Last time Final Stage of TdF wasn't ceremonial for GC riders.

[grellboy]

Apart from the year when the final stage into Paris was a TT and Lemond won by 8 seconds! (1989), just wondering if anyone knows when the TdF finale was actually contested on the Sunday competitively, rather than finishing as a contest on the Saturday. As it is pretty close this year, would like to see Bardet and Uran just say " 'ck it! " and just go for it all the way round the Camps Ellyse!

 

[oldfatfool]

Godcan you imagine the strop froome would chuck

 

[grellboy]

Be great though, as a spectacle. No sprinters left either to contest stage win!

 

[Disabledcyclist40]

Godcan you imagine the strop froome would chuck

He's be so upset he'd need a TUE to get his breath back

 

[Smokin Joe]

Apart from the year when the final stage into Paris was a TT and Lemond won by 8 seconds! (1989), just wondering if anyone knows when the TdF finale was actually contested on the Sunday competitively, rather than finishing as a contest on the Saturday. As it is pretty close this year, would like to see Bardet and Uran just say " 'ck it! " and just go for it all the way round the Camps Ellyse!

If you mean the last time it was contested on the Sunday and made a difference, that was in 1968 when Jan Jansens won the TT and overtook Herman Van Springel and San Miguel to win the race.

 

[MikeG]

Does anyone seriously think Bardet and Uran could breakaway from Sky on a flat stage, when they haven't been able to do it in the previous two and a half weeks?

 

[grellboy]

If you mean the last time it was contested on the Sunday and made a difference, that was in 1968 when Jan Jansens won the TT and overtook Herman Van Springel and San Miguel to win the race.

What I really meant was which year was it when the cyclist in second place made the conscious decision not to even bother having a go on the last day, because whoever it was certainly set a precedent. Or would Bardet and Uran really go for it anyway, if they were within 10 seconds or so?

 

[Smokin Joe]

What I really meant was which year was it when the cyclist in second place made the conscious decision not to even bother having a go on the last day, because whoever it was certainly set a precedent. Or would Bardet and Uran really go for it anyway, if they were within 10 seconds or so?

I don't know what you mean by "Set a preccedent, because I doubt if there has ever been a race when the second placed rider has not gone full gas in the final TT. Even if the leader is 10 minutes ahead on GC he could always be delayed by a crash, and in any case No 2 will not want to lose his position to No 3.

 

[grellboy]

Not the final TT, the stroll into Paris. Mechanicals aside, the last stage always seem to be uncontested competitively by the GC riders. I can't pretend I have an encyclopedic of the last thirty years of stage 21, but '89 aisde, can't recall it happening. Maybe second place has always been just too many seconds away from yellow for it to be viable....

 

[Smokin Joe]

Not the final TT, the stroll into Paris. Mechanicals aside, the last stage always seem to be uncontested competitively by the GC riders.

Because the stage is too flat for a challenger to get away. He'd not only have the yellow jersey's team full gas after him but four of five sprinter's teams doing the same thing because they want the stage.

 

[stephec]

Does anyone seriously think Bardet and Uran could breakaway from Sky on a flat stage, when they haven't been able to do it in the previous two and a half weeks?

This.

Also, every team with a half decent sprinter would gang up on them to guarantee a sprint finish.

 

[KneesUp]

If Froome has 'a mechanical' with 3.1km to go it could get very interesting. I suspect the unwritten rules would go out the window at that point.

 

[Paulus]

Because the stage is too flat for a challenger to get away. He'd not only have the yellow jersey's team full gas after him but four of five sprinter's teams doing the same thing because they want the stage.

That means it would be like a massed bunch team time trial, I quite like the thought of that happening.

 

[Aravis]

It often feels as though the Champs Elysees finish as been around forever, like the polka-dot jersey. In fact both were introduced in 1975.

Prior to that, the lead certainly changed hands on the final day road stage in 1947.

In 1979 Joop Zoetemelk, over 3 minutes behind in second place, successfully beat the entire field on the Champs Elysees by more than two minutes - apart from the leader Bernard Hinault who beat him in in the final sprint. As they were both almost half an hour ahead of everyone else, I suppose the rest may have decided not to chase in recognition of their superiority.

More recently, I can remember Pedro Delgado making attempts to get away in 1987, when trailing by 40 seconds.

It's not unusual for there to be time losses due to splits in the field on the final stage, though the 3 second rule might make it less likely. I think the so-called tradition is a myth. If the situation were right, as it could possibly be this year, I think they'd give it everything hoping for a split at the right time.

 

[steverob]

The only time recently that it was even "hinted" at that the Champs-Elysees stage might not be purely ceremonial for GC riders would have been 2007. After the final time trial, when Cadel Evans had cut the gap on leader Alberto Contador to just 23 seconds (and Levi Leipheimer another 8 seconds back), I remember a lot of commentators wondering aloud about whether Evans' team would try their luck on the final stage, but they did come out and say that night that the yellow jersey was Contador's and there would be no challenge from them. However there were still rumours circulating that if the TT had gone differently and Evans had ended up with a gap of only 5 seconds from first place, then all bets might have been off - how true that is, we'll never know.