This year's race of course marks 100 years of the yellow jersey. So a few hours before the peloton zips into Paris, 2,500 people participated in the Tour de France Ride on the Champs Elysees to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the maillot jaune.

By the way if you weren't having that Romain Bardet stuff about the polka-dot jersey....

This photo of Bardet with his father on the road as a five-year-old wearing a polka-dot jersey is a sight to behold, as Richard Virenque whizzes past in 1996.

As we amble towards Paris, the big question is which sprinter is going to take the stage win and grab all (well some of) the glory on the Champs-Elysees?

Elia Viviani? Caleb Ewan? Dylan Groenewegen? Or maybe Peter Sagan?

What do we reckon folks?

Oh and if you wonder what Jacapo Guarnieri is saying below - it translates roughly to, "for a sprinter there is nothing like the Elysian Fields during the Tour. Goose bumps. I envy my colleagues today!"

Image source, Getty Images

On winning the polka-dot jersey, Romain Bardet said: "The polka dot jersey made me dream when I was a kid. In 2015, I missed out on the last mountain stage.

It’s a nice satisfaction for me this time. It’s going to be my fifth time on stage on the Champs-Elysees for different awards in seven races.

"It’s good to reinvent oneself. Things haven’t gone according to my expectations at this Tour but I’ll enjoy this award before thinking about what has not worked.

"We’re allowed to fail but we’re not allowed to not try and give it all.”

Romain Bardet may be out of the top 10 on this Tour for the first time since 2013, but he looks pretty happy chewing the fat with his AG2R La Mondiale colleague Oliver Naesen.

And why shouldn't he, not to be outdone by Ineos the polka-dot jersey, is trying to raise the fashion stakes with his attire and bike frame today.

Image source, Getty Images

As I was tapping out that last entry Yoann Offredo had a little sortie off the front to take the King of the Mountains point available at the Cote de Chateaufort.

Someone is in a good mood and perhaps trying to top up their slush fund.

In case you're wondering what else is going on out on the road. Well it is all pretty sedate.

The peloton is plodding along gently, just think your mobile device in flight mode.

Yoann Offredo is no longer the lanterne rouge and he celebrates his total lack of notoriety by going for a sprint on the day's first classified climb against Lotto-Soudal's Flemish double act Thomas de Gendt and Tim Wellens.

Wellens, who had the polka dot jersey for 15 days has nicked it though, scoring one more point atop the Cotte de St-Remy-les-Chevreuse. He'll remain third in the KOM classification.

Steady Yoann!

This is a slightly strange Tour in that champion-elect Egan Bernal has not won a single stage.

Nor has Geraint Thomas or Steven Kruijswijk, the two other riders who are poised to join Bernal on the podium later on.

Not sure I can remember a previous Tour where the champion and or second and third riders didn't claim a solitary stage.

Over on Eurosport Sir Bradley Wiggins has been doing his usual bit hanging off the back of a motorbike.

The 2012 Tour winner reckons the novelty of winning gets "boring after a while, and after 10-15km you just want to race."

Sir Dave Brailsford then tells his old charge that winning never gets tiring.

Neil: Wouldn’t it be great if the peloton let Julian Alaphilippe lead onto the Champs-Elysees today?

I'm with you Neil.

Image source, Getty Images

Fair play to Sir Dave Brailsford who says this year's triumph has arrived in the "most exciting" edition of La Grande Boucle that he has taken part in.

Brailsford, who has masterminded six victories in the last seven races prior to this, puts that extra pizzazz down to home riders like Julian Alaphilippe, who was in yellow for two weeks of the Tour.

"Credit to Julian Alaphilippe as he died for that [yellow] jersey every stage and he made a lot of people second guess what they thought they knew.

"I think [Thibaut] Pinot did the same in the Pyrenees. He was aggressive, he was brave and he took the race to us."

I'd imagine the man from Zipaquira, will find that his profile goes off the scale after this.

Image source, Getty Images

Having Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas as joint leaders of Team Ineos has "worked to perfection" at the Tour de France, says boss Sir Dave Brailsford.

Bernal is poised to become the first Colombian to win the race, while defending champion Thomas is set to finish second after the processional run into Paris later today.

"You can't get better than second and first," Brailsford said.

"In the end it was all about the team winning."

You can read more about that here.

Rob Hayles
Ex-GB cyclist on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, in France

Dave Brailsford knows his bike riders. He did not sign Egan Bernal on a five-year contract for nothing. He knew he was the real deal.

Brailsford backpedalled a little bit in the middle of the Tour but he was just trying to take the pressure off him.

Ineos haven't dominated and had a stranglehold on the race as usual, but when they needed to on Friday they had a spell where all their riders were there when it counted on the climb.

Brailsford is like a snooker player, always thinking two shots ahead.

One rider not partaking in the general merriment around him is Lotto-Soudal's Caleb Ewan.

The Australian won his maiden Tour stage, in Toulouse in the 11th leg of this race.

But he's clearly got his racing head on today for the sprint down the Champs-Elysees later.

The total prize pot at this year's Tour is worth a shade under €2,300,000 which is just over £2m to those of us used to working in pounds and pence.

Winners of the green and polka dot jerseys – in the points and mountains classifications respectively - will each win €25,000 while the white jersey of the young classification takes home €20,000.

I'll let you do the currency conversion.

Image source, Getty Images

If you're wondering how the readies are going to be dished out later, we've put his handy little prize money listing together.

General classification:

1. €500,000
2. €200,000
3. €100,000
4. €70,000
5. €50,000

So basically the winner collects around £450,000, while the prize money drops with each position until you hit 20th, from there it's around €1,000 a man down all the way down the field to 160th position.

Worth also mentioning that Ineos will almost certainly be pooling their prize money so don't you fret, Jonathan Castroviejo, Michal Kwiatkowski, Gianni Moscon, Wout Poels, Luke Rowe and Dylan van Baarle will all be weighed in!

Talking of prizes........

No prizes for guessing who this lot have come to see...

Just wait til we get to Paris.

Image source, gett