London – London

The race crescendos with the familiar circuit race in central London. The peloton will negotiate 14 laps of the 5.5km circuit, heading through Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Strand and Whitehall and if it doesn’t finish in a bunch sprint, we’ll eat our casquette. Caleb Ewan of MitcheltonScott won ahead of Dylan Groenewegen in 2016. At the time both were upstart sprinters but are now two of the leading fast men in the world. Ewan might well be there again this year – he’s reportedly moving to Lotto-Soudal at the end of the season and was surprisingly left out of his team’s roster for the Tour de France (for sporting reasons, it was said), so might be made available given the race clashes with three WorldTour races, including the Vuelta a España.

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY

Andy Hawes: “The circuit is a reduced size. There’s been congestion in the past and we’ve worked with Transport for London [to reduce it]. It’s the last time we’re going to be here for a few years so we’re looking to go out with a bang. Our contract with TfL has run its course, so it’s an ideal time to move [the final stage] about. The Tour finishes in Paris and the Vuelta Madrid, but the Giro now moves around…

“Some of the route criticism is about where it goes to – why don’t we go further north in Scotland or further into the southwest? But we always have to get back to London. So this will hopefully enable us to visit areas we haven’t before. London rarely affects any of the competitions in the race so while you have the prestige of winning the stage it becomes a bit processional.”