2016 Tour de France, Stage 21: Chantilly → Paris (113km)

[Praying Mantis]

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The final processional stage of the biggest race of the year

A fitting day to spend a moment

Remembering those who have given too much

To bring us the sport we love









Best wishes for full recovery

Stig Broeckx (1990 – )
Valued hardworking domestique Stig Broeckx was injured on May 28th in a serious crash involving 19 riders caused by motorbikes on a descent during the Tour of Belgium. He suffered severe head injuries and is currently in a coma in the hospital in Gent. We're all hoping for good news and for you to get well soon, Stig!








In memoriam

Antoine Demoitié (1990 – 2016)
Tour du Finistère winner of 2014 Antoine Demoitié crashed on March 27th when he went down in a pile-up of several cyclists and was then hit by a motorcycle in the Gent–Wevelgem road race. He died that evening in hospital.








In memoriam

Daan Myngheer (1993 – 2016)
Belgian Junior National Road Race Champion of 2011 Daan Myngheer suffered a heart attack during the first stage of Criterium International on March 26th. He died in hospital two days later.

Stage 21: Chantilly → Paris Champs-Élysées (113 km, Flat)

Sunday, July 24th • Stage info • Soundtrack • Startlist • Roadbook • Rules • Weather: Finish
Starts at 16:35 - Live video from 16:00 - Finish at 19:15 (CEST) • Live ticker • Livestreams

Also on today, Sunday: La Course by Le Tour de France (Elite Women's Road Race)
Raced on the same circuit in Paris, the women will do 13 laps, starting at 13:15. Live video from 13:45. Finish at around 15:10. Schedule might change slightly prior to the start.

Race info • Startlist​

Route:

Profile:

Mountain passes & hills:
Km 32.5 - Côte de l'Ermitage 0.9 kilometre-long climb at 7% - category 4


Final Kilometres:

8 complete laps of the circuit above will be ridden.​

Preview:

This year’s course may include a few novelties but there is nothing new on the final day of the race. Three years ago it was rumoured that ASO were planning to end the race on the top of Alpe d’Huez but those ideas were never turned into reality. As usual, the race will come to an end with a largely ceremonial stage to Paris where the sprinters will get the chance to battle it out on the Champs-Élysées in the most prestigious stage for a fast finisher.

Overnight the riders will have travelled from the Alps to the southwestern suburbs of Paris for the final day of racing that follows a very traditional format. The stage usually starts a bit south of the capital and then makes a small loop in the area – often with one or two small categorized climbs to finalize the battle for the KOM jersey – before the riders head towards the city centre. Here they do a number of laps of the famous circuit on the Champs-Élysées, very often ending with a big bunch sprint.

This year’s stage starts in Chantilly north of Paris and as usual the distance is rather short, even shorter than usual. At just 113km, the route makes a small loop in an easterly direction before it turns around and heads south towards the city centre. In the suburbs, they will reach the top of the final categorized climb of the race, the category 4 Cote de l’Hermitage (900m, 7%) after 32.5km of racing. Otherwise the terrain is almost completely flat as the riders continue towards the centre of Paris.

In this year’s unusually short stage, the riders will reach the finishing city circuit after just 57km of racing and 1.5km further up the road, they will cross the line for the first time. The stage ends with 9 laps of the 6.85km circuit that brings them up and down the famous avenue which is one lap less than last year. [8 laps by my count. ed.] One of the novelties for the 2013 edition that was introduced to mark the 100th edition, was the fact that the riders went all the way around the Arc de Triomphe instead of doing a 180-degree turn in front of it. This adjustment to the circuit was maintained in 2014 and 2015 and will again be in place in 2016 but the stage won’t finish late in the evening as it did three years ago. It will still finish later than usual though as the arrival is scheduled around 19.15 local time, just like in the past two years.

The Champs-Elysées is cobbled and not flat as it ramps slightly upwards when one goes through the finish. The intermediate sprint will be contested at the highest point of the avenue on the third lap when 39.5km still remain. The final sprint is well-known by all the riders and pretty technical as there are two 90-degree turns just before the flamme rouge. Inside the final kilometre, two sweeping turns lead onto the short 400m finishing straight that is slightly uphill on a 9m wide road.

The stage will of course pan out as it usually does, with the first part raced at a leisurely pace while the riders take the time to congratulate each other, take a sip from a champagne glass and pose for the photographers. The racing gets serious when they approach the finishing circuit, with the team of the race leader set to gradually pick up the pace before the first passage of the finish line. From then, it will be full-on racing which will in all likelihood come down to a bunch sprint that may even determine the winner of the points classification. For the second year in a row, we will have a shorter ceremonial part and more laps on the circuit which should give a bit more racing than usual but the scenario is likely to be the same. A small group will get clear on the circuit but in this kind of short stage they won’t get much of an advantage. The sprint teams will keep things firmly under control. As the final stage of the 2015 Giro showed, surprises are possible even in the final stage of a grand tour but the circuit in Paris is less suited to attackers.

