Chris Froome targets five more years in yellow after fourth Tour de France triumph

• Stage results from Paris and final classification standings

• How much will riders and teams earn in cash at the Tour?

He nearly fluffed his speech, ­dropping his notes on the podium beneath the Arc de Triomphe and requiring runner-up Rigoberto Uran to rescue them before they blew away, but Chris Froome was otherwise sure-footed, firing out a warning to his rivals after pulling on his fourth yellow jersey in the space of five years by saying he believed he could keep on competing at this level into his late 30s.

A few spots of rain had greeted the peloton as it arrived into Paris on Sunday, exhausted from three weeks and 2,200 miles of hard racing. Nothing was going to rain on Froome’s parade, though. Not the “noise”, as Froome described it, around Team Sky and its principal Sir Dave Brailsford, nor the occasional boos that accompanied him and his team-mates as they made their way into the French capital, across the Seine, through the middle of Grand Palais – incorporated stylishly into the final stage this year to publicise the Paris 2024 bid – and finally, after galloping up and down the Champs-Elysees seven times, into the arms of his wife Michelle and son Kellan.

Froome is now just one shy of the record of five yellow jerseys set by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. None of those riders won a grand tour beyond the age of 31 but Froome said he felt he could carry on and on.

“I’d still like to keep racing into my late 30s and keep competing for the yellow jersey,” he said, after Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) claimed the final sprint from Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal). “I’d like to be here for the next five years, trying to win it. But it certainly doesn’t get any easier. This year was the closest it’s ever been for me and it’s only going to be harder next year.”

Froome’s grip was indeed less vice-like this year than it has been in recent seasons, which offers a certain amount of hope to his rivals. For the first time in his run of Tour victories, he surrendered the ­yellow jersey to a rival in the mountains and he did not claim a single stage win. Heading into the last week less than 30secs separated the top four on GC.

Against that, though, it must be said that his support – led by the ­extraordinary Mikel Landa and Michal Kwiatkowski, and expertly marshalled by Luke Rowe who wrapped up his position as the race’s ‘lanterne rouge’, the last placed rider on GC – looked about as strong as it ever has.

Froome appeared to get stronger as the race wore on, putting his one major wobble in the race, when he cracked on the summit finish to ­Peyragudes, down to a failure to “fuel” properly. So now to the Vuelta a Espana. Froome’s season has been built around a twin assault on the Tour and the Vuelta, and while his participation in the latter is not yet 100 per cent confirmed, it is hard to see why he would not travel to Spain next month. And who can stop him if he does. Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) are past their prime. Fabio Aru (Astana) tired as this Tour wore on. One or other of the Yates twins could go well but they are not yet at Froome’s level. Tom Dumoulin, the Giro d’Italia winner, is not riding.

Froome has already finished second three times at the Vuelta, in 2011, 2014 and 2016. This time the stars seem aligned to make him the first ever British winner of the race.

“It’s always been the plan to go on and do the Vuelta but I’ll have to see how I shape up over the next 10 days,” Froome said. “The goal was to be strong in the third week of the Tour and, especially after a couple of hard days in the Alps, it’s worked out really well.

“Tim Kerrison [his coach] has been a major part of that and I have him to thank for the planning and coming into the Tour the way I did. I wasn’t quite at my best in the [Criterium du] Dauphine, but I’ve never felt this good in the third week of a grand tour.”

If Froome does it, he would be only the third rider in history to manage the Tour-Vuelta double ­after Anquetil in 1963 and Hinault in 1978 – and the first since the race was moved from its old April slot.

Froome is beginning to clock up these records so routinely as to make them appear commonplace. So used are we to him winning year after year there is now an annual debate in late July about why Froome is not more popular than he is and whether he deserves to be the Sports Personality of the Year. Laura Kenny kicked off both of those debates in one tweet, and threw the New Year’s Honours into the mix as well. “It would be a crime for @chrisfroome not to be #SPOTY this year and not to be on the honours list! 1 of the greatest ever @LeTour riders,” she wrote.

