This time last year I was in Paris and would have been flying out this evening and would have loved to have witnessed the final stage of the Tour De France. Last year the finish was in Nice due to the Olympics being held in Paris. Maybe next year we shall see as I will do most things for a sporting event.
The final day of the Tour De France has always been known as the stage for the sprinters who would normally battle it out with 8 laps of the Champs Elysees but, the course has been changed for this years edition. Instead of the 8 laps the organizers added a 10km loop including a 5% gradient up the Côte de la Butte Montmartre.
The final stage was phenomenal especially as it was pouring with rain making the cobbled streets slippery and very hazardous. I was going to skip todays race and had no idea the organizers had changed the route because it is normally rather boring. In the past we have seen the previous winners crack a bottle of champagne on route and there was none of that today as this was a proper race stage that everyone wanted to win. The sprinters who would normally be the favorites of this stage finished well over 2 minutes behind the winner today.
I have never seen the yellow jersey fighting out for the win on the Champs Elysees and even though Todaj Pogacar had over a 4 minute lead and the race already won he was fighting at the front. This showed the guy just likes to race as most others in his position with such a big lead would be sitting at the back celebrating the race victory. Wout van Aert the final stage winner pulled away to deservedly win by a comfortable 25 seconds, but only pulled away with 6 km to go. 3338km of racing and it is great to see a battle right to the end and not a parade of cyclists just celebrating completing the Tour.
What is great about using this new route is it gives many more fans the chance to view the race as it is normally 10 deep along the Champs Elysees. Hundreds of thousands were able to view this final stage due to the added 10km loop which was lined with fans. If you want to grow the sport you have to make it entertaining and no one can argue that this was a proper racing stage. This will attract more tourists to Paris and they need to keep this new course layout. The sprinters will not be happy as they want the glory finishing in Paris, but this is definitely not as interesting.
The overall Tour De France winner Pogacar won the 21 day event by 4 minutes 41 seconds and the 3rd rider was a distant 11 minutes behind. Pogacar had this even won a long time ago and this was never in doubt as he has proven he is a beast of a rider and just too powerful and too good for everyone else. Pogacar is the rider everyone is trying to beat and they cannot match the 4 time winner as he has proven over and over again he is that good.
Pogacar is 26 so he is still fairly young having won the Tour De France 4 times and if he can remain injury free surely he can beat the record of 5 victories as Lance Armstrong has had his 7 victories deleted due to doping. I do not see anyone able to challenge him right now as this is a 3 week race and it is a race of endurance and not about one off performances. teams have tried to gang up on him and have paid the price as he just knocks them off one by one.
One can understand after watching this race why he is paid the €8.2 million per year because he is the king of cycling and worth every cent. The scary part is he can still dominate this event for the next 3-4 years and there is a reason why his nickname is tornado as he literally devastates the competition.