Just off stage, Froome set to win Tour No. 4

race lead on a super-steep climb in the Pyrenees. He didn’t win any of the 20 stages before today’s Stage 21, which is traditionally a peaceful ride into Paris with only the sprinters dashing for the line at the end, for the bragging right of winning the stage on the Champs-Elysees.

But Froome at 90 or 95 percent of his previous best still proved plenty.

Certainly good enough to be able to start dreaming of win No. 5 — and of joining the exalted company of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. They have been the joint leaders since Lance Armstrong’s string of seven doping-assisted victories was expunged from the history of the 114-year-old race.

“It’s a huge honor just to be mentioned in the same sentence as the greats,” Froome said. “I have got a newfound appreciation for just how difficult it is for those guys to have won five Tour de France. It certainly isn’t getting easier each year.”

Yet he made the deciding time trial look easy enough. To boos and whistles from the partisan crowd backing Romain Bardet, the French rider who was only 23 seconds behind him in the overall standings, Froome set off last from the Stade Velodrome football stadium. Bardet had set off two minutes ahead of him.

Froome rode so strongly that by the end, he had Bardet in his sights. The French rider wilted on the twisting, tricky uphill climb to Notre Dame de la Garde cathedral.

Froome finished 43 seconds quicker than Bardet, who saved a place on the podium at third place.

“It’s just an amazing feeling,” Froome said.

Maciej Bodnar won the stage.