The Tour de France’s Montmartre experiment is the best thing to happen to cycling for years – but please, ASO, make it count for the GC next time; “It’s too hard to answer!” Pogačar and Evenepoel baffled by climate change question + more on the live blog

I’m currently writing this blog post from my hotel room in Paris, a bit worse for wear if I’m honest, after a late night spent toasting the end of another three weeks of blokes racing bikes around France.

The room in question overlooks a vast cobbled roundabout surrounded by pretty, overpriced restaurants, a stone’s throw from the French capital’s much larger and more famous roundabout that surrounds the Arc de Triomphe and tempts motorists into life-endangering madness every day.

This time yesterday, my more modest roundabout was sealed off by red and white barriers and stern-looking police officers, because it pointed the way to the greatest innovation cycling has seen in years (no, I’m not talking about lactate gels).

ASO’s decision, inspired by the thrilling 2024 Olympic road race route, to spice up the Tour’s traditional procession and sprint through Paris by diverting the last stage through the bustling streets of Montmartre and its devilishly steep cobbled hill has paid off massively.

Last year’s epic duel between Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar may have come with the caveat of a rain-soaked neutralisation, but yesterday’s Parisian thriller was proof that Montmartre’s mini-classic is pure Tour gold.

I watched the drama unfold from my plum spot on the Champs-Élysées, right by the finish (I know, what a life), but colleagues who ventured up to Montmartre kept texting me raving about the atmosphere, which has helped breathe new, boisterous life into the Tour’s final day.

The three bigger laps on the hill have also reinvigorated a stage which, for all its annual sprint pyrotechnics, had gone slightly stale as a sporting spectacle. Instead, the new route is perfectly pitched, creating a mini-classic on the final day that, based on Sunday’s thriller, is delicately balanced between the punchier GC contenders, one-day specialists, and tougher sprinters.

The sight of arguably the four best, most talented riders left in the Tour peloton – Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, and Mads Pedersen – storming clear and then careening down the Champs together was a sight to behold (chuck in the missing Van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard next year and you’d have an image for the ages).

The fact that it was the two greatest riders of the 2020s, Tadej and Mathieu, who broke clear on the final lap only serves to underline how good the route is. The long descent back to the Champs is also inspired, allowing a Milan-Sanremo-style battle between the attackers and the bunch, one won in scintillating, last-gap fashion by Van der Poel (with a little help from his yellow-jerseyed friend).

The sight of Van der Poel straining with every muscle in his body towards the line, followed a split second later by his Alpecin mate Jasper Philipsen and the rest of the sprinters will stay with me for a long time. It was a fitting end to what was possibly the best hour of bike racing this year.

And, importantly, the new, flat-out racing route in Paris doesn’t detract from the final stage’s party-like atmosphere. As the peloton, split into tiny pieces crossed the lines, often in ones and twos, they were greeted by a hero’s welcome, with most of the riders lapping it all up and playing to the crowd.

The team buses, as usual, were bouncing with free pizza, booming music, and family reunions.

And, as I walked back up the Champs, I spotted British champion Fred Wright, exhausted but jubilant, taking it all in as fan after fan approached him for a selfie and to congratulate him on his daring Montmartre attack.

But… There’s a but. Having witnessed the potential for epic racing in Paris first-hand, I’m slightly concerned ASO have painted themselves into a corner with their decision to neutralise the GC times after one lap of the Montmartre circuit, on a completely dry day.

I’m not sure Isaac del Toro will agree with me, but imagine the scenario if the times had been taken at the finish line, with the potential for Decathlon to nail it at the front in the hope of catapulting Paul Seixas on the podium. By stopping the clock with 41km to go, and cutting Del Toro’s frantic chase to just a few kilometres, we were robbed of another layer of intrigue.

Of course, some fans (and especially riders) may not be happy about the potential for a Tour de France podium place to go up in smoke on the final day. But that’s grand tour racing. Just because the Paris stage has been, mostly, a GC-friendly zone for 50 years doesn’t mean that bad luck, bad form, or bad tactical decisions shouldn’t play a role right up the finish.

