PARIS: The Tour de France will make three circuits of the historic Paris district of Montmartre on its last stage this year in what organisers said on Wednesday would add a competitive finale to the world’s greatest bike race. The new format of the final stage on July 27 introduces an outside possibility that the leading contender could crash out, adding suspense to what had traditionally become a procession into the French capital. The riders will for the first time on a Tour de France race a total of 16.8km in Montmartre before the peloton heads to the Champs-Elysees where it will complete three circuits, instead of the previous eight. The change prolongs the suspense because a breakaway on the narrow, cobbled streets of Montmartre could tempt a few adventurous riders to join and force the big guns to follow them. Around half a million spectators lined the route when the road races at the 2024 Paris Olympics passed through Montmartre, sparking a clamour for the Tour to include the popular tourist spot in its final stage. The circuit will climb Rue Lepic in Montmartre, where much of the action in the hit 2001 movie “Amelie” takes place, before the steep ascent to the domed Sacre Coeur Basilica. “It was kind of now or never,” Paris’ assistant mayor Pierre Rabadan told AFP. “The goal wasn’t to change the finish location, especially for the 50th anniversary of the first finish on the Champs-Elysees, but to make the final stage more competitive and more popular.” The Paris police originally told Tour organisers ASO they were opposed to allowing the race to pass through Montmartre because of security reasons. “The area is heavily populated and there are many cafe terraces and shops making it a tricky security dimension, involving a more substantial security system,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told AFP ahead of the announcement, explaining his original reluctance. The situation was only resolved after the intervention of president Emmanuel Macron, who was the “driving force” behind the decision, the French president’s office told AFP. The 2025 edition of the Tour de France marks the 50th anniversary of its first finale on the Champs-Elysees, traditionally considered Paris’s most chic shopping road, in 1975. The 117th edition of the race itself begins on July 5 in the northern French city of Lille after three consecutive money-spinning foreign ‘Grand Departs’ in Copenhagen, Bilbao and Florence. The gruelling race covers 3,320km over the three weeks and will be contested by 184 riders this year. Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2025