Ending off a Grand Tour with a time trial will not be an uncommon idea – it is how the Giro d’Italia ended three years in a row very lately, in spite of everything. For the Tour de France although, it hasn’t occurred in 35 years – since the celebrated 1989 version when Greg Lemond beat Laurent Fignon by a traditionally small eight-second margin.
There’s rather a lot to unravel in the case of this yr’s reprise of the final-stage ‘contre la montre‘. For one, not solely does the Tour not finish in its regular dash stage, it additionally ends a really good distance from the Champs-Elysées in Good. It couldn’t be farther from enterprise as regular.
Throw into the combo the mythologising related to the ultimate TT due to the feats of Lemond and it turns into fairly the consideration.
The riders’ views on the matter are typically extra prosaic; in spite of everything, most of them weren’t even born in 1989. Theirs are the issues of racing and logistics, and minimising stress.
As such, yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar would favor the comparatively relaxed Champs-Elysées ‘victory parade’ afforded to the GC chief on the final day, somewhat than ready all day for a late begin after which racing a tough stage.
“It’s going to be positively totally different, however I don’t prefer it, as a result of I’ll begin so late, 17:45 within the afternoon,” he says. “It’s going to be such an extended day only for a time trial, and it’s a extremely onerous one too. I believe I would favor a Champs-Elysees dash.
“However,” he provides diplomatically, “it’s one thing totally different, and I’m wanting ahead to it and experiencing how it’s.”
Paris is actually a particular place, says Israel-PremierTech rider Hugo Houle, a Tour de France stage winner in 2022. However for him the logistics of a Good end could not make extra sense.
“I stay right here, I stay in Monaco, so it’s good to be right here. It is going to save a flight on Monday morning,” he says. “It’s totally different, Paris is at all times distinctive with the end on the Champs-Elysees and with the Musée du Louvre, and it’s important to do it just a few instances. However for a man like me, who has achieved it, it’s good to be right here and benefit from the solar.
“It’s good for us, it’s good for me. I is usually a bit much less confused,” he provides.
It is value remembering that the choice to complete in Good didn’t come up in a vacuum. With the Olympic Video games taking up France’s capital metropolis, a Champs-Elysées end was merely out of the query. It is not a part of any new plan to begin ending the race outdoors of the capital, which can little doubt relieve many.
It appears the Olympics is larger than biking’s biggest occasion, as stage 18 winner and achieved time triallist Victor Campanaerts factors out.
“The Tour de France we predict is the largest sporting occasion however the Olympic Video games is the largest sporting occasion on the earth, in order that they’re now the precedence,” he says.
So far as a time trial on the ultimate day is worried, he says: “It occurs extra usually, particularly within the Giro, so it is not one thing completely new to me.”
He would not thoughts seeing the concept repeated occasionally, he says – so long as it’s flat. Which in the present day’s course most positively is not.
One man who does keep in mind the 1989 race is Rolf Aldag, sports activities director at Bora-Hansgrohe. He completed 9 Excursions de France in Paris throughout his profession as a rider too, and understandably has an affinity with the place.
“For me, it’s so unusual that it doesn’t end in Paris,” he says. “I might love to return to Paris.
“If it ends in a time trial, every now and then, why not,” he provides. “I simply don’t wish to see a Bordeaux end in 2028, after which in 2029 Toulouse or Montpellier. For me, it’s actually bizarre, and in each second interview I nonetheless get it fallacious, saying I can’t wait to get to Paris.
“Paris is a should, however a time trial is okay.”
