End of the road

After 2075 miles, the 2005 Tour de France comes to a close on the Champs Elysees. We watch it for what will probably be - for us, at least - the last time. Next year, after 40 years on ITV and Channel 4, TV coverage moves behind a paywall. 

The team of presenters and experts who’ve shared their knowledge and experience with us, will not move with it.  Which is a great shame.  They’ve done a superb job over the years. And it’s been clear in the comments that they’ve made, they’re going to miss it too.

I've followed the Tour since a schoolboy racer back in the 1960s. No TV updates back then - just a 7-day wait for a report in Cycling Weekly.  And then 40 years ago .... it was on TV.  Every day.

The finish was extraordinary - 3 laps of the Champs Elysees followed by a white-knuckle ride of 3 laps up and down the narrow, crowd-packed, cobbled - and wet - streets of Montmartre, before crossing the line back on the Champs Elysees. I've never seen anything like it. What a way to end it all .....

I know it’s not up there in the scale of things that rightly concern us on Planet Earth at this moment, it’s just one of those little things that gave us a lot of pleasure.