Every year after the Tour de France, there is a lot of talk about the winner and podium riders. A little less is heard about the riders who have helped the top riders. But the rider who finishes last earn the Lanterne Rouge, the "prize" of the rider who finishes last and on Sunday, Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) became the first Frenchman to earn the Lanterne Rouge in the Tour de France since Jimmy Casper in 2004.

It is the first Lanterne Rouge for Engoulvent, but it was kind of a close race with Jan Ghyselinck (Cofidis), who finished just 32 seconds faster than the Frenchman in Paris,

“We must admit that the results are average,” Engoulvent said about his team's result “It took me a while to find my real level. I missed getting the result I am still waiting on in the Tour. At the team level, it was unfortunate - Jérôme [Coppel] fell ill and this just destroyed our strategy.

“The profile of the course did not offer a lot of stages for riders of my style, except perhaps in Pau. And that day, I had a puncture at the wrong time and I did more than forty kilometres behind the cars. When you look at the stage winners, it is clear that there was not much available for the ‘baroudeurs.’”