If there was one criticism that might be levelled at Froome it was his decision not to comment on the travails Sky have endured over the last year since the Fancy Bears leak, and which have spilt over from time to time during this Tour. He said they “did not concern” him, which felt a long way from the sort of comments he made last autumn when he took a very strong stance.

“When you have a three-week bike race, especially one that’s been this close for the Yellow Jersey, it’s not something that’s on your radar,” he said. “It’s just noise in the background. It’s the same as a Frenchman going ‘Boo’ at the roadside – you hear it, but it doesn’t stop you pedalling or going in the direction you need to go.”

7:17PM

Brailsford backs Froome to win more Tours de France 

Sir Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky principal, has said he believes Chris Froome can match the greats of the sport and and add a fifth Tour de France to his palmarès next year.

"I think he can go on – there's no reason to think that he can't," Brailsford told ITV4 following Froome's fourth win in Paris on Sunday.

"Physically he's got what it takes, then it's a question of hunger and mentality and the Chris I've seen here has been working harder than ever.

"He's getting better tactically and technically, so as long as that hunger continues I think he'll be a force in this race for a number of years to come."

Brailsford shrugged off questions about the negative response Froome has received in some quarters in France, insisting: "I don't think it's a popularity contest. You've got to look at the sporting achievement and Chris is right up there with the greats now.

"That's what he'll be looking at and I'm sure he'll be thinking about the respect amongst his peers in terms of what he's achieved and how he's achieved it."

6:58PM

The jersey boys

After winning the final stage of this year's Tour de France, Dylan Groenewegen has been up on the podium to receive the plaudits of the thousands gathered on the Champs-Élysées. As have Simon Yates, Michael Matthews and Warren Barguil as winners of the young rider, points and mountains classifications respectively.

Chris Froome  followed and was presented with his fourth yellow jersey. The Team Sky rider will return in a few minutes alongside Rigoberto Uran and Romain Bardet before making his winners' speech.

6:51PM

Speechless Froome speaks

Just minutes after sealing his fourth Tour de France title, Chris Froome had a microphone stuffed into his face and this is what he said.

"I’m speechless. It’s just an amazing feeling. The Champs-Élysées never disappoints. There’s something magical about it when you’ve spent three weeks thinking about it being in this position. It’s so rewarding every time.

"Each time I’ve won the Tour it’s been so unique, such a different battle to get to this moment. They’re all so special in their own ways. I think that this year will be remembered for being the closest battle and most hard fought battle between the GC [general classification] riders." 

6:18PM

Groenewegen wins the final stage at the Tour

Dylan Groenewegen finally wins a stage at the Tour de France after outsprinting André Greipel. Edvald Boasson Hagen had to settle for third. The young Dutchman took that sprint up from a long way out and, to be honest, I though he had gone too early.

The Lotto Jumbo rider, though, had plenty left in the tank and was able to deny the veteran German and in-form Norwegian to claim the biggest stage win of his career.

6:17PM

1km to go

Katusha-Alpecin are on the front with Lotto-Jumbo NL tucked in just behind. Edvald Boasson Hagen looming, but is followed by Andre Greipel. This is anybody's stage.

6:15PM

2km to go

Difficult to call right now, could Alexander Kristoff be ready to pounce?

6:14PM

3km to go

Cofidis and Katusha-Alpecin are dead centre, but there's lots of movement happening behind.

6:13PM

4km to go

Zdenek Stybar is still leading , but the peloton is looming large on his wheel.

6:13PM

4.5km to go

Zdenek Stybaris the next to go off the front, but the Quick-Step Floors rider, surely, will be reined back in.

6:12PM

5km to go

Dmitri Gruzdevof Astana clipped off the front, but he's being chased down.

6:11PM

6km to go

Thomas Voeckleris riding at the back of the field, waving to the crowds on his lap of honour in Paris.

