Chris Froome battled through three weeks of lung-busting ascents, dangerous descents, driving rain and tricky crosswinds to win the Tour de France for the fourth time.
The Briton crossed the final finish line on the Champs Elysees in Paris with a total combined time from the whole of the tour 54 seconds ahead of second-place Rigoberto Uran. France’s home favourite, Romain Bardet, came third, over two minutes behind the race leader.
The Tour has been a cagey affair, the closest fought in many years. Some believe it to be Froome’s greatest victory due to a route that did not play to his strengths – noticeably featuring less mountain-top finishes and time trial kilometres.
The final day played up to the tradition of a grand procession through the suburbs of Paris, with Yoann Offredo even stopping to meet family and friends as the race passed close to his home and Cyril Gautier writing a marriage proposal on a piece of paper for the television cameras.
The champagne flutes and beer bottles soon disappeared when the peloton arrived on the Champs Elysees and a breakaway formed to challenge what is the usual outcome of a bunch sprint finish.
They were soon caught by a determined chase from the sprinters’ teams to set up a frenetic dash for the line which saw LottoNL-Jumbo rider, Dylan Groenewegen, beat Andre Greipel.
The sprint was for honour only, as the green jersey competition was already wrapped up by Sunweb’s Michael Matthews. Simon Yates replicated his twin brother’s achievement from last year’s tour by keeping the young rider’s white jersey in the family and the king of the mountains polka dot jersey was won by Warren Barguil – tipped to be the next big French hope for the maillot jaune after a stunning performance over the three weeks.
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