Last year André Greipel confirmed his status by taking his fourth stage win ahead of Bryan Coquard. In 2014, Marcel Kittel took his second consecutive win on the famous avenue when he narrowly held off Alexander Kristoff in a close sprint. One year earlier he had broken Mark Cavendish’s winning streak in a fantastic battle against the Brit and André Greipel. Before then, Cavendish had won the stage four years in a row from 2009 to 2012. Before the Brit started to dominate the stage, Gert Steegmans, Daniele Bennati and Thor Hushovd won bunch sprints while the sprinters were last foiled in 2005 when Alexandre Vinokourov took a hugely surprising victory with a late attack.

Current (approx. final) General Classification standings:


Current (approx. final) Points Competition standings:


Current (approx. final) Mountains Competition standings:


Current (approx. final) Youth Competition standings:


Current (approx. final) Team Competition standings:



Withdrawals Stage 20:
None

All Withdrawals:
DENNIS (BMC) ARCHBOLD (BOA) BRESCHEL, LANGEVELD (CDT) BOŽIČ, NAVARRO (COF) CAVENDISH, RENSHAW (DDD) TULIK (DEN) LADAGNOUS, PINEAU, PINOT (FDJ) FRANK (IAM) MØRKØV, VAN DEN BROECK (KAT) DEBUSSCHERE (LTS) HERRADA, G. IZAGIRRE (MOV) GERRANS (OBE) DUMOULIN (TGA) CONTADOR (TNK) CANCELLARA, THEUNS (TFS)
175 of 198 riders remain in the race.



← Stage 20 Thread •

Le Tour comes to an end for 2016 and my job here is done. I hope the information I gathered has been a useful resource. Using my limited knowledge I tried to make the stage threads that I would want to see myself. Some people scroll right by the posts and ask for the same information to be repeated down the thread, but hey, there's nothing to be done about the likes of them! I can only try my best.

I would like to thank everybody for the kind shout-outs along the way. Encouragement goes a long way when posting these things for three weeks in a row. So thank you kindly!

I will not be making further posts as I'm currently in disagreement with the moderators over how frivolously posts get deleted around here, which I see as a strong disincentive to post further contributions. I will however continue to flesh out the Vuelta thread that I've already started, a race I hope for the sake of all of us will be worth looking forward to!

Do enjoy your summers,

​

 

[TomLPC]

A great tribute, well measured.

Sagan to take a flyer I think

 

[Alexandre B.]

Thanks for all your work. Very appreciated.

I will be there on the Champs-Elysées.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Chapeau Mantis.

Greipel please.

 

[Gigs_98]

Thank you Praying Mantis for those wonderful stage threads. I remember last year when almost every tdf thread was created by a random poster who didn't even put profile and map into the opening post. I think I speak for the whole forum when I say that we are all very happy you made the threads this year.

To come back to the stage, I really hope Sagan can win but I fear his sprint just isn't strong enough. Kristoff or Coquard would also be cool but I'm expecting a German to win.

 

[Anderis]

Pierre Rolland to attack and distroy his opponents on that 4th category climb and win the stage with 31 minutes advantage over the peloton, winning the overall.

 

[Jagartrott]

Thanks for the posts and the tribute.
Moderating is probably not easy, but just deleting left and right is not very constructive I believe.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Thanks Mantis. Fwiw, the mods are volunteers and as I'm sure you've noticed, there's a lot of traffic during the Tour. Mistakes happen

Cavendi... oh wait nvm. Cancellara to attack and stay away in his final to... oh ffs. Kittel then I guess

 

[loge1884]

best bets are perhaps:
1st tier: Kittel, Greipel, Kristoff
2nd tier: Matthews, Coquard, Sagan (he did a lot of work today, however he seems to be the A-No1-Recovery King)

personally I hope for Sagan, Greipel or Kristoff (in this order) ... or of course whoever proves panache ....

 

[Tonton]

HUGE props to you Paying Mantis. You did an awesome job. Thank you. I give you a 10 .

The Champagne will make the Skyborgs rusty, they will seize entering Paris, and Romard Bardault will win the sprint and the Tour. Guaranteed .

 

[Cannibal72]

Beautiful OP.

 

[Thepirateisgood]

Great praying, mantis.
It is hard this season on all pelotons, let's hope we will never see the like again.

Kristoff ftw, or permission to say Coq?

Kittel or Greipel is the obvious but hoping for others, EBH or Sagan doing the Vinokourov would get my pants in a something.

 

[SeriousSam]

As the Tour comes to an end, the question arises as to who will be taking the role of the master's apprentice as the Sky phalanx crosses the finish line in triumph.

