Chris Froome has become the first British rider to win two Tour De France races by taking victory in the 2015 Tour De France.
The Team Sky rider went into the final 109.5km stage from Sèvres Grand Paris Seine Ouest to Paris-Champs-Elysées with a lead of 1.12 over Nairo Quintana of Movistar after the teams flew from the Alps back to Paris.
Race organisers ASO opted to use Ville-d'Avray where the very first Tour de France officially finished in 1903 before the final parade to Paris for the official start of the race on a wet day in Paris.
Froome, in a black rain jacket covering his yellow jersey, rode along with Nairo Quintana the white jersey winner, Peter Sagan the points jersey winner and Romain Bardet of AG2R the most combative rider of the race before removing his jacket for the official photographs on this procession.
The racing started at 16.45 local time but there was no early attacks from the peloton which included Adam Hansen of Lotto Soudal who was completing his 12th successive Grand Tour.
There was a point on offer for the climb on the category four Cote de L’Observatoire climb which was 2.2kms long with an average gradient of 4.1% and it was Filippo Pozzatto of Lampre-Merida who took the point.
There were still no attacks with 93.2kms left on a stage where the judges had decided that the race time would be taken at the first crossing of the finishing line at the Champs-Élysées after 41kms.
Into Paris with Froome, thanking every member of his team, the rain had stopped and there was plenty of applause as Team Sky came into view on the Place De La Concorde.
Over the finish line and Chris Froome was declared the winner picking up 450,000 euros and Pinarello becoming the most successful bike manufacturer with eleven Tour De France winners including two for Froome and one for Sir Bradley Wiggins.
With the clock now stopped. Team Sky led with nine laps to go and with eight laps to go, there was an intermediate sprint and Astana’s Andrily Grivko took the points.
Sylvain Chavanel of IAM Cycling took a lead of 11 seconds with 47.6kms left but was reeled in and Nelsen Oliveira of Lampre, Kenneth Vanbilsen of Cofidis and Pierre Luc Périchon of Bretagne Seche Environnement who will change their name to Fortuneo Vital Concept from 1 January 2016, took a 22 second lead with five seven kilometre laps left.
Two laps later and their lead had gone out to 35 seconds but was down to eighteen with two laps remaining.
Rohan Dennis, the winner of the time trial in Utrecht, got to the escapers just as Chris Froome suffered a mechanical due to a paperbag being stuck in his back wheel and required a change of his special yellow bike.
With 9.2kms to go, the four out front were only nine seconds ahead so Kenneth Vanbilsen tried to go away on his own as in the sky, there was a salute to the race from La Patrouille de France.
Vanbilsen was joined by Dennis just after they took the bell for the final lap.
Tommy Voeckler punctured and with 4.9kms left, Vanbilsen and Dennis were caught by the Arc D’Triomphe.
Orica GreenEdge and Lotto Soudal along with Giant Alpecin were all on the front with riders all trying to get a decent position before the under-pass and then out in front of the Joan D’Arc statue.
Under the flam rouge and there was a crash but up the front Alexander Kristoff was there with Degenkolb. However, neither could stop Andrei Greipel of Lotto Soudal who raced away to win in 2.49.41 ahead of Bryan Coquard, Kristoff, Boasson-Hagen and Demare, followed by Cavendish and Sagan whilst down the road, Team Sky rolled home altogether 1.26 down to celebrate a superb job which has seen Chris Froome win the 102nd Tour De France.