If you watched the 2024 Paris Olympics, you, like many cycling fans, loved the action on Montmartre, the famous cobbled climb in the city of lights. Mathieu van der Poel did one of his famous 7 million watt attacks, and Remco Evenepoel would use it to ultimately propel to victory. Lotte Kopecky made a massive attack in the finale, and ultimate winner Kristen Faukner was the only rider to be able to hold her wheel.
In August, L’Équipe speculated about riders going up the climb, changing the typical flat final stage (relatively, the Champs-Élysées has an average gradient of 1.8 per cent, but there are sections where it’s almost 4 per cent.)
Mixing it up for 2025
A report by the Le Parisien suggests that the ASO hopes to include parts of the Olympic course–including the fabled hill–in the final stage of the 2025. In 2024, the Champs stage was, for the first time in its 111 versions, didn’t finish in Paris. That was due to the absolute chaos in the capital of France–there was no way a bike race, even the biggest one in the world–could finish there. Instead, riders finished with a time trial–the first time since Greg LeMond’s dramatic win in 1989–in Nice.
The report suggests that due to the success of the Olympics, the race organizers want to see riders head up Montmartre, in an effort to mix up the traditional sprinter’s stage. The peloton would tackle the Olympic route three times, passing Rue Lepic and circling Butte Montmartre before entering Paris by Quai d’Issy, as usual. After crossing the Seine at Concorde, riders would complete laps in the 18th arrondissement before descending Rue Royale to finish on the Champs-Élysées.
A breakaway win?
It would make for some exciting racing. It’s rare that a breakaway succeeds in the final stage, as sprinter teams make sure that it’s a bunch finish. However, riders have only won from a break half a dozen times.
In 2005, Alexandre Vinokourov managed the feat, and due to the win and bonus seconds, actually leapfrogged Levi Leipheimer in the overall standings for fifth place. Usually, the race is a parade stage (albeit the last hour is a helluva parade at 50km/h+).
In 1979, Joop Zoetemelk tried to spoil that tradition by breaking away–he was 3 minutes behind Bernard Hinault. The Badger was not impressed, and chased down the Dutchman, taking the stage in yellow. To make his day even worse, Zoetemelk tested positive after…
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