Every year between 1975 and 2023, the final stage of the Tour de France has concluded on the Champs-Élysées, an emblematic street of the city of Paris.

[1] The stage typically starts on the outskirts of Paris, and teams agree on a truce for the opening portion of the race, with cyclists taking the opportunity to have a moment of tranquility, laughing, and celebrating the achievement of finishing the Tour de France.

The Belgian Walter Godefroot won the sprint and Bernard Thévenet received the yellow jersey from the hands of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

[9] In 2015, bad weather caused the Tour organisers to declare the overall classification neutralised upon entry to the Champs-Élysées, 70 kilometres (43 mi) before the stage finished.

Traditionally, the stage starts with champagne served by the race leader's team, on-the-road photo opportunities and joking around.

When a rider has reached a significant milestone over the course of the concluding Tour, it is customary for the peloton to let him enter the Champs-Elysées section of the stage in first place.

Such an honor was bestowed upon American George Hincapie in 2012, in recognition of his final and record setting 17th Tour de France.

While a number of riders will try to pull away from the peloton on the Champs-Elysées, chances of success are slim and these attempts are often seen as one last opportunity for teams to showcase their colors.

It is extremely hard for a small group to resist the push of chasing sprinter's teams on the stage's flat circuit, even more so than in a linear race, and the overwhelming majority have ended in a mass sprint.

However, with the advent of modern racing tactics, the feat has become very rare, lending an increasingly valued place in Tour lore to the few who have achieved it.

Those are Frenchmen Alain Meslet (1977), Bernard Hinault (1979) and Eddy Seigneur (1994), Dutchman Gerrie Knetemann (1978), American Jeff Pierce (1987), and Kazakhstani Alexander Vinokourov (2005).

In 2005, Lance Armstrong had a comfortable lead in the general classification, but behind him Alexander Vinokourov and Levi Leipheimer were only two seconds apart, on fifth and sixth place.

Only five times the green jersey wearer won: Freddy Maertens in 1976 first semi-stage and in 1981, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov in 1993, Robbie McEwen in 2002, Mark Cavendish in 2011 and Sam Bennett in 2020.

In the final stages of the 1987 Tour de France, the lead in the points classification switched between Jean-Paul van Poppel and Stephen Roche.