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.

 

Lotto Soudal had controlled a three-rider breakaway with Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida), Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis) and Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne) for most of the laps on the circuit. Thomas De Gendt and Tim Wellens did the early work at had the group at 25 seconds with 15km to go. However, the gap was not really coming down and this prompted Cyril Gautier (Europcar) to come to the fore to work with the Lotto riders.

 

At the start of the penultimate lap, the gap had been brought down to 17 seconds while Degenkolb’s lead-out man Roy Curvers (Giant-Alpecin) worked hard to rejoin the peloton after a puncture. This gave Rohan Dennis (BMC) a chance to bridge the gap and with a swift acceleration he joined the leaders.

 

Meanwhile, Chris Froome was working hard to rejoin the peloton after a bag had been caught in his wheel. However, wet conditions had prompted the commissaires to stop the clock at the start of the first lap, meaning that his overall victory was not in danger.

 

Bryan Nauleau also came to the fore to work for Europcar and so the gap was only 10 seconds with 7km to go. This was the signal for Vanbilsen to attack and he got a short time as the lone leader before Dennis rejoined him. The rest of the break sat up.

 

At the start of the final lap, Roman Kreuziger had taken over the pace-setting for Tinkoff-Saxo and when he swung off Adam Hansen and Lars Bak took over. They neutralized a fourth attack from Andriy Grivko (Astana) and brought the two leaders back with 5km to go.

 

Even Alberto Contador came to the front to take a turn before Jose Serpa took over for Lampre-Merida. Pieter Weening was next as he moved up with Michael Matthews before Lampre-Merida was back in control.

 

Matthieu Ladagnous took a turn for FDJ but was passed by Stijn Devolder (Trek) who attacked with 2km to go. Warren Barguil was quick to shut it down for Gaint-Alpecin and he led the peloton under the tunnel with 1.5km to go.

 

Barguil swung off and left it to Roy Curvers to take the next turn but they were passed by Marcel Sieberg who launched the Lotto Soudal train at the flamme rouge. However, it was Katusha that came out on top, with Marco Haller, Jacopo Guarneri and Alexander Kristoff taking control.

 

Guarnieri and Kristoff were the first two riders through the final turn with 350m to go, followed by Peter Sagan, John Degenkolb, Arnaud Demare, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Mark Cavendish and Greipel. The Norwegian launched a long sprint and seemed to be riding away with the win until Greipel came flying. Despite starting from far back, he passed the Katusha rider and held off Bryan Coquard who crossed the line in second.

 

As the times had already been taken, Chris Froome could enjoy the moment with his teammates, with the Sky riders all rolling across the line far behind the peloton. Hence, he secured himself a second overall victory in the Tour de France, with the Movistar duo of Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde completing the podium.

 

Sagan won his fourth green jersey in a row while Froome was also the king of the mountains. Quintana was the best young rider and Movistar was the strongest team. Finally, Romain Bardet (Ag2r) won the supercombativity award as the most aggressive rider.

 

With the Tour de France done and dusted, WorldTour racing resumes on Saturday with the Clasica San Sebastian. The next race in France is La Polynormande on Sunday.

 

 

A ceremonial

After four tough days in the Alps, it was the usual relaxed end to the Tour de France before the final showdown on the Champs-Elysees. Stage 21 was just 109.5km long and took the riders from Sevres to the finish on the famous avenue in Paris. There was an early category 4 climb but otherwise the course was flat and ended with 10 laps of the well-known 6.7km finishing circuit.

 

All riders who finished yesterday’s stage were present when the riders gathered for the start under a rainy sky. Most riders were wearing rain jackets and the bad weather put a dampener on the usual festive mood.

 

A relaxed atmosphere

Nonetheless, there was still time for the usual photo sessions when the riders rolled through the neutral zone, with Chris Froome (Sky), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Romain Bardet (Ag2r) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) gaining the attention for wearing the distinctive jerseys. As they reached the site of the official start, Froome moved up to shake race director Christian Prudhomme’s hand before the flag was waved.

 

As usual, there was no racing and instead Froome took time to stop to change his rain jacket. He then gathered with his Sky teammates for the usual photo session behind the peloton and the British team was sporting special jerseys for the final stage.

 

Pozzato wins final KOM sprint

While Froome dropped back to enjoy a glass of champagne at his team car, the riders rode slowly up the final climb of the race and it was Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) who was allowed to score the final KOM point in the race. As they had finished the descent, Sky took control with Luke Rowe and as they got closer to Paris, more riders from the British team came to the fore.

 

Geraint Thomas took over the pace-setting as they passed the most famous landmarks in the French capital and he was the first rider to cross the finish line with 68.5km to go. The Welshman traded pulls with teammates Leopold König, Rowe, Ian Stannard, Nicolas Roche and Richie Porte during the first two laps while the sprint teams gathered near the front to be ready to respond to the attacks.

 

The attacking starts

The attacking started just before the intermediate sprint when Andriy Grivko (Astana) took off. However, he had the rest of the peloton in tow when he led Merhawi Kudus, Simon Yates, Sylvain Chavanel and Luke Durbridge across the line to win the sprint.

 

Durbridge and Chavanel were the next to try and the Frenchman quickly distanced his companion. He dangled a few metres ahead while Sky continued to ride on the front.

 

Chavanel is caught

At the end of the third lap, Chavanel had built an advantage of 10 seconds and this was the signal for Lotto Soudal to take control. Tim Wellens and Thomas de Gendt took over the pace-setting.

 

The attacking started again when Grivko tried again and he was joined by Danilo Wyss (BMC), Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), Jose Serpa (Lampre-Merida), Jacques van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka) and a Cofidis rider. They managed to get an advantage but Lotto Soudal didn’t want such a big group to get clear and so they brought both them and Chavanel back.

 

A trio takes off

Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida) and Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis) were the next to try and they wer joined by Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne) to form a strong trio. Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18) tried to bridge the gap but he never got much of an advantage as Tony Gallopin, Wellens and De Gendt slowly reeled him in.

 

Svein Tuft (Orica-GreenEDGE) was the next rider to try to bridge the 25-seconds gap and he managed to slowly get away while Thomas Voeckler (Europcar ) started to work with the three Lotto riders. He held a 10-second advantage for a while but with 35km to go he decided to sit up.

 

Voeckler, Wellens, De Gendt and Gallopin kept the gap at 25-30 seconds for a few laps while the GC riders benefited from the neutralized time gaps to ride at the back. At the same time, there were several punctures, with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) being among the riders to be forced into chase mode.

 

Grivko tries again

With 25km to go, Grivko launched his third attack and he stayed ahead for 2km before he was reeled in. Moments later Voeckler and Gallopin ended their work and it was left to De Gendt and Wellens to set the pace as they entered the final 20km.

 

At this point, the gap had gone out to 30 seconds but it was not really coming down. This forced Europcar to join the chase again and that effort paid off, with Coquard taking second behind Greipel after an exciting finale.