When I was at university, in my third year of a history degree, I wrote an essay about the Champs-Élysées, that most storied of avenues. It wasn’t so much the history, but about the philosophy of the space. The French Marxist philosopher Henri Lefebvre divided space into three distinct but linked categories: the perceived, conceived and lived; or the physical, mental and social.
The perceived space is an elegant avenue through the heart of Paris, which is also quite similar to the conceived space, although its architects would not have imagined its use as a dual-carriageway through the French capital
The avenue has a lot of lived experience. It has been there through French revolutions, the Paris Commune, world wars, and 1968. Since 1975 the Tour de France has also been part of its lived experience, with the Grand Tour finishing there, usually in a sprint finish, every year apart from 2024’s foray to Nice. This is what I think about when I think of the Champs-Élysées, final day sprints from Mark Cavendish to Jordi Meeus in 2023, and it's no doubt probably what you think of too.
However, this year, the Champs’ lived experience of the Tour de France changed. For the first time, a circuit around Montmartre, just 3km north east of the Arc de Triomphe was included, switching up the usual processional sprint stage to a full-on mini-Classic, as if the Tour of Flanders had come to Paris. Instead of the Oude Kwaremont, the cobbled Butte Montmartre was the key climb which decided the race, where Wout van Aert dropped Tadej Pogačar to fly to victory from.
Adam Becket
News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport. This piece is part of The Leadout, a newsletter series from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As ever, email adam.becket@futurenet.com - should you wish to add anything, or suggest a topic.
Despite, perhaps because of the incessant rain, it was an epic final day, one that will live long in the memory. It was vindication for the Tour’s organisers, ASO, and their bold vision. The sprinters and the GC riders – and many fans – were sceptical of this change from tradition, but it was a magical experience, one which enlivened the final day, and tied the race up perfectly.
In the last few years the Tour de France has evolved under Christian Prudhomme and Thierry Gouvenou’s direction, from the time trial and bunch sprint-dominated event of all to a collection of one-day Classics in miniature. The days to Rouen, Vire Normandie, Mûr-de-Bretagne, Toulouse, and Pontarlier were all examples of this, and why couldn’t Paris be exactly the same? It has made for gripping viewing, and that’s only a good thing.
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I loved stage 21 of this year’s Tour de France. Sadly, I wasn’t in Montmartre watching it with the ridiculous crowds, but I was standing on the cobbles of the Champs in the rain, watching riders actually race on the last day, and the sheer excitement of the event got to me. It’s easy to be cynical about cycling sometimes, particularly from my point of view, but this was great, and I found myself swept up in it all.
Cycling, like most things in this world, is often too traditional and reactionary. However, things need to change to keep people interested, and the final stage of the Tour de France is no exception.
I always come back to what this sport looks like to outsiders, and the idea that the final day of the biggest race is essentially a procession until the final couple of kilometres must seem silly, and alienate people too.
What I really want is a race that is live until the final moment, a Tour de France won on the Côte de la Butte Montmartre, where someone is pipped at the very last. That didn’t happen this year, with the GC times neutralised, but why not? A Grand Tour should be won by the person who is the best over 21 days, not 20.
The new lived experience of the Champs-Élysées should be here to stay. A new chapter of the road’s history has now been written. Perhaps I should go back and submit that essay again.
This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
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