A day after completing the Paris-Nice stage race Remco Evenepoel stayed in the region to prepare for the final stage of the Tour de France which also ends in Nice this year.
The 24-year-old has long been seen as a potential winner of the Tour de France but even if that does not come this year, the time trial world champion will at the very least hope to finish the race with a bang.
Because of the Olympic Games in Paris, the Tour avoids the French capital for the first time in its 121-year history and ends instead on the Riviera with a spectacular time-trial along the winding Corniche between Monaco and Nice.
The Tour de France has never finished outside Paris before and organisers wanted something special to replace it, and the Riviera town of Nice has been a popular choice in the cycling community.
The Tour starts from Florence in Italy on June 29 and features four high altitude finishes as it crosses the Alps twice and squeezes in two time trials, including the potentially dramatic final run from Monaco to Nice on July 21.
The last stage evokes memories of the 1989 Tour, when American Greg LeMond started a rare final-day time trial 50 seconds behind French leader Laurent Fignon and ended up winning the race by eight seconds.
