Tour de France 2019: Egan Bernal heads for Paris glory on stage 21 – live!

The group are 28s ahead now, with 23.9km to go. This is looking more and more like a decisive break.

Elite sport during the working day is basically the greatest thing in the world, but worry now – the Ashes is almost upon us.

The front four look strong, lined up and swapping the lead to use the slipstreams. Four laps to go…

It’s getting dark now and the lights are making things look divine. It’s nice.

They’re setting it up and setting it up; the pace is pretty stiff now, and the sunset in Paris is, frankly, gorgeous. The leaders have 22s with which to play.

“I feel strongly that it is important to make a distinction between someone from rich USA or Canada (the North) winning and someone from Latin America winning,” says Paul Sander. “No one would wish to take away anything from Greg LeMond but someone from the South winning is a major achievement and should be acknowledged as such. Proud to be living in Latin America.”

Yes, that’s fair. I guess cycling is more prone to being bought than most sports, on account of the technology that’s such a big part of it.

Tratnik, Fraile, Politt, Scully are the front four; the peloton has caught the rest and the gap is 20s with six laps to go.

Cosnefroy has caught up with the second little group; the lead is 26s with 46lm to go.

Rosskopf and Van Melsen launch a chase from the peloto and they go around the Arc again.

Tratnik leads at the moment, from Politt, Fraile and Scully. 48km to go.

“It’s great not just for Colombia but for the whole of the Americas!” says Paul Griffin. “Not since 1989 has anyone from South or North America won this great race. That it’s been won so thrillingly is the icing on the cake. The cherry on top of the icing is that Bernal, like his predecessor Greg LeMond, seems a decent, straightforward person. You wouldn’t want some despicable, bullying, egotistical maniac winning it. Let’s rejoice that that’s never happened”.

“The Eagle of Toledo will always soar high,” says Gary Naylor.

Paris looks amazing from above, the roads fanning out from the Arc.

Apparently Chris Froome is ahead of schedule in his rehab, and has started turning pedals over again.

“Just a side story,” says Neil Donovan. “The stage start in Nimes in 40 degree heat, my 13-year-old son started to faint waiting for Peter Sagan to come out of the team bus.
Bora were brilliant. Got him into the bus, doctors making sure he was ok etc etc. Riders letting him get selfies and autographs. Bora – our new favourite team!”

Sport!

Onto the Champs Elysees we go, and the circuits begin with 57.6km to go.

What is wrong with people, part 97,503,910?

“I think Paris is fantastic, but used to think it was overrated,” says my colleague Rob Bleaney. “A mate moved there and numerous trips have changed my perspective.”

It’s the feelgood story of the summer! Right, I want to go to Paris now. See ya!

“Really appreciate the Tour coverage you provided,” says William Hill. “Grateful. Bernal and Ineos were awesome, yet Sagan’s feat is maybe as great – even more so. Maybe overlooked with all the attention directed at yellow. Anyway, thanks for your terrific coverage and look forward to 2020.”

All these lads are absolute freaks of nature.

Caleb Ewan has never ridden the Champs Elysees so doesn’t know where the smoothest bits are. He’s hoping to find out.

We see a crew of Colombians, who cheer their man on. What a feeling that must be.

Bloody hell, the Vuelta starts in less than a month. They’re not right, these lads.

“As a Colombian passing thru Tunisia I could only watch German TV to follow the Tour in France,” says says Andres Rengifo. “Just got tired saying all of that! You guys were brilliant, and often your sport and non-sport commentary was the subject of conversation with my friends and fam here and everywhere.

Choked up to watch my boy Egan Bernal win at 22 his first Tour de France, and the first one by a Latin American cyclist since..EVER. I still remember back in the 80s when we would wake up early to listen to the Colombian radio broadcast from the interminable climbs of the Alps and the Pyrenees, the time trials, the treacherous stages with pavé in Normandy, the falls, the withdrawals, the fevers, and at last, les Champs Elysees. Chochise, Lucho, Fabio, Condorito, Santiago, Nairo, Rigo, Estaban, Fernando, so many names, so much glory.

Here: fresh new sound that is just like the one from my childhood. Que viva Colombia carajo!”

Thanks Andres!

79.2km to go as a weirdo on the pavement leans into the cyclists’s faces. What makes people do that?

“I applaud your coverage these past three weeks,” says Loretta Ebert. “I am in the US and have been hospitalised with a fractured pelvis and your commentary and input from others has kept me sane. The race itself was one of the best in last few years and I applaud Alaphilippe’s courage. I was sorry to see Pinot’s abandonment. He might have made for a thrilling end in the last two stages. As for Paris, a great city but agree the food is overrated.”

Gosh, hope you’re on the mend.

We’re coming up to Versailles so let’s have a Versailles fact: despite not being in the capital, and not having been home to a royal family for quite sometime, it canes Buckingham Palace for number of visitors.