The Tour de France may have broken with tradition this year by moving its grand finale to Nice, but it appears that the regular Champs-Elysées circuit will be retained when the final stage returns to Paris in 2025, despite what the Olympic road race circuit may suggest.

The dramatic road race of the 2024 Paris Olympics took place on the climb up Montmartre before finishing with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Tour technical director Thierry Gouvenoux expressed his admiration for the course, but explained why it is unlikely to be replicated in his races in the future, starting with the width of the road.

"The Tour de France peloton is twice the size of the Olympic one, so to draw a new circuit, we would have to find a much bigger road than the one used on the weekend," Gouvenoux told L'Équipe. "In the Montmartre direction, we had to go through a very narrow area, which was a real bottleneck. In some places you could barely open the car door if you needed to provide mechanical service to the riders at the back of the bunch. It worked here yesterday, but it will not be acceptable during the Tour."

Gouvenoux added that the rash of punctures and crashes that plagued the road race was not entirely unexpected, given the Tour peloton's annual experience on the streets of Paris. [I wasn't surprised. Every year, there are more mechanical problems during the 60 kilometers we ride in Paris than in any other race in the Tour de France. As we saw in the time trial, the slightest drop of water can turn the streets of Paris into an ice rink."

Indeed, Gouvenoux downplayed the possibility of deviating from the Tour's familiar Champs-Elysées, noting that it allows the race to enter the heart of Paris without undue impact on the city's daily life.

"That requires a very strong political will," Gouvenoux said. When we go around the Champs-Elysées, we hardly surround the inhabitants, except for a few unknown soldiers." If we go to Montmartre, we will have an enormous impact on the inhabitants."

Meanwhile, Marc Madiot, manager of Groupama-FDJ, noted that the dynamism of the final stage of the Tour would be less dramatic, as it would take on the Montmartre circuit rather than the Champs-Élysées, making for a less dramatic Tour conclusion.

"It is delusional to think that the same scenario can be painted for the final stage of the Tour de France," Madiot told L'Équipe. 'It's like a parade in front of the Champs-Élysées.'