The last day and we all know what to expect.

he final showdown of the 2021 Tour de France is likely to be a sprint finish on the Champs-Élysées, where Sam Bennett celebrated last year.

Champs-Élysées is French for Elysium, the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous in Greek mythology. What a place to end the world’s biggest annual sporting event!

The riders clip into their pedals in Chatou, which is situated on the Seine river just 13 kilometres shy of the finish line on the Champs-Élysées. Obviously, the riders will approach Paris’ city centre via a détour. A glass of champagne, a photo shoot, a very slow pace – those are the ingredients of the parade stage on the final day of action. But once the riders hit the cobbles on the Champs-Élysées the bunch accelerates. The stage ends with eight fast laps of almost 7 kilometres.

For four consecutive years Mark Cavendish was the fastest sprinter in Paris, but that was awhile ago in the period 2009-2012. In subsequent years Marcel Kittel (2013, 2014), André Greipel (2015, 2016), Dylan Groenewegen (2017), Alexander Kristoff (2018), Caleb Ewan (2019), and Sam Bennett (2020) powered to victory.

Bennett’s sprint victory on the Champs-Élysées had a green lining, as the Irishman also won the points competition. Cavendish could do the same. And add something extra to the mix: the all-time record of 35 stage wins at te Tour de france.

The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.

Who to look out for?

he Contenders: there’s Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep) and all the rest, he can get his fairy tale Merckx-beating stage win and count on a strong team to guide him into the Champs Elysées. He’s not got the green jersey sealed up arithmetically yet with Michael Matthews still technically in reach.

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) could back off given his form and the approaching Olympics but said yesterday he wants this prestigious stage win on his palmarès too. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) has a chance while Cees Bol (DSM) will like this flat finish. It’s almost always a bunch sprint but doesn’t have to be, there’s still a chance for a strong breakaway to spoil things for Quickstep, think Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Oliver Naesen (Ag2r Citroën), Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) and Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe). Finally if the fairy tales of this Tour continue then André Greipel (Israel) has announced his retirement and what better way rage against the sunset with a win today?

Is it 20 points for both the intermediate sprint and the stage? Whilst not mathematically safe, Cav can sew it up with little effort at the first sprint.

Don’t think it will happen, but every year I always hope to see a breakaway hold of the bunch. If a break stays away my guess is Jasper Stuyven for the win.

If not can’t see anyone beating Cavendish in the sprint

@lunge thanks for posting these every day 👍👍

^^^^^^^^Agreed^^^^^^^ STW is always my first port of call for TdF stage commentary.

What sort of time are we expecting the finish to be?

Is it 20 points for both the intermediate sprint and the stage? Whilst not mathematically safe, Cav can sew it up with little effort at the first sprint.

Twenty points for the intermediate, fifty points for the stage.

On last night’s highlights they mentioned that the finish line was 300m further up the road than its traditional position so rather than being 400m from Le Place de la Concorde it’s 700m. Not sure why the organisers have done this.

What sort of time are we expecting the finish to be?

Early evening, 5.30 – 6pm UK time.

I don’t think this is a Cav certainty by any means, I think DQS are going to have to work hard for this one.
They’re not going to have much help either, there’ll be a lot of teams desperate for a win from a breakaway but they all know if they pull it back for a bunch sprint, Cav is the overwhelming favourite…

In an early tribute, I’ve been mirroring Cav on my ride this morning. Not by being fast, obviously…..

I promised the family I’d be back by 11am, no later. I was making good time, enough that i thought I had time for another quick loop to be tacked on, one more hill and descent.

Then I realised I’m shit at hills, had to ‘push on’ on the descent to regain contact with the clock, and spent the next 30 minutes constantly calculating and recalculating the speed needed to get back.

10:59, and I’ve now got ‘that’ face

Possibly one of the most iconic photos in cycling history. This time it will be the rainbow jersey instead of yellow and the green instead of rainbow. 2012 was when it was thought Cav couldn’t win the green jersey in its then format. They changed the rules for him after. This year they didn’t need to.

Obviously, the Cav fairytale would be a great end to the tour but…

A good consolation prize would be if WvA won a mountain stage, TT and sprint in the same tour.

That’s a new sprint finish, 300m further than previous. Tricky one, wonder how much it’ll affect that run out of the final corner…

Paris looking lovely as always.

Oi brad commentators aren’t suppose to have bias, even if he is a good friend ! 😉

max points possible (given 3 up the road) @ intermediate for Cav

The finger chewing is beginning…

Squeaky bum time

big turn from the World Champ

Ooh, wonder if that’s an attack by G or if he’s subtly helping Cav…?

This is all over the shop!

Trains coming together… Another huge turn from Alaphilippe.

WvA right up there too.

boxed in

Gutted.
Still, at least he got green.

Boo. Bloody Belgian mafia

Oof. Does mean he’ll be back though 😉

Bloody **** bollocks

if it wasnt going to be Cav the WvA is still fantastic

Great tour. other than GC have really enjoyed this year

That bloody WvA should go back to being MVdP’s bitch!

Fantastic, what a way to finish the Tour for WVA. Really impressive set of wins.

Just one win next year on a pan-flat stage in the first week will do!

That bloody WvA should go back to being MVdP’s bitch!

He’ll be just behind the podium accepting a brown envelope of Euros from Eddy Merckx..

Wiggins doing his best to mirror an asthmatic Phil Mitchell.

Stopped peddling when he should have been making his move. Just nowhere to go.

Just one win next year on a pan-flat stage in the first week will do!

Whilst the fairytale would be amazing, a lot of top sprinters are not there this year. I’d love to see Cav do it but I fear this year was his chance.

Stopped peddling when he should have been making his move. Just nowhere to go

That’s what it looked like.  Missed a couple of pedal strokes and that’s it.  Sprinting at that level is amazing

I fear it is a safe bet that Cav will never turn a pedal at the tdf again, let alone win a stage. Sadly if he’d won today he”d have had an ultimate retirement party. As it is I suspect he’ll soldier on and retire in a year or two with no one noticing.

I’m a bit meh about it as a tour. A weak field for both yellow and green that got weaker still after early withdrawals and crashes.

Cute kids!

It’s been great racing every day… only “meh” if you only care about the jerseys.

Another baby!

More cute kids!

@convert I am minded to agree. But in that weak field, never forget that the other riders are still trying to win. I wonder if he’ll make the roster next year. DQ are not really sentimental but things aligned this year. WvA looked stronger today despite the boxing in. Nice leg loosener from yesterday too.

I’ve watched lots of tours. I enjoyed this one as much as any and more than most.
My most memorable stage to watch though was in the early 70s when ITV were televising a Saturday stage live. There were echelons forming. The commentator was “Merckx in the lead, oh no! He’s lost it, it’s Poulidor, no! It’s now Anquetil! And Merckx is back in the lead!”

Wout is pretty amazing. Winning on Ventoux and the Champs (with a cheeky TT thrown in) is a baller move.

He’s also got a great theme tune:

Wout van Aert…. @SportsOrla pic.twitter.com/9ckv1l55SF

— Proper Cycling Magazine (@CyclingProper) July 17, 2021