Many moons ago in 2013, it was Little Richie Porte (and a Sky minion who shall remain nameless).

But a mere two years later, with a traitorous defection to the Rebel Alliance of BMC imminent, Geraint Thomas had taken Richie's place.

This year, however G proved to be of so little value to Froome that he may have outlived his usefulness. Even the ultimate sacrifice, giving his bike to the leader in his moment of need, was not entirely satisfactory for the bike lacked osymetric chainrings. Yet as the apprentice faltered and cast doubt on whether his midichlorian count suffices to follow in his master's footsteps towards GT supremacy, a new padawan emerged, one stronger in the force, perhaps, than G ever was.

Will young Wouter fulfill his destiny and take G's place at Lord Froome's side?

 

[Thepirateisgood]

Aha, now I get the alien alias.

Pro road cycling is nothing but a RPG.

 

[Cycling1984]

Thank you Praying Mantis for all the opening threads during this tour, by stage 17 or 18 I'd of probably caved in or pulled what remains of my hair out....Amazing that you kept it going throughout (Surely completing an Iron Man would be easier than 21 posts over 3 weeks)

Kristoff to hopefully spoil "Kittel the moaners" Champs-Élysées party, think the stage he already won is more than he deserves from this tour.

Here are my some of my cycling ratings for tdf 2016:
Poels 6/5
Chris Froome 5/5 (Team & joking aside he was miles ahead of the pack, even without the sky bots would still have won, Alberto who?)
Peter Sagan 5/5 (Monster of the peloton, closest thing we have to the modern Eddie Merckx...minus the GC results)
Valverde 4/5 (Would have finished second were it not for the lethargic Quintana)

Kittel 1/5
Quintana .001/5 (Too high??)

 

[SHAD0W93]

I hope Greipel, Sagan, or Kristoff take it.

 

[chiocciolis_calves]

Hoping for Greipel, but would bet on Kristoff if pressed.

 

[Jspear]

Thank you Praying Mantis for those wonderful stage threads. I remember last year when almost every tdf thread was created by a random poster who didn't even put profile and map into the opening post. I think I speak for the whole forum when I say that we are all very happy you made the threads this year.

To come back to the stage, I really hope Sagan can win but I fear his sprint just isn't strong enough. Kristoff or Coquard would also be cool but I'm expecting a German to win.

Lol not much of a prediction, but the most realistic.
I agree with you, but I'm hoping for Sagan.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

Thanks Mantis. Fwiw, the mods are volunteers and as I'm sure you've noticed, there's a lot of traffic during the Tour. Mistakes happen

Cavendi... oh wait nvm. Cancellara to attack and stay away in his final to... oh ffs. Kittel then I guess

In the abscence of Ovendish, the former darling of caffeine haircare products, Quiffel, is also my favourite. Kristoff and Greipel should be the closest contenders.

Edit: I most heartily second all the acknowledgements to Preying Mantis' opening threads.

 

[The Barb]

I'm pretty keen on Kristoff ($8) to improve on his 3rd and 2nd on the Champs Elysees in the last two years. He has also improved significantly as the Tour has gone on, having in my view been the best in the two of the last last three sprints he contested:

Stage 11 - Won the sprint for 4th
Stage 14 - 2nd to Cavendish
Stage 17 - 2nd to Sagan after misjudging the finish line.

Not a great Tour but a pleasure nonetheless. Thanks all, and particularly Praying Mantis who was the real revelation of the Tour.

 

[SKSemtex]

I was quite optimistic even after stage 18 that this Tour would deliver. How wrong I was. Last week was parody of cycling. Good parcour, rain, small gaps for podium places and ..... nothing, zero, nichts, NADA, niente.
But to be optimistic this Tour still can be safe for me shell ANYBODY do a Vino this year and spoil the party . I hate this Paris sunday party. What to celebrate here except Froome-Sky-Sagan dominance?
Of course nothing is going to happen untill last hundert meters, so obvious pick is german duo. Who cares anyway.

 

[Andy262]

Thanks for your hard work on the previews. Great stuff!

Kittel ftw today?

 

[saganftw]

i think kristoff is due a bit of luck in sprint so he will take it,but i hope for sagan and bodnar attack 2 kms to go

 

[Dragontearz]

Something to get me in the mood...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9V-zUlrhEE

Hoping for Greipel or Sagan to take it

 

[Museeuw]

Awesome OP's through these 3 weeks, big thanks to Praying Mantis!

Poels strongest with Froome, others were way too much behind. But It's not Froome's/SKY's problem if rivals are not on required level.

It's not bad if you can't but if you don't even try, it's shameful.

Alaphilippe king of the descenders, Pantano not much worse.

Happy that Cav was able to deliver again.

Stage 21, young Enger. Would be great story if he could win on Champs Elysee.