre but made it back with 32km to go.
Dylan Groenewegen beats André Greipel
Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) attacked from the bunch to catch the breakaway but the whole peloton was reunited with 10km to go. Team Sky took the command of the pack at bell lap. Dimitriy Gruzdev (Astana) tried his luck in the last lap. Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors) did it too on his own. The Czech rider was caught with 2.5km to go. With 300m to go, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) launched the sprint but he was passed by André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) who looked set for the hat-trick after winning this prestigious stage back to back in 2015 and 2016. However, Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) still had energy to outsprint the German and take his first ever Tour de France victory.
