André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) confirmed his status as the fastest rider in the Tour de France and equaled the feat of his compatriot Marcel Kittel by winning the final stage in Paris and bringing his total of wins in the race up to four. Despite being far back in the final turn, he proved his superior speed by passing Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and holding off a late surge from Bryan Coquard (Europcar) to take the biggest victory of his career. Due to rainy conditions, time gaps were neutralized and that allowed Chris Froome to roll across the line with his Sky teammates to safely win the race overall.

Since Mark Cavendish started his reign, the winner on the Champs-Elysees has usually been the dominant sprinter. When the Brit was dethroned by the German, Marcel Kittel continued the trend by winning the sprint in Paris in both 2013 and 2014.

With three stage victories, there is no doubt that André Greipel has been the fastest rider in this year’s race but the German still desperately wanted to prove his superiority in the sprint that matters the most. Hence, he was in a very determined mood at the start of today’s final leg of the race and his Lotto Soudal team control as soon as the attacking started on the finishing circuit in the capital.

Greipel didn’t disappoint his teammates as he turned out to be in a class of his own in the final battle between the sprinters even though his lead-out didn’t work perfectly. In fact, he had to start his sprint from far back but his speed was good enough to take the win.

"This is the most amazing place for winning a bike race," he said. "It's a dream come true. I've claimed the biggest success of my career on the Champs-Elysées, in the capital of the sprint. I had tried four times before and I'm delighted that I've finally done it in 2015. Nobody will be able to take this victory out of my record book.

“This is really a dream that comes true to win here on the Champs-Elysées. The circumstances weren’t that good due to the rain, I’m not very keen on that. Also because of my crash in the previous weekend I was a bit scared, I still have some pain in my knee. The last few days were very tough for me, I had to give all I got to be at the start today. But the fourth victory is a fact and it’s incredible to add this one to my record.

"I've got it because of my family and trainers. I thank them, as well as my team Lotto-Soudal. I had all the team dedicated to helping me in the sprints and I think we were the dominant team. It’s nice when it come together. For sure tonight we won’t celebrate with water.

"I’m looking forward to rest now. We've had an amazing Tour de France. We've won four bunch sprints out of five. It's been three weeks of happiness because of everyone's commitment.

"Greg Henderson who was injured has managed to come back to Paris. He played a part in our success. He was in the car today and he spoke to us through the radio. 

"As everyone could see, we took the control of the race when there was a breakaway. My team-mates have done everything for a bunch sprint finish.  We took responsibility to control the attack with Thomas De Gendt doing a lot of work with Lars Bak. Then the other guys took over. We tried to stay controlled and not hit the front too early but in the end it was hard to keep at the front. I went into the final turn a bit far back but had the legs to finish it off.

“My team mates did again an excellent job today. Thomas De Gendt, Tim Wellens, Tony Gallopin and Lars Bak really did their best to control the gap with the break. Adam Hansen, Marcel Sieberg and Jens Debusschere did the other preparations for the sprint. Even Greg Henderson came especially from Spain to encourage us. It was an emotional moment to experience this victory with them. There were only five sprint opportunities in this Tour, the fact that we win four of them is just undescribable.

"Since I've been a pro cyclist, there hasn't been a single year in which I didn't see myself improving. I still feel young, even though this Tour de France has made me three weeks older. I'm in a good condition. I'm ready for new challenges in the future.

“We have to get points wherever possible, those are the rules. But Sagan was one of the dominant riders in this year’s Tour de France so it was really hard to go for the green jersey. While Peter is riding a bike it will be pretty hard to get the sprinter's jersey.

“I want to thank everybody that supports me: my wife and children, the trainers and the members of the team, my team mates and all partners of Lotto Soudal. Without these people it wouldn’t be possible to achieve all of this. I’m really thankful to all of them.”