Slovenian thought a Giro win alone was realistic, but a crash in the Basque Country put a rarer feat within his grasp

There is a good reason why Sunday will be the first time the Tour de France has finished with a time trial in 35 years. The 1989 race closed with the ultimate cliffhanger on the Champs-Élysées, with Greg LeMond starting as the underdog, and ousting Laurent Fignon of France by eight seconds, the tightest winning margin the great race has witnessed.

In subsequent years, organisers feared that any attempt to repeat the stage would be doomed in comparison with what that race produced, hence they persisted with the tried and tested format of a road race stage finishing with a circuit race up and down the Champs-Élysées.