Andre Greipel's Grand Tour winning streak ends on the Champs-Élysées

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Andre Greipel's Grand Tour winning streak has come to an end on the Champs-Élysées after stage 21 of the Tour de France when he finished second to Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen.

Of the 15 Grand Tours Greipel has ridden, the 2017 Tour is just the third of his career that he hasn't won a stage and is his first since the 2008 Giro d'Italia without a victory. In 2015 and 2016, the Lotto-Soudal fastman won the final stage of the Tour and was aiming for a third straight on the Champs-Élysées. However, the Dutchman 11 years his junior proved the strongest of the duo.

"I wanted to win here and today, but that didn't work out. 'Almost' is not winning. Maybe I should have gone earlier," Greipel told Radsport-news.com. "But that's the way it is. Congratulations to Groenewegen. He rode a long sprint up front in the wind and made it to the end, that was really strong."

Lotto Soudal end the Tour without a win with Thomas De Gendt's stage combativity prize its sole visit to the podium. The Belgian controversy missed out on the super-combative prize in Paris despite spending over 1000km in breakaways.

A stage winner and wearer of the maglia rosa at the Giro, Greipel was confident of continuing his stage-winning success at the Tour. Three third place results in the first six stages suggested the 35-year-old would get his win but only recorded top-ten results on stages 7 and 11 before the Paris finale.

"I am not entirely satisfied with this Tour, the team is not satisfied either. We would have liked to have won a stage!" he added to Radsport.

Since 2008, Greipel has won at least ten races in a season with 2011 when he won eight the exception. With the Tour done and dusted, Greipel is on four wins on the season and surely has a fire in his belly to make up for the Tour disappointment and secure double figure wins for 2017.