PREVIEW | Tour de France 2023 stage 21 - Race arrives at Champs-Elysées for celebrations and final glorious sprint

Preview. The Tour de France comes to a close this Sunday in Paris. After three weeks of an amazing race, it comes to an end on stage 21 where the riders reach the Champs-E´lysées where a spectacular sprint is expected.

The final day of the Tour de France, at long last. Short, flat and with sight on the Champs-Élysées where the riders will finish the Tour de France. The start will take place in the velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines which hosted the 2022 Track World Championships.

Estimated start and finish times for Tour de France stage 21: 16:30-19:30CET

The finale is what we know it to be every single year. An iconic moment, the final roads the Tour will race through. It is not the easiest of sprints, with the final chicane coming with 350 meters to go, and the Champs-Elysées featuring some smooth cobbles which comes as a bit different of a sprint.

Don't expect competitive racing tomorrow, but the weather looks grim. Race organizers may put the time limit early in the stage as rain is expected and there will also be strong wind. From the southwest, it shouldn't affect the stage overall as the riders will only truly race inside the city, however in the sprint it may make a difference, a cross-headwind for the final sprint.

The stage will have the question on whether the bunch sprint will take place or not. Jasper Philipsen will be the overwhelming favourite to take the win in that scenario with Alpecin-Deceuninck's leadout and his own technical ability and pure speed. His form is equally good and it'll be hard to beat him head-to head.

That may not be needed, many teams know they'll have to attack if they want to win the stage. The rain and wind will make it a very difficult final circuit, organizing chases will be complicated and attacks have decent chances of succeeding. However if it does come down to a sprint Mads Pedersen and Dylan Groenewegen are likely the two powerhouse sprints suited to this one. Jordi Meeus, Bryan Coquard, Christophe Laporte, Alexander Kristoff, Biniam Girmay, Cess Bol and Sam Welsford could, under perfect circumstances, fight for the win and a third week wet technical sprint is terrain for surprises.

Other fast men could try and ride close to the best too and have a minor placing such as Peter Sagan or Luca Mozzato, or former leadout men who now have their own chance to succeed in Jasper de Buyst, Michael Morkov and Nikias Arndt.

And regarding the attackers, much can happen. At any point one can succeed, the peloton will also be full of riders who still seek a victory and may not want to have a relaxing ending to the race. Stefan Küng, Mikkel Bjerg, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Nils Politt, Jasper Stuyven, Jonas Abrahamsen and Anthony Turgis are only a few riders who may give it a shot.

Other teams however have several riders, the Belgian ones. Without their sprinter they have freedom and will want success and can be specially dangerous in this final day. Soudal - Quick-Step have Kasper Asgreen, Rémi Cavagna and Yves Lampaert who can do the job, whilst Lotto Dstny has Victor Campenaerts, Florian Vermeersch and Pascal Eenkhoorn.

*** Jasper Philipsen,
** Mads Pedersen, Dylan Groenewegen
* Christophe Laporte, Jordi Meeus, Cees Bol, Kasper Asgreen, Nils Politt, Victor Campenaerts

Pick: Jasper Philipsen