The 2015 Tour de France comes to a close with a 109.5kms route from Sevres-Grand Paris Seine Ouest to the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
On the outskirts of the country capital, there is a cat 4 left to contest:
• Km 10.5 – Côte de l’Observatoire 2.2 kilometre-long climb at 4.1% – category 4
And, the intermediate sprint occurs in Paris at 55kms. Traditionally, this is a parade, celebration route until entering the Champs-Elysees when the peloton takes 10 laps up and down one of the most famous streets in the world.
Along the way, you can expect pictures of all the jersey riders riding arm in arm, the yellow jersey rider drinking champagne with his DS, the team of the leader riding off the front with him in the center, and lots of beautiful historic scenery.
When the race turns onto the finishing circuit, a rider who has announced his retirement from the sport usually leads onto the start of the finishing circuits. Then, the u-turn loops start where a group of riders will attack on the concrete setts which make the road surface incredibly bumpy (and yields to a number of mechanicals). These attacks will get caught, and a sprint finish will occur as it has the past decade. A bunch sprint has finished this stage 34/40 times! Mark Cavendish has won in Paris 4 times—more than anyone else, and I’m sure that after what he would consider a disappointing Tour, he’s hyper motivated to make it 5. But, Greipel’s had great speed and Sagan great heart this Tour, so they could spoil it for the “Manx Missile. “