6:10PM

7km to go

Ding, ding. Chris Froome is just one lap away from winning his fourth Tour de France, but who is going to win its final stage?

6:09PM

8km to go

Ok, so Lotto-Soudal, Sunweb, Dimension Data, Cofidis and Lotto NL-Jumbo all have numbers near the front and their respective sprinters are getting ready for the final battle of this three-week race. 

6:08PM

9km to go

Pierre Latour gets a bike change. A slow on, but the Ag2r-La Mondiale rider doesn't seem too bothered.

6:07PM

10km to go

All back as on now out on the road.

6:06PM

11km to go

Just a matter of metres between the breakaway and the speeding peloton. 

6:05PM

Martin attacks! 

Tony Martin has gone off the front of the bunch. The German is in pursuit of the breakaway. The world time trial champion, of course, hasn't won a stage at then Tour since 2015, could this be his day? Probably not.

6:02PM

14km to go

Cofidis, Lotto-Soudal, Dimension Data and Lotto NL-Jumbo are again near the front as the cross the finish line. Just two laps of this cobbled circuit remain now.

6:01PM

15km to go

Luke Rowe is on the front of the chasing pack and the gap on the breakaway is dropping slowly. 

5:59PM

17km to go

The leading group's advantage has now dropped to 11sec with under three laps remaining. Steve Cummings has just peeled off the front. The wet roads appear to be drying up.

5:57PM

18km to go

Steve Cummings, the British national champion is now leading the chase. The Dimension Data rider will be doing this big pull on behalf of team-mate Edvald Boasson Hagen who will be hoping to contest the final sprint today. Providing, that is, the breakaway is reeled back in.

5:54PM

20km to go

The advantage the nine-man group has is toing and froing, but surely it will be reeled back in withing the next two or three laps. 

5:52PM

22.5km to go

Michael Matthews is looking focused and the Aussie sprinter is surrounded by his Sunweb team-mates near the front of the main bunch. The stage leaders, by the way, are around 20sec further up the road. Just under for laps of the Champs-Élysées remain until the sprinters go to work.

5:49PM

25km to go

Just under 25 kilomteres of the Tour de France remaining. Who's going to win this final stage? I'm going for André Greipel who has yet to win a stage at this year's race. Incidentally, the German has won a stage at every single grand tour he has ever raced in.

5:47PM

28km to go

Primoz Roglic has taken it up on the front of the peloton on behalf of Lotto NL-Jumbo team-mate Dylan Groenewegen.

5:44PM

30km to go

The rain appears to have eased up. The nine-man group has pulled out its lead a little, but they will, I imagine, be reeled back in on the final lap. 

5:41PM

32.5km to go

Cofidis, Lotto-Soudal, Dimension Data and  Lotto NL-Jumbo ​are all sat near the front of the bunch. Team Sky are tucked in behind while the nine-man group still leads the stage by 16sec. Worryingly, the rain is still falling lightly in these Parisian cobbles.

5:38PM

Schär adds to points tally 

Michael Schärjust won the intermediate sprint after leading the nine-man break over the line around 20sec ahead of the peloton. 

5:34PM

38km to go

With just six laps remaining and with the nine-man group leading by 16sec, the sprinters' teams are now starting to think about getting into position. Sunweb and Lotto-Soudal are both controlling the pace on the front on behalf of their fastmen Machael Matthews and Andre Greipel.

5:31PM

41km to go

The leading nine-man group has seen its advantage drop to just 11sec. Warren Barguil, meanwhile, has been forcedc into getting a bike change. The polka dot jersey doesn't need to worry though, all he needs to do is finish today to secure the mountains classification competition.

5:27PM

42km to go

The rain has started to fall a little heavier now and as the riders course their way across these cobbles there will be some nervous riders out there today.

