Posted on 07/23/2005 10:11:51 PM PDT by nutmeg
Stage 21 - Sunday, July 24: Corbeil-Essonnes - Paris Champs-Élysées, 144 km
Mainly a ceremonial dash into the capital, the final stage offers a chance for the sprinters to strut their stuff in front of the massive crowds lining the Champs Elysees - this was the case in 2003 as Baden Cooke and Robbie McEwen went shoulder-to-shoulder to fight out the final allocation of points. Boonen won this stage last year, and he should be back for more of the same this year. It's generally all over bar the shouting, but there'll be plenty of shouting no matter who takes their place on the top step of the podium, and with plenty of sunshine on the Champs Elysees, it'll be happy days in fair Paris.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my Tour de France 2005 list.
ping
Now that is a generally all down his stage isn't it? A fine course for the last day.
Rush should be there by now in France to propose to his girlfriend...
Does anyone else wish the TT was still the last race?
Was it traditionally a TT and they changed it recently or was it being a TT when DuMond won unusual?
Looks like the USA is going to win the tour and take 3 of the top 10! :D France might not get a top 10! :D
At some point the final totals for Lances miles, calories, etc. will be tallied, and if it's posted here we can see the incredible accomplishment of a scrappy kid from Texas who took some time off on his way to winning 7 TdF to fight cancer.
As Reagan would say, "Not bad. Not bad at all."
Cheers to Basso and Vino for trying and Jeers to CSC for ditching the yellow jersey twice. Cheers to Ras for having more guts than the peloton and Jeers to T-Mobile for making guys like Kloden haul Jan's fat ass up the hills.
I may have been a little disappointed in the tour this year but it wasn't because Lance didn't represent it was because despite his taking on the entire peloton (twice) not one rider ever took a shot at him. They knew the best they could do was ride his wheel and wait for him to quit. And they'll never know what he had left because he never cracked.
Three great names sit on the masthead of cycling's greatest event and at the top is an American. The French may have created the race but Lance dominated it and showed that all you have to do is train and work as a team and you can beat anyone, anytime, anywhere. Again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
It's not au revoir Lance, it's see ya' later. Well done.
bttt
We'll never know just how much Lance had...or whether he COULD HAVE been beaten.
Hmm..I think they stopped it in 2000..well after GL's time..it appears now that the last race is now a parade for the YJ..however, considering LA is usually up by 6min by the end does it really matter?..
I wish it was more of a Individual event, without teams..
Was there a long history of it being a TT or was it a champagne ride in the some previous time in the past too?
No..Every once in a while the course would have the TT in the End. The most famous one being in 1989, where GL came from behind to win.
The last race is the Champs Elysees, the road is cobbled and has other problems for a racer to make up time with.
I remember several years back a race in France on some very cobbled old out of use roads. I am not sure if it was an early stage of the Tour or a separate race.
It would be sort of like staging a bicycle race and have it go through the sidewalk highway part of old Route 66 in Oklahoma. It was very slippery and led to cautious riding.
Same deal..that really prevents alot of action..however it is the end..
Well said, and no more "random" drug tests.
There's a great movie called "A Sunday in Hell" that's about the Paris-Roubaix race which is held every spring. It goes over a number of cobbled stretches, and may be what you're think of.
Well they are racing... And one jersey is yet to be decided.
13:36 - Green Jersey Winner Yet To Be Decided...
The winners of three of the four prize jersey have already been determined. Lance Armstrong will win the yellow jersey as champion of the general classification.
Mickael Rasmussen will win the polka-dot jersey as the 92nd Tour’s King of the Mountains.
Yaroslav Popovych will win the white jersey as the best young rider in the 2005 Tour...
But the green jersey must still be won. Thor Hushovd leads the points classification with 175pts, 15 more than Stuart O’Grady and 21 more than last year’s winner Robbie McEwen.
There are two intermediate sprints (each offering 6, 4 and 2pts) and the final sprint has 35pts for the first rider across the line.
GO THOR!!!
They are reporting light rain in Paris. They have special rules to invoke for the riders' safety if the cobblestones are wet.
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