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7/20/2025, 1:04:02 PM
>The Tour de France’s race director, Christian Prudhomme, has strongly suggested that the era of the race always finishing in a bunch sprint on the Champs-Élysées in Paris is over.
>This year, the Tour returns to the French capital, but it does so with a twist: though stage 21 finishes on the Champs-Élysées in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe, the race has been inspired by the racing drama and huge crowds of the Paris Olympics road circuit and will now complete three laps of the Montmartre climb before reaching the famous cobbled boulevard.
>Prudhomme was asked if ASO, the organising body behind the Tour, was considering the possibility of finishing the race in a different city other than Paris on a more regular basis.
>“I think that the arrival in Nice, outside of Paris, won’t be unique. We were delighted with Nice,” he said. “But what’s crucial for me is to always keep a really strong relationship with the city of Paris. That’s crucial for me.
>“The only real question is, if one year we don’t go to Paris, what do we do? You can’t get angry, and we certainly don’t want to fall out with the Mayor of Paris, but there are municipal elections next year in March in all of France’s big cities. Naturally we’ll have to work with a new team because Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, isn’t running. We’ll see how all that goes.
>“The fundamental question for me – because we could easily have the finish elsewhere – is what’s going to happen the year after [in 2027]? It’s clear that Paris can’t be closed off for the Tour de France. That’s impossible for me. Paris is Paris.
>“There are tons of factors that are taken into account. Of course people saw Nice and are going to say, ‘You can come and finish here’. Yes. When we chose Nice, there was another big French city that was also put forward. I won’t tell you which one, but there was another big French city that was a candidate to host the final day of the Tour de France.”
>This year, the Tour returns to the French capital, but it does so with a twist: though stage 21 finishes on the Champs-Élysées in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe, the race has been inspired by the racing drama and huge crowds of the Paris Olympics road circuit and will now complete three laps of the Montmartre climb before reaching the famous cobbled boulevard.
>Prudhomme was asked if ASO, the organising body behind the Tour, was considering the possibility of finishing the race in a different city other than Paris on a more regular basis.
>“I think that the arrival in Nice, outside of Paris, won’t be unique. We were delighted with Nice,” he said. “But what’s crucial for me is to always keep a really strong relationship with the city of Paris. That’s crucial for me.
>“The only real question is, if one year we don’t go to Paris, what do we do? You can’t get angry, and we certainly don’t want to fall out with the Mayor of Paris, but there are municipal elections next year in March in all of France’s big cities. Naturally we’ll have to work with a new team because Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, isn’t running. We’ll see how all that goes.
>“The fundamental question for me – because we could easily have the finish elsewhere – is what’s going to happen the year after [in 2027]? It’s clear that Paris can’t be closed off for the Tour de France. That’s impossible for me. Paris is Paris.
>“There are tons of factors that are taken into account. Of course people saw Nice and are going to say, ‘You can come and finish here’. Yes. When we chose Nice, there was another big French city that was also put forward. I won’t tell you which one, but there was another big French city that was a candidate to host the final day of the Tour de France.”
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