Tour de France stage 21 – Live coverage

I have just been informed that the finish straight is 700m this year (it was 400m before) so we will have a longer sprint than normal. It probably just means that the leadout will be even more important and that the timing will be everything. Morkov will make it up, that’s for sure, but Quickstep can’t handle the whole chase once a break has cleared.

Jasper Philipsen … totally forgot to mention it when talking about the sprinters still in the race. He’s had two and three-thirds in this year’s race and can’t be reduced to a sprint. Considering what we’ve seen so far, he’s probably Cavendish’s main rival.

We are about 45 minutes from the deployment on stage 21 of the Tour de France.

Meanwhile, Alasdair Fotheringham has written this excellent article on Jonas Vingegaard, who will finish second overall in his very first Tour de France appearance.

Jonas Vingegaard: from the fishmonger to the Tour de France podium.

Ineos heads to Paris with a rider on the podium but this is not the result they wanted with Carapaz in third and no stage victory for the team. Here’s what the Ineos frontman had to say:

“This year three was a different way of racing on the Tour, with more sporting aggressiveness,” he said.

“There are very few riders in the world who can win the Tour. I haven’t done it this year, but I’m sure I will one day.”

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“I think there will be a lot of attacks because it will be difficult to control the race. Until the first pass on the Champs it will be calm. I will try something anyway.”

These are the words of Gilbert who also goes on his last Tour de France. Well, it’s not 100%, but he hints at it heavily. I think he will move. I can imagine Van Avermaet going on the attack too, but the last winner of a break in Paris was Alexandre Vinokourov, in 2005.

Some are chatting about a surviving breakaway on the Champs Elysées today due to a lack of sprinters still in the race. This is very, very unlikely with Jumbo, QuicStep, ISN and BikeExchange all passionate about a sprint. DSM too, actually. Yes, we are missing a few sprinters but it is doomed to finish at a gallop.

We are just over an hour from the start of the last stage of this year’s Tour de France.

Mark Cavendish and his 34 stage victories in the Tour de France – Gallery

Another contender for today is Wout Van Aert. He won the TT, he won the Ventoux stage but today he is aiming for the sprint. The whole of Belgium – less Lefevere and QuickStep – will encourage it. Here’s a pic of him gobbling up miles on his time trial bike.

You can also bookmark our coverage of the 2021 Olympics here. This page will contain everything you need to know, and more.

We spoke to Jakob Fuglsang, on a related note. He is leaving for Tokyo this evening, with a host of Tour riders. He believes his moderate run in the Tour is due to his second jab. He was second in Rio though, and here are his thoughts on all of the above.

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Before we dive into the business of the Tour, let’s spend some time talking about the Olympics, because despite the explosion in covid cases and the cases currently being detected in the Athletes’ Village, it looks like the Games are going on. Here is the full program of events, times and locations. For most of you, that means staying awake late or getting up very, very early.

We’re about 90 minutes from the official rollout. If this is your first rodeo, the riders will be walking around sipping champagne and posing for awkward photos with their teammates. Then we will reach Paris, the speed will increase, we will do a few laps and then we will have a sprint. Game over.

Keep an eye out for Andre Greipel today. I don’t know if he will go up there or not, but the German is playing his last Tour de France and he announced yesterday that he will retire at the end of the 2021 season. He won in Paris, and he has 13 stages under his belt, and ISN said they were “all set” for him today.

All the jerseys are on sale today, but here’s what it looks like in the overall standings.

All eyes are on Mark Cavendish today, who aims to set the record for the most Tour de France stage wins by a rider. He is currently tied on 34 with Eddy Merckx but wins today and he will be ahead with 35. He has already won in Paris several times, but it is different, because it is not every day that a runner breaks one of Merckx’s records.

Have a good day. Welcome to our text coverage of the race live from stage 21 of the Tour de France. This is the last stop and we are finally heading to Paris.