Tour de France 2020 Stage 21 - As it happened

Caleb Ewan was nowhere in that sprint, after all that work from his team today and all that battling to survive in the mountains he rolled across the line in seventh, one spot behind Wout van Aert.

He punches the air as he crosses the line and screams in delight as he rolls to a stop.

He rode his leadout train perfectly. Mads Pedersen did enough to take second place, with Sagan right there in third place. To be fair, neither of them was close to beating Bennett.

Magnificent.

Sam Bennett is perfectly placed now. Sagan is close on his shoulder.

But can Cees Bol finish it off?

He's made a good fist of that, but it's gruppo compacto as we enter the final frenetic moments of this Tour de France.

The Ineos rider just had a little dig off the front but only succeeded in dropping himself. Jumbo Visma are still leading proceedings, with the gap to the break standing at just about 10 seconds now.

The young Yorkshireman has had a blast around the block and is now back in the peloton.

There's just three left in the lead group as they take the bell for the final lap.

It's almost like Pierre Rolland is not the optimal rider to chase down a breakaway on a flat sprint finish.

Jumbo-Visma have come to the front now to try and position Wout van Aert.

The gap is starting to wear away under the ferocious chasing of Pierre Rolland for B&B Hotels.

No, you really did read that correctly.

Van Avermaet, Schachmann, Swift and Perichon are looking super motivated here. They hold their gap still at about 17 seconds.

Van Avermaet is doing a heroic job both for himself and for his team mate Matteo Trentin back in the bunch. The Italian CCC sprinter will be getting an armchair ride right now with no obligation to chase.

The break are doing a fantastic job of defying the peloton, but the balance of power is still in the hands of the bunch.

De Gendt continues to lead the chase, but on his shoulder is a rider from B&B Hotels and behind that you can just make out the grimacing face of Tractor Tim Declercq.

They are absolutely hurtling through the kilometres now. Thomas De Gendt leads the peloton in service of his sprinter, Caleb Ewan.

Ewan, remember, has actually won this stage before and will take some beating tonight.

Bryan Coquard is their man for the sprint and he would dearly, dearly love to bag a victory today. The French team is from the second-tier of professional cycling and have been excellent value for their wildcard invite in this Tour, but have not secured a victory.

A small breakaway has got ahead of the peloton with Connor Swift (again!) plus Greg van Avermaet and Max Schachmann involved. They took the lion's share of the points out of the running at the day's only intermediate sprint, and Sam Bennett was able to outscore Sagan in the peloton behind.

That's an amazing moment of history for Irish cycling. Bennett has guaranteed the win in the green jersey. Now, can he grab the stage win as a final cherry on the top?

Crowds have been greatly controlled for today's finale. We're used to seeing them packed deep all the way around this circuit, but today just 5,000 spectators have been allowed and only in one or two areas. The result is a very strange atmosphere that seems much more subdued than we are used to.

A bit of a group has got away and this is not the usual 'script' for a stage 21 finale. It was instigated by MIchal Kwiatkowski and had quite a few other big names in it.

It is being chased down by the twin powers of Thomas De Gendt and Tim Declercq.

The race hits the Champs and right away those attacks are flying. Jens Keukeleir is one of the first to light things up and British former champion Connor Swift is involved too.

The peloton is passing the glass pyramid outside the iconic Louvre art gallery. That's a memory that'll surely stay in Tadej Pogacar's mind forever.

The race hugs the left bank of the Seine until it crosses over the river and goes onto the iconic circuit of the Champs-Elyées.

They will do a total of eight laps of the circuit, with an intermediate sprint after three.

We have reached Paris! The crowds are packing the roadside but we're not quite at the legendary Champs-Elysees circuit just yet.

The Dutchman has been the standout rider of the Tour, but even his efforts were not enough to secure Primoz Roglic the overall win. Here he is on the hopes the team have for today, and how they reacted to the stunning result yesterday.

Bol has struggled to finish off the epic endeavours of his Sunweb team mates thus far in the race's bunch sprints. It seems unlikely that, given the extra pressure of the Tour's showpiece finale, he will suddenly work out how to beat the likes of Caleb Ewan, Wout van Aert and Sam Bennett.

