Final stage of the Tour de France in Paris: No species protection for the sprinters

Hope dies last, so the saying goes. The phrase is used as a platitude to gloss over a hopeless situation. People like to be optimistic. And so it is in France these days when you ask the sprinters in the peloton what they think of the changed final stage. For decades, it was considered a certainty before the 21st stage of the Tour de France that there would be some kind of photo session on the first kilometres towards Paris, including a champagne drink. The winners were always celebrated before they crossed the finish line. It was a tradition. And it required the racers to treat each other with care. A kind of non-aggression pact followed, unspoken, unsigned. Within sight of the Eiffel Tower, a bike race did get underway, and a few determined riders were allowed to put their last ounce of energy into attacks on the cobblestones during the eternal circles around the Arc de Triomphe, the sponsor logos in front of the magnificent backdrop in the focus of the cameras - but the end was the law: There would be a bunch sprint at the end - a last chance for the fastest men in the peloton, who had fought their way over Alpine and Pyrenean peaks with the time limit as their opponents for the prospect of the grand entrance on the Champs-Élysées boulevard in Paris. The sprinters were allowed to deliver the last winners, the last jubilant images, in the most difficult and most important cycling race.

The sprinters - sacrificed on the martyr's hill

But this year everything will be different. On the 50th anniversary of the Tour finale in Paris on the Champs-Élysées, of all places, the team led by Tour boss Christian Prudhomme has come up with a special treat. A mean thing for those who delivered another thrilling show on the last day for five decades - even if only on the last kilometre. And the thanks for that? This year, the men with the strong thighs come to Paris and are still not out of the woods. Three times the course planners chase them up the Rue Lepic to the Butte de Montmartre - it's not a high mountain pass, but even the one cobbled kilometre with a 5 per cent gradient through the narrow alley will pull the plug on many of the pros early on. The spectacular images of the fan backdrop during last year's Olympic cycling race over the same climb whetted the appetite of cycling marketers for more - above the rooftops of Paris and at the foot of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. It will change the final stage forever - even positions in the overall classification could be fought for. A classic bunch sprint on the Champs-Élysées has been ruled out this year (Here is the stage preview by our expert Jens Voigt).

In short: the sprinters may feel like uninvited guests at the anniversary party in Paris. But the strongest athletes in the peloton will not be invited out the door that easily. Montmartre translates as Martyr's Hill - it is fitting that the sprinters should be sacrificed at the price of an even bigger, more varied show on the final day. But they will not allow their faith to be taken away until perhaps the bitter end. "I don't see that there is no sprint yet," says the German sprint specialist Pascal Ackermann on TOUR the day before the final stage. "There won't be a bunch sprint, but it's possible that a group of 20 or 30 riders will go for the win - and I want to be part of that." After all, Ackermann is still waiting for a Tour stage win at his second Tour start - as is compatriot Phil Bauhaus. The man in green has a similar view to Ackermann: "It will be more complicated to control the race. It will be a slightly different scenario," says Jonathan Milan with a view to the final stage.

The Tour debutant from Italy has felt the change first hand. In the battle for the green jersey, he did not have another sprinter as his most important rival - but the victory-hungry super all-rounder Tadej Pogacar, who certainly does not deserve the title of best sprinter. This is also a sign of a shift in power in cycling - away from specialists and towards versatile all-rounders. A sign that times are getting tougher for sprinters - and not just on the Champs-Élysées.

The trend is going against the sprinters

There were only five bunch sprints in this Tour. Fewer than there have been for a long time. On the first day in Lille, a sprinter took the stage win and the first yellow jersey. But even there, the route planners had cunningly pre-programmed wind edge situations, which is why the bunch sprint on stage 1 already had rather less mass. Just three dozen riders were still in the mix, one more, most less. Many of the other stages were too demanding for the muscular men right from the start. The profile of the three weeks already looked challenging - but the truth was on the road. "It was an extremely tough tour," said Ackermann, summarising the first 19 stages: "Every day was ridden at the limit, we didn't dawdle much."

