PARIS — Tour de France organisers (ASO) announced on Saturday that Sunday’s final stage of the prestigious cycling race will be significantly shortened due to the catastrophic wildfires currently ravaging southwest France. The decision was made following an official directive from the Interior Ministry, which indicated a critical need to redeploy security personnel—originally mobilised to safeguard the sporting event—directly to the fire-stricken regions. Expressing a spirit of national solidarity with the impacted communities, the Amaury Sport Organisation confirmed that the 21st and final stage will be reduced from its original 133km length to just 89km.
The closing leg was initially scheduled to commence west of Paris in Thoiry. Under the revised itinerary, the race will now skip the external route entirely, starting directly on the iconic Champs-Élysées in Paris. Cyclists will complete a couple of additional laps around the famous avenue before joining the primary Montmartre circuit to conclude the tour. The ongoing environmental crisis has caused widespread devastation across southwest France, with raging blazes near Arcachon Bay in the Gironde region and around Biscarrosse in Landes destroying over 36,000 hectares of dense woodland. The severity of the fires has also prompted the mandatory evacuation of nearly 200,000 people, a significant portion of whom were displaced from high-density tourist destinations.
