Tour de France 2018: Stage 21 time, TV schedule, and live stream info

Welcome to Paris.

I won’t pretend like Stage 21 of the Tour de France is a compelling stage, but I can admit it has a lot of charm. Tune in early and you’ll get to see Geraint Thomas properly celebrate winning the yellow jersey for the first time, locked arm-in-arm with his teammates as part of the greatest cycling team in perhaps the history of the sport, and sipping what must taste like the most delicious champagne in the world.

There will be riders smiling, announcers burbling on about what a journey the last three weeks have been, and generally very little tension in the peloton for once. There won’t be much compelling racing, especially not after a large chunk of the pure sprinters were forced to abandon the race. But if you suffer party FOMO easily you’ll want to make sure to watch.

Stage 21 starts later than usual, beginning at 10:15 a.m. ET in the Paris suburb of Houilles. Riders will go 61.5 kilometers before entering the loop around the Champs-Élysées, which they will do nine times.

NBCSN will start broadcasting ahead of the racing for once, beginning its coverage at 9:30 a.m. along with the NBC Sports app. Commercial-free coverage for NBC Sports Gold subscribers will begin at 10 a.m. And if you have a subscription to FuboTV, you can also access coverage.

Here’s the course profile:

It’s not much to look at, but again, racing isn’t really the point. The peloton will toy with the inevitable breakaway while riding together at 50 percent effort. Meanwhile, viewers get treated to camera shots of riders rounding L’Arc de Triomphe while military jets probably appear out of nowhere to spread a Bleu-Blanc-Rouge smoke trail.

It’s hard to predict a winner with so many sprinters missing. Marcel Kittel, Dylan Groenewegen, Fernando Gaviria, and others all most the time cut on Stage 11, which means that a breakaway may have a non-zero chance of winning this year.

Of note will be Peter Sagan’s efforts. The brilliant Slovakian rider has been suffering for four straight days on the bike after falling hard on Stage 17 to make sure he secures the sixth Tour de France green jersey of his career. A win on the Champs-Élysées has eluded him thus far, and if anyone deserves the honor it’s the man who is so good he has effectively broken the Tour’s points competition. The question is if his battered body is even capable of gunning for the line.

Start time: 10:15 a.m. ET/4:15 p.m. local

TV schedule: NBCSN, beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET. Also available on FuboTV.

Streaming: NBC Sports app (free, with commercials) beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET., and NBC Sports Gold (paid, no commercials) beginning at 10 a.m.