By Tom Sheen
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Barring huge disaster, Chris Froome will casually ride his way to victory through the streets of Versailles and Paris before arriving at the Champs-lyses to claim Tour de France glory.
The 28-year-old holds a five minute lead going into the 21st and final stage and, as is tradition, will not be challenged during the procession to victory.
The interest does not end there however, Mark Cavendish can put illness and controversy behind him as he attempts to make it five sprint wins in a row in Paris.
Join Sportsmail for live coverage of the final stage of this year's Tour de France.
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6.56pm: More from Team Sky's twitter:
This #TDF has been a huge team effort. Riders, staff and everyone involved with @TeamSky. Nine riders started this race...
6.48pm: 85km remain with 30km until the peleton hits the streets of Paris and the sprinters take over.
6.44pm: Up at the front Alejandro Valverde of the Movistar team has taken a turn to lead the race. At one point he was second overall but after losing a wheel on Stage 13 he lost more than ten minutes and any chance of a podium finish. He'll finish eighth overall.
Great taste: Froome takes a sip of champagne
6.40pm: Well, there's not a lot of in-race action going on in France so will hear some more of what Froome had to say after he realised he'd be winning this year's tour.
'I can't tell what the future holds but I was quite late getting into the sport,' said Froome in an interview on the Team Sky website.
'I've only been a professional for five years, this is my sixth year, and it's been a fast progression for me. Each year I've taken so much away and learnt so much. I refuse to accept that I don't have improvements to make in every aspect of cycling.
'The first time that I thought realistically that I could become a GC rider to contend in Grand Tours and races like the Tour de France was during the 2011 Vuelta a Espana. Up until then I found it very difficult to keep my performances consistently high throughout a stage race. I would have good days and show what I was able to achieve but I'd never be able to back it up all the way through. But that Vuelta in 2011 was the first time that I was able to do that. That gave me a lot of confidence and belief in myself that actually I do belong in this group of riders at the front of the general classification. "But to be sitting here three years after joining Team Sky, in yellow before Paris – I can't say I would have seen that coming.'
Celebration time: Chris Froome takes the traditional flute of champagne on the final stage of the tour
A toast: Froome clinks glasses with his team car
6.35pm: The riders will arrive in Paris in around 20km. The current pace is roughly 36km/h but that will shoot up above 50 when the circuits around the city start, expect Mark Cavendish to be in the hunt at that point.
6.30pm: Perhaps Lagutin's crash was a bit more serious than I first suggested, he's still riding but has consulted the doctor in the medical car.
6.24pm: Jose Joaquin Rojas of the Movistar is awarded a point for coming first over the second and final climb.
Focussed: Mark Cavendish is bidding to win his fifth straight stage in Paris
Have you got a light? Quintana tried to light a cigar for Joaquim Rodriguez
Support: Fans on the Champs Elysees await the arrival of Chris Froome
6.23pm: 100km remain on the Tour. We're a couple of hours away from Froome being crowned.
6.22pm: Champagne moment! Chris Froome sips a flute of the good stuff on his bike.
6.17pm: Gert Steegmans of Omega Pharma-Quickstep is awarded a point for being first over the hill. That was the penultimate climbing point of the 2013 Tour de France, at the 29.5km mark.
6.15pm: It was Sergey Lagutin involved in that crash but he is back in the race.
6.13pm: Mark Cavendish's Omega Pharma-Quickstep team have taken the initiative now, increasing the pace to about 36km/h. They will want to give Cavendish every chance to win his fifth Paris stage in a row.
6.11pm: Minor crash at the back there, but no harm done.
Well on their way: The pack makes its way along Stage 21, cheered on by supporters
6.07pm: Apart from Froome, the biggest revelation of this year's race has been the young Colombian Nairo Quintana. The 23-year-old debutant was named King of the Mountains, best young rider and sits in second place overall. He looks like a certainty to be a winner one day.
Speaking after Stage 20, Froome said: 'I've got a lot of respect for him.
'From the beginning Nairo has been really strong in the mountains and today he had a lot to ride for in the final.
'His second place, the King of the Mountains jersey, the white jersey... I really did expect him to go all out today [stage 20] and I've got a lot of respect for him. For someone so young, he really has achieved a lot in this year's Tour de France.'