It might not have been the Slovenian most people expected, but a man from the tiny mountainous country in Europe has won the Tour de France for the first time ever. The two riders clearly have a lot of respect for each other, as shown by Roglic's willingness to cuddle up to Pogacar for this photo on the early part of today's race.

The big story at the start or the day was a 'gesture' from the race to make clear its anti-racist stance. In practice, this seemed to involve some but not all riders writing slogans on their masks at the start village – and Kevin Reza being invited to ride at the front of the peloton. Here's Rob Hatch, with more on that.

And a few shots of riders with the hand-written messages.

Yup, I'm as surprised as you are.

There's a single climb today, which is good for one solitary mountains point. It'll make no difference to the eventual winner of the jersey, but I'm sure there's a little cash prize that the riders can enjoy spending tonight when they celebrate having finished their lap of France.

It was a remarkable race for the green jersey. Peter Sagan has made the maillot vert his own in the last decade, but this year he struggled to maraud over the mountains and hoover up intermediates in the same fashion that he has before. Sam Bennett has relied on his brilliantly strong team to deliver him into great positions and has, whenever they have contested a sprint from the same group, proved to be the faster of he and Sagan.

Michael Morkov deserves an honourable mention for doggedly being by Bennett's side at every key juncture, while Bora Hansgrohe also made some of the most exciting racing of the whole 2020 Tour with their attempts to shake Bennett out of the leading group.

It would be a great shame to see Sagan slink off with his tail between his legs after this. Hopefully the rivalry between he and Bennett can sustain our interest for a few more years yet.

The kilometre zero has been passed and the stage is underway, but we're still waiting for the various jersey wearers to come up and have their photos taken.

At the moment, it's Sam Bennett who is getting his new Tinder profile pic, which is interesting given his is the only one that is still mathematically up for grabs today. It would take something truly spectacular for Peter Sagan to overhaul the Irishman, but it is a possibility.

Well, here we are then folks. The end of the line. The riders are rolling through the départ fictif at the moment, although really the first 100 kilometres of this day are pretty fictif, if you ask me.

At the front of the peloton are Kevin Reza, Tadej Pogacar, Sam Bennett, Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz.

Why is Reza up there when he's not wearing one of the race's four leader's jerseys? Because he is the only black rider in the 2020 Tour de France. It's a symbolic gesture from ASO, to acknowledge the wider Black Lives Matter movement.

1. Tadej Pogacar
2. Primoz Roglic
3. Richie Porte

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) is on the brink of winning the Tour de France after forcing a spectacular implosion from Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) on the penultimate stage, a thrilling individual time trial up the Planche des Belles Filles.

Pogacar just needs to finish safely in the bunch on Sunday’s procession into Paris to complete one of the biggest upsets in cycling history.

The 21-year-old trailed his fellow Slovenian by 57 seconds going into Stage 20, but immediately set about chiselling away at Roglic’s lead. After making a significant gain on the flat first part of the stage, Pogacar seemed to have knocked Roglic's confidence.

Both men changed their bikes ahead of the final climb – with Roglic taking an age to get going again – as the seconds continued to trickle away.

The time swung in Pogacar's favour in the closing kilometres as the impossible dream suddenly became a reality, with the young rider winning the stage to cap a memorable finale. He becomes the youngest winner of the Tour since the 19-year-old Henri Cornet took victory in 1904.

Bradley Wiggins has praised Kevin Reza for speaking out about cycling’s silence surrounding racism and diversity.

In an interview with Eurosport's Orla Chennaoui, Reza said that the sport had a "lot to learn" and urged his fellow professionals to wake up to the issue.

"I think it’s a very brave thing what Kevin Reza has done and I know he doesn’t want to become a face for it, but the tragedy of the whole thing is how backwards this sport is in many ways," said Wiggins on The Breakaway and subsequently on his podcast.

Stage 21 will be broadcast live on Eurosport 1 from 14:40 and you can also watch an uninterrupted feed on Eurosport Player and right here on eurosport.co.uk.

Dan Lloyd, Bradley Wiggins, Orla Chennaoui and the team will bring you all the best post-race analysis and reaction on The Breakaway, which will be available to watch on Eurosport Player after the stage.

And don't forget, we are bringing you daily podcasts from the Bradley Wiggins Show - check in with your podcast platform of choice this evening...