After all, other grand tours frequently end with time trials, and you don’t hear anyone complaining about them ruining the party vibes of the final day.

Most importantly, if ASO stick with Montmartre (which, based on the evidence of the last two years, I don’t see why not) and with their early GC neutralisation trend, what happens if we one day reach Paris with the top two separated by 20 or 30 seconds?

Will they race each other until 40km to go, the yellow jersey potentially changing hands in the process, before sitting up and letting the rest of the stage unfold? That would be absurd, and leave everyone watching, especially casual fans switching on for nice shots of Paris, baffled.

If the Tour wants the drama of Montmartre to continue, they have to let the riders – all of them – race until the very end.

There are bigger things than the Tour de France, believe it or now.

In my hotel room this morning, French television was dominated by the wildfires that are decimating large swathes of the south-west of the country, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes.

The wildfires, the end product of the scorching temperatures throughout July, had an impact on yesterday’s Tour finale, confining it solely to Paris due to a lack of police resources, and taking the number of stages at this year’s race impacted by fires and the heat to three.

> Tour de France’s final stage in Paris shortened due to “exceptional circumstances” caused by wildfires

So, you’d imagine the leading riders at this year’s Tour would have something to say about climate change and its potential to change the nature of bike racing, while impacting rider safety?

Not quite.

When that question was posed to second-place Remco Evenepoel during his post-Tour press conference, the Belgian puffed out his cheeks, baffled by the prospect of thinking of anything beyond riding his bike very fast.

“After one month of racing, that’s a very difficult question,” Evenepoel laughed.

At that moment, a shout was heard from across the press room, emanating from a guy in a yellow jersey, who had just turned up for his own late evening chat with the assembled journalists. From what I could make out, Tadej Pogačar wasn’t convinced Evenepoel should be answering questions about climate change.

“Actually, Tadej should answer, he’s the ambassador of the Tour, so he should answer how to make it more safe,” Evenepoel joked in return.

“It’s too hard to answer, for tomorrow maybe!” Pogačar shouted, shaking his head in mock exasperation.

“Exactly,” Remco interjected. “Err, what should I say? We don’t have control of that, I think. I’ll have a think about it and next week you should come to San Sebastian and I can answer you there.”

We look forward to hearing your thoughts, Remco.

> Police say “Operation SNAP has become so successful” as they continue not to investigate close passes without being able to measure passing distances

Right, let’s move this press conference onto more important matters, like whether Tadej Pogačar will follow up his fifth Tour win with a crack at a maiden Vuelta title next month.

“Right now, if the Vuelta started tomorrow, I would say no,” the Slovenian said during his post-Tour presser, when asked if the Spanish grand tour was in the cards.

“But in two weeks, I can still decide.”

So… you’re saying there’s a chance?

Elsewhere, the yellow jersey chatted about burnout, after he appeared to enjoy a much more serene, happy Tour win this year after last year’s morose final week.

“I don’t say that last year I was burning out, but I was well aware that it can happen,” Pogačar said.

“I’m aware this can happen if you push too far, so that’s also why, just now after the Tour de France, I don’t want to say, yeah, I go to the Vuelta or I go to all the races. I need to also think about this and keep the feet on the ground.”

Looks like Greg James has caught the cycling bug this summer. Well, riding 1,000km across the country on a tandem with a host of random celebrities will do that to you, I suppose…

 

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> “Please, let me get off this bike!”: Greg James completes 1,000km tandem cycle epic and raises over £4m for Comic Relief

Apologies for the severe delays affecting our live blog service this morning, we’ve got some gremlins in the system at the moment (I swear it’s not just because I’m hungover).

Anyway, I spent a lot of last week on Tour delving into the record-breaking speeds of the past three weeks and what those on the ground make of them and what they mean for the sport. It’s a long one, so I’d stick the kettle on if I were you:

> Is the Tour de France becoming too fast?