Revelation: Nairo Quintana has been brilliant in this year's race. Winning the Polka-Dot and White jersey and finishing second overall
6.02pm: Alberto Contador has just changed his bike - perhaps practice for next year? Froome's decision to change was a key factor in his winning Stage 17, and the whole tour, ahead of the great Spaniard.
6pm: Christophe Riblon has been announced as the winner of the 'Super Combative' prize this year. The award is given to the most aggressive rider and is decided by a group of journalists.
Riblon is the only Frenchman to win a stage of this year's race - he won the Alpe d'Huez.
5.58pm: With Team Sky leading from the front it seems fitting to let them have a word on their other riders, such as Porte and Stannard, who are not so in the limelight, from their twitter account:
'Team Sky are on the front of the bunch now as we continue towards the centre of Paris. It's been a massive team effort to take yellow.'
Good in green: Slovakian sprinter Peter Sagan adds a bit of green dye and a wig to celebrate his victory
5.55pm: Team Sky's Richie Porte and Ian Stannard still lead from the front, and Froome is still taking his plaudits in the middle of the pack. At this stage of the race it looks more like a charity ride that the final stage of one of the most gruelling races in the world.
5.50pm: Back to that interview with Froome from the Team Sky website:
'I'd like my performance this year to help inspire and motivate a lot of youngsters. Especially young Africans who find it very hard to believe that they can get out of Africa and get onto the European scene or make it in the pro peloton. My experiences are an example of that and if you want to make something happen, you'll find a way and an opportunity yourself to make it happen.
'I don't think there's too much I'd change [next year],' he added. 'I'll be more prepared for everything else that comes with the yellow jersey. The pressure, the decisions on the road, the whole experience. There's nothing that compares to the Tour.
'All the other races I'd won leading up to the Tour, I thought they had prepared me in a way that I'd be ready for all that at this year's Tour de France, but everything is on a different level. The riding, the atmosphere off the bike, it feels like every day has had its own challenges. I think next year I'll come back with a lot more experience.'
Quick chat: Froome talks Team Sky GM Sir David Brailsford
5.45pm: At the 10km mark Team Sky riders are leading the peleton, minus Chris Froome. If all the riders finish today it will equal the record number of finishers for the race - 170 riders also finished in 2010.
5.40pm: Those first 56km usually takes about an hour and twenty minutes but if the riders continue at this pace we can expect them to arrive in Paris about 25 minutes after that.
5.36pm: About 56km of Stage 21 takes place outside of Paris, and it's when the riders hit that point that the race gets serious. On arrival in the capital the race makes 10 laps of a circuit to complete the 133.5km stage.
5.34pm: Hoy continued: 'Just a few years ago we did not have anyone who could podium, but now we have two cyclists who can win the Tour in consecutive years. It is a phenomenal achievement and what Chris has done is phenomenal.
'I think it would have been lovely to have seen Bradley racing this year and it would have been fantastic to see both him and Chris competing. Last year was Bradley's year and this year is Chris'.'
Through the garden: The peleton makes its way through the gardens of Versailles
5.30pm: Of course, plaudits and praise has been pouring in for the soon-to-be champion - Britain's greatest Olympian, Sir Chris Hoy, lead the charge. Though he believes his achievements have been overlooked because of Bradley Wiggins' success last year.
'It is a huge achievement and I almost feel sorry for Chris because people are almost getting blase about it,' Hoy said.
'People think it is another British winner so that is what we should expect. But if you take a step back and get some perspective, you can see what a monumental achievement it is for him to have done this.'
5.27pm: There's been no increase of pace except from the sprinters, Mark Cavendish works his way to the front.
5.26pm: And we're off (finally)!
5.24pm: We're still on the roll out. Slow going...
Spectacular: Spectators gather outside the Chateau de Versailles (above) as the riders slowly make their way to the starting line (below)
5.19pm: He's now sharing said cigar with Nairo Quintana - Rodriguez's nickname Purito, means cigar.
5.18pm: Such is the pace that Joaquim Rodriguez has time to puff on a cigar for the cameras.