5:25PM

45km to go

A nine-man group featuring Daryl Impey, Sylvain Chavanel, Imanol Erviti, Michael Schär, Alexey Lutsenko, Julien Vermote, Marcus Burghardt, Nils Politt, Sylvain Chavanel and Dion Smith have gone off the front and lead the peloton by 16sec. It's has just started to rain in Paris.

5:22PM

Tour de Louvre

Before arriving on the Champs-Élysées, the peloton cycled through the Louvre. As you do.

5:14PM

Race on!

The peloton is now on the cobbles and local lad Yoann Offredo of Wanty-Groupe Gobert decided to edge his way to the front, but Daryl Impey of Orica-Scott appears to have the bit between his teeth.

5:12PM

Soxy boys

It appears that the Team Sky riders have been handed bespoke socks for today's final stage. If you look closely each pair are slightly different and has a different number of yellow bands, each signifying their participation in a winning edition for the British team.

 Chris Froome is the only rider with five.

5:07PM

Grmay hits the deck

Tsgabu Grmay, the Ethiopian riding for Bahrain-Merida, has managed to have a crash but hopefully he can finish today's stage. Chris Froome, meanwhile, has just picked up a new bike. It was all pre-planned though so don't panic people. He will be winning the Tour de France today.

5:03PM

Café (ride) Colombia

The seven Colombian riders here at the Tour de France managed to join up earlier and pose for the cameras. Jarlinson Pantano, Sergio Henao, Darwin Atapuma, Rigoberto Urán, Carlos Betancur, Esteban Chaves and Nairo Quintana all appear set to complete this years race. Urán, incidentally, will finish with the narrowest margin between a Colombian and overall winner.

4:56PM

Calm before the storm

Team Sky are back on the front of the bunch and thy have binned off their beer bottle and flutes of bubbly. Once they lead the peloton onto the Champs-Élysées I wouldn't be surprised to see Thomas Voeckler clip off the front for a short while. The Frenchman, of coures, is riding his final Tour de France and for whatever reason he's incredibly popular with the French public. The Direct Énergie  riders loves nothing more than being in the spotlight – he's made a career out of the Hollywood attack – and I can't see him wanting to go out unnoticed. It's not his style.

4:50PM

Nice one Cyril

Who says romance is dead? Not Cyril Gautier of Ag2r-La Mondiale who proposed to his partner live on television a few minutes ago by tearing out a page from his Tour de France road book and scrawling a message across it. 

79.5 KM à parcourir / to go - Étape 21 / Stage...by tourdefrance 4:44PM

Chris Froome - in 60 seconds

As we wait for the peloton to arrive in Paris, why don't we look back on Chris Froome's career, in just sixty seconds...

4:37PM

Team of the Tour

Team Sky may have won the general classification, the teams classification and the lanterne rouge, but for me Sunweb have the best – certainly the most exciting – teams of the Tour de France. Some superb tactics from the Dutch team has seen them win four stages and pick up two jerseys. 

Room-mates Michael Matthews and Warren Barguil will take home the points and mountains classifications respectively, while the former will be hoping to win himself a third stage in Paris in a short while once all this tomfoolery and showboating has ended and the riders are doing their circuits up and down the Champs-Élysées.

4:25PM

Offredo attacks off the front!

Yoann Offredo of Wanty-Groupe Gobert has gone off the front, but I'm guessing he is just going to visit some friends or family up the road.

4:23PM

Thirsty work

A few of the Team Sky riders appear to prefer beer to bubbly and they are all now riding along supping on beers. Heineken I think, but I'm not sure. Doesn't really matter. Please don't ever try this yourself if you are riding through Paris, or any other city.

4:18PM

90km to go

After posing for the cameras while quaffing Champagne, the Team Sky leader Chris Froome is drafting his team car as he nears the tailend of the peloton. I'm fairly certain the race commissaires will not punish the maillot jaune for this. Ok, I know they won't. If you haven't guessed it already, the final stage of the Tour de France is a bit like tyhe last day at school. Unless you are a sprinter.

