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The most beautiful avenue in the world for a first coronation: the British Geraint Thomas offers Sunday late afternoon a triumphal parade on the Champs -Elysées to celebrate its first victory on the Tour de France, on the occasion of the last stage between Houilles and Paris.
The 145 riders of the peloton will start from the north-west of the Paris region at 4:15 pm (2:15 pm GMT ) to join the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées in the early evening, after an ultimate course of 116 kilometers.
"The Tour was tough, it started well before July 7", acknowledged Saturday its director Christian Prudhomme, while the months and weeks before the start of the Tour, Vendée, were marked by the anti-doping procedure against the British Chris Froome, finally cleared by the International Cycling Union to five start days of Tower
Sky, the team of Froome and Thomas, was the target of a part of the spectators, in particular in the rise of the Alpe d'Huez, under a continuous stream of insults. [19659003] For Geraint Thomas, who will be the first Welsh to win the Tour de France at the end of a journey of 3,351 kilometers, the party has already started a little Saturday night, after a time trial between Saint-Pee-sur- Nivelle and Espelette, where he kept a little less than two minutes ahead of the Dutch Tom Dumoulin
"Tonight, I'm not going to celebrate too much," laughed the runner Sky in the Basque Country. "I'll have a beer or two, maybe a burger, but the real celebration will be in Paris."
He will become the third rider of the British team to win the Tour de France, after two other British Bradley Wiggins (2012) and Chris Froome (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017), for an almost undivided domination
– Froome without regret –
Froome, arrived in France as the holder of the three crowns of the great Tours – -Tour de France 2017, Vuelta 2017 and Giro 2018– failed in his attempt to double Giro and Tour victories the same year, and will have to settle for 3rd place.
"I have no regrets. on the podium with Geraint on the Champs-Elysees, it will be a dream moment for us.It's a dream scenario, "said Saturday Froome, who has been playing alongside Thomas at Sky since 2010.
the first part of the 21st stage will be done in a festive atmosphere. And as during the almost complete Tour 2018, it is under the sun and a summer temperature that the peloton will celebrate its future winner.
Then place to the last explanation between the last sprinters still in the running, while the pbadage in the Alps have left many – Fernando Gaviria, Dylan Groenewegen, André Greipel, Marc Cavendish – on the side of the road.
The French Arnaud Démare and Christophe Laporte want to shine for a prestigious success, but the Norway's Alexander Kristoff is looking to play the spoilsport.
Peter Sagan of Slovakia is guaranteed a sixth green jersey and will equal the record of Germany's Erik Zabel. It remains to be seen whether he will be sufficiently recovered from his big crash on Wednesday in the Pyrenees to mingle with the fight on the Champs-Elysées.
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