𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

118km to go: Benjamin Thomas and Matteo Vercher have a laugh recreating their crash on the cobbles on a KOM very early in this Tour. Vercher wasn’t very happy at the time but can see the funny side now.

Vingegaard and all the Danish riders get a photo together too, and now UAE come onto the front to pick up the pace a little.

121km to go: The photo ops continue and Arkea lead onto the first climb at an incredibly slow pace. It’s the Côte de Bazemont (1.7km at 7%).

The photo below shows Montmartre, which is already packed with fans, ready for its appearance later.

125km to go: After Pogacar and UAE, the other teams take their turns to roll onto the front for celebratory photo ops. Jonathan Milan celebrates with his Lidl-Trek teammates before the white jersey of Florian Lipowitz and his squad hit the front.

129km to go: The stage begins but the racing does not. Everyone takes this at a very relaxed pace. UAE are given a wide berth up the front and could, if they fancied a laugh, go into team time-trial mode and just power away from everyone. They decide not to do that.

Jayco-AlUla’s Luke Plapp rides over to compatriot Kaden Groves and gives him a high five for his stage win yesterday. Lots of mirth and merriment in these opening few kilometres. Florian Lipowitz is wearing a white jacket over his white jersey that’s ballooned up so much it looks like he’s wearing shoulder pads.

Pogacar has got a swish full yellow bike, and his teammates all have some extra yellow on their kits, yellow socks, yellow gloves and yellow handlebars. All seven of the surviving UAE riders – missing of course Joao Almeida – roll up to the front to take the obligatory photos. It’s not quite as stylish a look as Visma-Lease a Bike’s pink gear at the Giro d’Italia, I have to say.

Christian Prudhomme waves his flag from the open roof of his race Skoda, and we’re off! 132km from Mantes-la-Ville to Paris, with the finish on the Champs-Elysees via Montmartre. Allez!

This man just needs to make it over the line today to seal a fourth career Tour de France title, and he’s only 26. How many more can he win?

Second-placed Jonas Vingegaard wears the KOM jersey for him, but Pogacar has in fact won that too, while Jonathan Milan has the points classification sewn up.

Florian Lipowitz takes third overall in just his debut Tour, and the 24-year-old has won the best young rider classification too.

Meanwhile Ben Healy completes the first line on the starting grid as the ‘super-combative’: the most combative rider of this year’s race. There have been plenty of contenders – Quinn Simmons and Thymen Arensman spring to mind but the Irishman, who won stage six and also wore yellow, is a worthy winner.

Today’s route is spikier than many riders would like after three intense weeks.

Five climbs on the menu, the first two in the first 50km, and the final three inside the final 50km. There are seven passages of the Champs-Elysees finish line in total, with the intermediate sprint on the third passage, and the last three climbs coming after the fourth, fifth, and sixth.

• cat-four Cote de Bazemont (1.7km at 7%)
• cat-four Cote du Pave des Gardes (700m at 9.7%)
• cat-four Cote de la Butte Montmartre (1.1km at 5.9%), climbed three times

It’s the final neutralised start of the Tour de France! 7.7km of départ fictif to go before, one final time, the chaos begins.

Pogacar refused to be drawn on whether he’ll attack once more on the Champs-Elysees. He has done so before, but more for a laugh than anything else, whereas today, he could genuinely make a move that sticks.

“Anything can happen, but I’m not going to promise anything, we will have to see tomorrow and try to enjoy yellow in Paris,” he said.

Normally a sprint finish would be nailed-on for stage 21 of the Tour de France, but this edition of the race has a huge question mark over it. The final climb of Montmartre comes just 6km from the finish and the accumulated fatigue of three difficult weeks of racing, plus three sharp climbs in quick succession, may be enough to kill off the sprinters.

But after the final ascent there’s a flat run-in to the traditional finish line on the Champs-Elysees, so it’s entirely possible the race may come back together for a bunch sprint. If a reduced group makes it over the final climb, the punchier fast men like Kaden Groves will have an advantage; Wout van Aert hasn’t looked near his best this Tour, but should be let off the Visma-Lease a Bike leash on the final stage and could still pick up a result (probably second place, if his season so far is anything to go by).

But if all the sprinters’ teams work together and come over the Montmartre together, Tim Merlier has had the beating of everyone on the stages he’s been able to contest.

But if the GC teams win the battle for positioning on the narrow cobbled climb of Montmartre, could Tadej Pogacar top off his magnificent Tour with one more stage win, on the race’s most iconic finish line of all? I wouldn’t rule him out…