4:12PM

It's good to talk

Chris Froome, who led the peloton out today, has been chatting with rivals and has now dropped back though the pack and has been joined by his team-mates. They're all now raising a few glasses up bubbly. As they do on the final stage of the Tour de France. 

4:04PM

Contenders

Today's stage which usually finishes in a sprint finish, and I can't see there being a break with tradition today, is the most prestigious stage on the cycling calendar for the sprinters and so I expect André Greipel, Nacer Bouhanni, Alexander Kristoff, Dylan Groenewegen and John Degenkolb, none of whom has won a single stage at this year's race, will all be hoping to get involved. Likewise, points classification winner Michael Matthews and the in-form Edvald Boasson Hagen, who has bloomed in the absence of Dimension Data team-mate Mark Cavendish, will be desperate to bulk out their palmarès. Anyway, not much happening yet on this short run-in to Paris.

3:47PM

Afternoon all

Düsseldorf suddenly feels like an awful long time ago, doesn't it? Anyway, not long to go now until Chris Froome can kick off his cleats and sit back with a cold Top Deck, or whatever his tipple of choice is, and celebrate winning a fourth Tour de France title in five years. Unbelievable to think the Kenya-born Briton could only scrape to 83rd spot in the 2008 edition of the race two hours 22 minutes and 33 seconds behind Carlos Sastre, but there you go.

The jersey holders – Froome (yellow), Michael Matthews (green), Warren Barguil (polka dot) and Simon Yates (white) – are leading the bunch along as it heads through the neutrailsed section of today's stage ahead of the processional ride into Paris. Once in the French capital the sprinters' teams will get down to the business of setting their men up for one last blast for glory, up the uphill drag to the finish line on the cobbled boulevard that is the Champs-Élysées.

Départ / Start - Étape 21 / Stage 21 - Tour de...by tourdefrance 3:10PM

The Telegraph Cycling Podcast: re-cap of yesterday's stage

The 20th stage of the Tour de France was the long-awaited time trial in Marseille, starting and finishing in the Stade Velodrome, home of Ligue 1 football club Marseille.

With three riders so close overall, everything was up for grabs, in theory, although Chris Froome’s superiority in the time trials meant that his yellow jersey was never likely to be threatened.

But second and third overall did swap places because Rigoberto Uran, the Colombian rider with Cannondale-Drapac, put in a fine performance to ensure he will finish as runner-up when the Tour concludes in Paris tomorrow. Romain Bardet misjudged his ride and clung onto the third place by just a single second, ahead of Mikel Landa.

In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau capture the atmosphere in the stadium, discuss Maciej Bodnar’s stage victory and assess the final shake-up overall.

• The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science in Sport

2:42PM

Tour de France stage 21: quick preview

When is the final stage of the Tour de France?

Stage 21 of the Tour de France is on Sunday July 23, 2017.

When does stage 21 at the Tour start?

The 103km run from Montgeron to Paris starts at 3.50pm (BST).

And when does the race finish?

This is it. This is the final stage of the second grand tour of the season that started three weeks and one day previously in Düsseldorf, Germany. The race is due to conclude on the Champs-Élysées, the most famous cobbled boulevard in the world, at around 6.10pm depending on the urgency of the peloton and its desire to drink beer and eat burgers.

What TV channel can I watch the race on?

Eurosport, ITV and S4C will be broadcasting the stage live – click here for full details of broadcast times – whileTelegraph Sport will provide a live blog to keep you up to speed with the latest news. Bookmark this page for all of the action.

And what time is Sunday's live coverage?

Stage 21: Montgeron – Paris Champs-Élysées, 103km
Telegraph Sport liveblog: From 3pm
TV details: Eurosport 1 3.30-6.45pm, ITV4 3.30-7pm, S4C 2pm-TBC

What does the stage profile look like?