Sawt Falasteen - Belgian ace Evenepoel checks out Tour de France finale

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.

"We started in Monaco, and saw the first climb twice," explained Klaas Lodewyck, sports director of Evenepoel's Soudal Quick-Step outfit.

"Then we saw the descent several times, which was similar to the one of Sunday’s Paris-Nice stage, but we were able to discover more today, in better weather," he said in reference to the driving rain that accompanied the last day of racing on Paris-Nice where Evenepoel came second.

"It is a nice time trial course, but very demanding, even more so as it comes on the last day of the Tour. It will be a beautiful race on a spectacular backdrop," he said.

"Many teams were also there looking at the course so we know that others will be well prepared and it will be a great race come July. It was a very useful day."

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.

"It's difficult to replace Paris, so what better scenery could we give than a dazzling Monaco to Nice time-trial," said Christian Prudhomme at the route unveiling in October.

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.

R.Shaban--SF-PST