The sprinter killers: heavy profiles, offensive driving style

Difficult route profiles and the increasingly aggressive riding style in modern professional cycling are not good for the fast men who prefer a steady, flat ride towards the finish line. And the Tour 2025 is not an isolated case, even if it stands out with its difficulties. The trend is not in favour of the sprinters, and Ackermann agrees: "The next editions of the Tour will certainly not be any easier. You can see more and more that the profile is against the sprinters. That's not meant in a bad way, but it's getting harder and harder for us." It's no secret that Tour organiser A.S.O. wants the stages to be as exciting as possible - with action to be expected over the entire route. A week of flat stages - that's a thing of the past. Interesting for sprinters, boring for spectators except for the final kilometres. Hours of slow racing through France - that's hardly feasible, even given the expensive broadcasting rights. Only in recent years have the stages been broadcast by almost all broadcasters and platforms right from the start - and we have had to adapt to this. Something has to move on the live images. In the past, the peloton sometimes only started to move with the first live images.

It will not be possible to turn back the clock, as the sprinters, who are something of the losers in the current development, realise. They have nothing against fast. But they are against ever more mountains, ever more offensive riding, ever faster mountains. Especially in view of the smaller team sizes in the Tour and the increasing power density, the organisers have to think carefully about whether a sprinter, who usually also needs a few special helpers such as a rider, fits into the structure. Ambitions in bunch sprints and in the overall classification are considered almost incompatible in the Tour - the tendency is towards either or.

Percentages on the mountain are TV ratings?

The race teams were given a briefing before the start of this year's Tour to explain where the Tour is heading: the number of viewers on TV and live streams is important. Every per cent uphill, every spectacular passage means a little more viewing figures - that's roughly how it was understood in the professional scene. It is no coincidence that the 112th edition of the Tour is particularly often up and down, right and left, emphasises Rolf Aldag, Head of Sport at Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe. "I think that was done very deliberately. The route design in the first part of the Tour was like this to make it exciting and unpredictable," believes Aldag and understands the thinking behind it: "People shouldn't watch for six hours only to see 200 metres of sprinting at the end. Even as a cycling expert, you can't watch a sprint stage for six hours from start to finish. Once the group is gone, you can go out for lunch." In the age of Tiktok, in which the time spent in front of moving images tends to be in the seconds range, a classic flat stage would only work as a sleeping pill. However, Aldag, who has experienced several decades of cycling from different perspectives, warns: "We have to be careful: Always just harder, more mountains - that's no longer exciting," he emphasises - and can cite the current Tour as an example of this too. Tadej Pogacar was far ahead early on - the tension in the battle for overall victory was gone. The Westphalian, who sometimes tends to exaggerate in his statements, predicts: "The way things are currently looking in the Tour, perhaps the pure sprinter will die out." Of all people, the strongest in the peloton could be the losers in the evolution of modern cycling.

Are sprinters dying out?

There is no protection of species in elite sport. But the sprinters refuse to accept their fate. The solution? "We just have to see how we adapt - and then we can come back," says Ackermann, the almost always cheerful Palatine, at lunchtime before the 20th stage. In the evening, a sprinter surprisingly celebrates at the finish in Pontarlier - after an extremely hilly stage: Australian Kaden Groves from Team Alpecin-Deceuninck. Not in the sprint. As a soloist out of a breakaway group. "He's not just a sprinter," says his team boss Christophe Roodhoft. The adaptation is sometimes quick.

Incidentally, the Belgian Walter Godefroot made his first major appearance on the Champs-Élysées as the first winner in 1975. The later head of Team Telekom was also more than just a sprinter as an active rider; he also prevailed in difficult one-day races such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. So perhaps Paris is simply a return to his roots. The trend is (again) towards all-rounders.