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Départ: stage three begins.
130km to go: Pogacar, flanked by his UAE teammates, start the départ for the final stage from Mantes-la-Ville to Paris Champs-Élysées. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere, with time for photos and backslapping. And why not? This has been a gruelling three weeks.
This is the final stage of the final Tour for Geraint Thomas, a winner here in 2018 and a legend of the sport: Olympic champion on the track, a winner of three World Championships. Such a storied and versatile rider that is such a popular rider for his understated charm.
Here is what Thomas had to say before today’s stage.
It’s a mixture of relief and joy. One last big day. To get to Paris is always special. We’ll enjoy it with the guys.
The Tour has been everything. I dreamt of competing in this race and I’ve done it 14 times. I think of all the guys I’ve done it alongside. Even the bad times, I still look back fondly because I know I bounced back from them.
The support I’ve had from Wales, from the UK, has been amazing. I see if from the Dutch and the French, the Americans. That’s the thing that I love the most.
And here is an interview we did with the Welshman a couple of months ago.
This was our report from Saturday, the penultimate stage.
Much has also been made of the Tour’s decision to augment Sunday’s traditional processional laps of the Champs-Élysées with three laps racing over the cobbled climbs in Montmartre. “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Vingegaard said. “Montmartre seemed very beautiful at the Paris Olympics, with a great atmosphere.”
“But when the riders arrived there, there were 50 in the peloton. Now there will be 150 of us fighting for position on a very narrow climb. It’s going to add more stress than we’d like.”
Preamble
Tadej Pogacar has more than a four-minute lead going into the final stage to Paris, and is a crash-free ride away from winning his fourth Tour. The Slovenian was the heavy favourite going into this race but has still been supreme. After gaining an early advantage, he has kept Jonas Vingegaard at bay, despite everything the Dane has thrown at his rival. Despite his victory being nearly sewn up, Pogacar remains wary of complacency. “Anything can happen but I’m not promising I’ll go for it,” said Pogacar after Saturday’s penultimate stage. “We’ll try to enjoy the yellow jersey in Paris.” There is a lot of talk that Pogacar might actually attack today. Let’s see.
Vingegaard is second (+4min24secs), Florian Lipowitz is third (11min90secs), just ahead of Scotland’s Oscar Onley, who just misses out on the podium. But what a performance by the 22-year-old. Big things await for Onley in the future.
Rain, cobbles and the Côte de la Butte Montmartre. As final stages of the Tour de France go, this one is certainly on the trickier side, even with the champagne glasses in hand. The threat of rain overshadows the finish in France’s capital and the Tour’s director of racing, Thierry Gouvenou, acknowledged that the Parisian cobbles can be treacherous when wet. “We know with the slightest drop of rain, Paris is a real ice rink,” he said before the Tour. “We saw it in the Olympic Games time trial. It can turn into a catastrophe.”
After a lot of talk about neutralisation of the stage, it looks dry in Paris. If it does rain, then the Tour is likely to “freeze” the overall standings, to ensure that the general classification is not affected by a last-day crash. “The stage will be run, but the time will be frozen,” Gouvenou said. So, as ever, in terms of riders keeping their GC position, it is just a case of them staying upright.
