Froome completes climb to fame

PARIS – All for one, one for all, and all bathed in yellow.

Arms over each other’s shoulders, linked together in a long line of happiness, Tour de France winner Chris Froome and his teammates pedaled slowly over the finish line, soaking up the applause Sunday on the Champs-Elysees.

Three weeks of furious racing, of beating back both a tenacious Colombian, Nairo Quintana, and doping suspicions that are Lance Armstrong’s poisonous legacy to cycling, were over.

Time for the winner’s speech.

“The Maillot Jaune is special, very special,” Froome said, using the yellow jersey’s French name.

“I understand its history, good and bad,” he said. “I will always respect it.”

The Tour is still French. But British riders have won three of the last four: Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and now two for Froome, following his first win in 2013. That puts Britain equal with the United States, with three from Greg LeMond - and minus seven stripped from Armstrong.

Under suitably British weather, on rain-slickened roads, Froome took it easy on the last Stage 21, his work done having grimly resisted Quintana’s late assault on his hard-won Tour lead the previous day on the final Alpine ascent.

The tired 160 riders – of 198 who started – didn’t bother racing for much of the largely flat 110-kilometer ramble from Sevres, in the French capital’s southwest.

To minimize risk of crashes, Tour organizers stopped the clock early, on the first of 10 laps up and down the Champs-Elysees’ cobblestones.

That locked in Froome’s lead to guarantee victory. He smiled broadly as he pedaled past flag-waving spectators. He still had to ride the laps to complete the full race distance of 3,354 kilometers.