Profile & map of the 21st stage (Sunday, 24 July: Paris La defence Arena - Paris Champs-Elysees - 115.6 kilometres)
Re-Live: This is how the 21st stage of the Tour de France went
Neutral start: 16:30
Official start: 16:45
Finish: ~19:26-19:43
Rolf Aldag's assessment: A sprint for eternity
It's time for the big party, but before that, the ultimate circuit race in the cycling world is still to come. The teams have to race over the 6.8 kilometre course in Paris eight times before the most prestigious sprint victory of the year is awarded. The ceremony is identical every year, and despite the ritualistic pictures with champagne on the bike and lots of smiles for the cameras, the sporting excitement remains the same.
The last few metres over the bumpy road surface in the metropolis, in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators, further fuelled the sprinters' ambition. In the light of the setting sun, the finish sprint in Paris provides memorable impressions and sometimes curious sequences.
Last year, Wout van Aert outdid the elite sprinters; in 2016, Germany's sprint star Andre Greipel saved his otherwise disappointing Tour de France with a perfect performance. These images remain.
As a professional cyclist, our expert Rolf Aldag rode the Tour de France ten times up to 2004; as manager and sporting director, he has led various top teams through France and this year, for the first time, he will be in charge of the German team Bora-Hansgrohe as sporting director at the Tour de France. There are few people who can tell so vividly what can happen on the stages of a grand tour and within the peloton.
What weighting does the stage have for the individual rankings?
For TOUR the 53-year-old sports manager has once again carefully studied the elevation profiles and route tables for this year's Tour de France. In his predictions, he names the teams and riders he sees at the front on each day, assesses the difficulties of the routes and says where he expects attacks and from whom. Will there be a bunch sprint? Will a breakaway group make it to the finish?
Aldag also assesses for TOUR what role each stage plays for the classification jerseys (see above): The more coloured jerseys our expert assigns to a stage, the greater its significance for the respective classification. The yellow jersey symbolises the weight of the respective stage in the overall classification, the green jersey stands for the importance of the best sprinter in the points classification and the red dotted jersey for the mountain classification, i.e. for the best climber.
TV broadcast & live stream of the 21st stage of the Tour de France 2022*
- ARD - Das Erste: 17:03 - 19:30
- Eurosport 1: 16:45 - 20:00
- More live pictures on ARD One, Sportschau.de and Eurosportplayer.com**
- You can also find all the important information here in our live ticker
This is how the stages of the 2022 Tour de France have gone so far
- The race report for stage 1
- The race report for stage 2
- The race report for stage 3
- The race report for stage 4
- The race report for stage 5
- The most spectacular pictures of stage 5
- The race report for stage 6
- The race report for stage 7
- The race report for stage 8
- The race report for stage 9
- The race report for stage 10
- The race report for the 11th stage
- The race report for the 12th stage
- The race report for the 13th stage
- The race report for stage 14
- The race report for the 15th stage
- The race report for the 16th stage
- The race report for the 17th stage
- The race report for the 18th stage
- The race report for the 19th stage
- The race report for the 20th stage
*Broadcast times subject to change; please note updates in teletext and on the Internet
**The Eurosport internet live stream is subject to a charge.
