We have the impression that it has always existed: the arrival of the last stage of the Tour on the most beautiful avenue in the world.
This splendor with this masterful podium and the Arc de Triomphe in the background is immutable.
Not at all: the first arrival of the last stage took place on the Champs-Élysées on July 20, 1975, resulting in the first victory of Bernard Thévenet, the year of the defeat of Merckx and the appearance of the polka dot jersey .
In previous years, the Grande Boucle ended at the Cipale velodrome to the east of Paris.
King Eddy Merckx was doing his lap of honor on the hood of the executive car, a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
Since the Tour has been a journalist's business since its creation in 1903, it is still one of them who “invented” the finish on the Champs: Yves Mourousi.
The organizers were looking for a bit of panache and the star journalist of TF 1, during a meeting at the Horse Show in 1974, submitted the idea to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, just elected President of the Republic.
The Head of State immediately gives his agreement.
From the following year, the arrival will therefore be on the Champs-Élysées.
Thévenet in yellow on a wooden podium!
For this first, the Tour does not start from a city in the suburbs.
It turns in inner Paris on a 6 km circuit to be covered 25 times.
It is very hot and the authorities estimate that a million people are gathered along the road.
It was the Belgian Walter Godefroot who made history by winning the sprint, ahead of Robert Mintkiewicz.
Bernard Thévenet is the first rider to win the Tour in this prestigious setting.
Only the podium is not yet: the Grenoblois climbs on a simple wooden box to receive his jersey from the hands of the President of the Republic.
