Day 21: Montgeron to Paris Champs-Élysées(103 km)

And the 3 week journey came to an end today. THE closest tour I have watched. Amazing stage performances and some incredible riders coming to the fore like Warren Barguil(Sunweb) and Michal Kwiatkowski(Team Sky). It was the year of controversy: Peter Sagan. Nacer Bouhanni. John Degenklob. It was the year of crashes: Richie Porte. Geraint Thomas. Marcel Kittel. Alejandro Valverde. Mark Cavendish. Rafael Majka. Ion Izagirre.

It was the year of Sky who drove Chistopher Froome to his 4th Tour De France win on the back of some incredible team performances. Today’s stage was more of a celebration stage, with riders drinking champagne, enjoying themselves. And they say it is easy pace, but they did ride 103k in 2:25. So Hahahaha.

Simon Yates(Orica Scott, white), Michael Matthews(Sunweb, Green), Warren Barguil(Sunweb, Polka Dot) and Chris Froome(Sky, Yellow) led the Peloton as the jersey wearers. The peloton was in a celebratory mood with people enjoying the final day, celebrating the achievement of finishing a grand tour.

Chris Froome became the 7th rider to win a Tour De France without winning any stage after Firmin Lambot (1922), Roger Walkowiak (1956), Gastone Nencini (1960), Lucien Aimar (1966), Greg LeMond (1990) and Óscar Pereiro (2006). Yoann Offredo(Wanty Groupe Gobert) is from Essonne province and he decided to ride a little ahead and say hi to his family and friends as the peloton passed through the region. Meanwhile after the date proposal during the Giro D’Italia by Victor Campenaerts(Lotto NL Jumbo) to a girl named Carlien (UCI being Swiss had no sense of humour and fined Victor 100 francs for that stunt), AG2R-La Mondiale's Cyril Gautier proposed to a “Caroline” for marriage! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5... I’m sure UCI will be there to fine him for having the guts to propose. Froomey got a bike change with a Go Pro on his new bike to make some nice footage for Team Sky. Not only us amateurs do it, eh?

As the Peloton entered Paris, there was a crash! Primoz Roglic(Lotto NL Jumbo, Stage 17 winner) and Tsgabu Grmay (Bahrain-Merida). But they were back on the bike. And as the 8 loops around the Champs-Elysées started, Daryl Impey (Orica) attacked! And then there were 8 more. Imañol Erviti (Movistar), Miki Schär (BMC), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Daryl Impey (Orica-Scott), Julien Vermote (Quick-Step Floors), Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) and Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) built a 20 seconds lead with 45km to go as the rains started! Romain Hardy (Fortuneo) and Polka Dot Warren Barguil got flats on the Paris cobbles and had to get wheel changes. And the rate at which the Peloton was going, it was going to be a hard task catching them.

Michael Schär took the Intermediate sprint. With 38k to go, the 9 man breakaway had a 20 second lead which remained the same with minor fluctuations till the 20k to go. Tony Martin(Katusha) started the attack to catch the breakaway and with 10k to go everyone was caught. Meanwhile Pierre LaTour(Ag2R La Mondiale) got a flat and we saw the slowest ever wheel change in the history of a grand tour. Dimitriy Gruzdev (Astana) attacked with 4k to go followed by Czech Zdenek Stybar (Quick Step) , but Stybar was caught with 2.5k to go. Andre Greipel(Lotto Soudal) who has never went without a stage win on a grand tour, was determined to win today’s stage and his team along with Katusha and Dimension data had the best build up as we approached the final kilometer. As the end approached Dylan Groenewegen(Lotto NL Jumbo) picked up the sprint and went out hard before anyone expected. Both Greipel and Edwald Boasson Hagen(Dimension Data) went for it, with Greipel almost there but it was Groenewegen’s day. The 24 year old won the “sprinters world cup” at the end of a glorious Tour De France.

So today’s results:

After 3540 kilometers in 21 stages(23 days including 2 rest days), the General Classification:

And the jersey wearers:

So, in conclusion, congratulations to Chris Froome for his 4th Tour De France win and his hattrick(2015,2016,2017). I hope you guys enjoyed my reviews and they were helpful. Thank you for reading. Vive La Tour. Vive La France. #TDF2017