5.15pm: Froome seems to be shaking the hand of every rider on the Tour - bar Alberto Contador - he better get a move on if he wants to be at the front.
5.13pm: Rather than leading from the front, Chris Froome has disappeared into the pack, the Yellow jersey conspicuous in its absence. Quintana and Sagan are leading the riders as they continue to make their way to the starting line.
Celebrations: Quintana and Froome share a well deserved cigar with Joaquim Rodriguez
Colourful: Chris Froome looks resplendent in yellow, alongside second placed best young rider and King of the Mountain Nairo Quintana (second left) and winner of the Green Jersey Points Classification Peter Sagan (right)
5.07pm: The riders are still riding their roll out at a pedestrian pace, the stage should start in about 10 minutes.
5.02pm: It's a beautiful evening in France and the riders are enjoying their ride through the gardens, chatting and smiling with each other as they make their way towards the Palace.
Peter Sagan has even dyed his beard green...
5pm: The peleton is currently making its way through the unofficial 14km of the gardens of Versailles to the race start.
4.56pm: The traditional route has been slightly changed as well this year. After following a route through Versailles and Paris, the riders will do the traditional 10 laps of a circuit around the Champs-lyses.
But this year, and for the first time since 1975, instead of turning in front of the Arc de Triomphe, the peleton will race around the Place de Etoile.
All in green: Green jersey leader Peter Sagan has even dyed his beard green for the final stage...
4.51pm: A quick reminder... Froome will be in Yellow as the overall leader, Nairo Quintana in Polka-Dot (his title of King of the Mountains takes precedent over being the young leader) and Peter Sagan is in Green, he leads the points classification.
4.50pm: The riders are on their bikes and warming up.
4.49pm: In an interview with the Team Sky website, Froome outlined just what it meant to be the winner of this grand old race.
'This is an amazing feeling. Everybody keeps on telling me it is life changing, but I really hope things don't change too much for me,' he said.
'It was quite an overwhelming feeling. It must have been at just over two kilometres to go when I was with [Nairo] Quintana and [Joaquim] Rodriguez coming towards the finish. "2km to go now, I've got five minutes. This is it. This is pretty much wrapped up now." I was quite hard to think about continuing racing and the tactics to sort out those final kilometres. There's always that nervous tension each day, counting down to get to this point.'
Mentor: David Kinjah (centre) introduced Froome to cycling in the mountains of Nairobi
4.45pm: Froome will become the second Briton to win the Tour after last year's win by Sir Bradley Wiggins. But Froome took a slightly different route to the top - born in Nairobi to English parents, the cyclist stayed in Kenya until he was 14, learning to cycle on dirt tracks.
He met professional cyclist David Kinjah who trained with him in the mountains of the country, before moving to Johannesburg, South Africa, to attend secondary school.
It was there that he turned his wheels to road cycling, though he didn't turn professional until he was 22.
4.42pm: And Tour organisers are making a couple of changes to the race which should mark the 100th birthday celebrations with a bang.
Every living finisher in Tour history has been invited to watch the race in Paris, while the race will take place at night for the first time - that should make for some spectacular pictures later on.
4.38pm: The would-be champion has won three stages in this year's tour, stages 8, 15 and 17, while he has held a firm grip on the yellow jersey since stage 9.
Elsewhere in the field Mark Cavendish returns to what has been a fertile hunting ground for the Manx man in recent years. A win in Paris would make it five stage 21 wins in a row for the sprint king.
4.35pm: Froome holds a five minute lead over second-placed Colombian Nairo Quintana and in keeping with tradition the riders will allow the Kenyan-born rider to cruise to victory on the 133.5km stage.
4.30pm: Hello everyone, glad to have you along for live coverage of the final stage of the 100th Tour de France.
As ever, the final stage is little more than a ceremonial procession, but with Chris Froome - barring spectacular disaster - all but certain of becoming the second successive Briton to win the race, the ride around Versailles and Paris should hold plenty of interest.
Procession: Barring huge disaster Chris Froome will win the Tour de France in Paris
On top: Froome should be atop the podium come the end of Stage 21
On his way: Froome took a jet rather than cycled to the final stage...
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