Alexander Kristoff took on the challenge of trying to beat the invincible Marcel Kittel on the Champs-Elyseees and the Norwegian almost did the impossible. Having had to settle for second, there was no regrets for the Norwegian.

Team Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff saw one more chance to try for a stage win, this time on the final stage of the Tour de France on Sunday. Kristoff ramped up his sprint with tremendous speed and almost took the win, just missing the victory by less than half a bike length on the famed Champs-Élysées.

"It was a beautiful stage and I am happy I was there to fight for the victory. The team was super despite having bad luck with a flat tire for me with 28 km to go and then for Luca with only 8 km to go. But we came back and fought until the end. I was close for a victory. I gave my all and it was an almost perfect sprint but Kittel was stronger. All in all it was a great race for me and now I am happy,"said Alexander Kristoff.

The sprint win went to Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano), with the German rider taking the first and last stages in both this year and last year’s Tours. Behind Kristoff in third was stage 19 winner Ramunas Navardauskas of Garmin-Sharp.

"I think we can be happy with our Tour de France. We won two stages, we were close in a number of other stages with Alex Kristoff and Joaquim Rodriguez. We were also very active in every stage and we had a nice fight for the polka dot jersey. I think it was the best Tour de France for Team Katusha, but we will use this experience for our future development. I would like to thank the whole team for their work, for the strong fight and for the successes," said general manager Viacheslav Ekimov.

Kristoff won stages 12 and 15 in this year’s Tour as well as placing second on the green jersey competition behind winner Peter Sagan. Kristoff had top results in every sprint stage as well. Also trying to win a competition jersey was Joaquim Rodriguez. The Spanish rider battled in the mountains to earn the right to wear the polka dot jersey, a feat he accomplished on stage 10. Through the Alps and Pyrenees ‘Purito’ battled for climbing points, finally settling in third place behind winner Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo). 

Team Katusha’s Iurii Trofimov quietly rode himself into fourteenth position on the general classification behind winner Vincenzo Nibali. Trofimov’s consistent overall results gave him confidence for future races.

"It was big experience for me and I am happy I finished this Tour de France with a good result. In every day I tried to do my best. The Tour de France is a great race but also is the hardest race in the world. I am happy I was here. Now I will have short rest and will go to San Sebastian," said Iurii Trofimov, referring to next Saturday’s one day race.