The 21st and final stage of the Tour de France is a tale of two halves.

The beginning is ceremonial, and to be amongst the peloton as they break from their regimented team formations, talking to mates and compatriots in the bunch whilst smiling for the cameras, celebrating finishing the race, it feels a bit like you're crashing a private gathering.

But the moment the riders reach Paris, where the Tour traditionally ends, closing with laps of the Champs Elysees, now bordered by VIP hospitality tents, teams revert to their respective regiments.

Mates become rivals once more, flicking each other, yelling, their arms jarring over the traffic-worn cobbles the race strings out along.

"The cobbles are getting worse," Jayco-Alula road captain Luke Durbridge quipped post-race, after the team's sprinter Dylan Groenewegen finished third to surprise stage winner Jordi Meeus (Bora-hansgrohe) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

"It was special. Always special. Amazing atmosphere here. We didn't come out with a stage win, but I think we had a good Tour. It's my ninth Tour now and it's always special to look down the Champs Elysees and soak it all up."

The 110th edition of the Tour was one for the ages and of the 12 Australians that started, 11 finished on Sunday night (AEST), with Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny), having abandoned due to fatigue.

As they did almost one month ago in Bilbao, the Australians assembled for a photo, lined out at the front of the bunch, with 115.5km of the 3405km race remaining.

The heat wave that has followed the Tour broke in the humid French capital, with grey skies that threatened rain replacing blazing sun.

Sometimes you don't notice how the Tour ages those that partake if you stay in the travelling circus, but the accumulative fatigue of this year's mountainous edition propelled often by a tailwind was evident.

It was itched in the youthful turned weary and lined faces of riders, and in their gait as they walked gingerly from team bus to bike one last time.

Winning in third term of the race became as much about character as physical form. Jack Haig's teammate Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) summed it up beautifully in his post-race interview after celebrating a victory on stage 19.

"It's hard and cruel to be a professional cyclist," Mohoric said.

"You suffer a lot in preparations. You sacrifice your life, your family and you do everything you can to get here ready, and then after a couple of days you realise that everyone is just so incredibly strong that it is just hard to follow the wheels sometimes."

The Slovenian's insight followed the most decisive stages in the Alps, where Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) laid two decisive blows to claim back-to-back titles, his stiff, public demeanour relaxing only during the traditional winner's press conference on Saturday night.

Hindley outlines dream to be on the podium one day

The Tour is the one race on the cycling calendar that is so demanding that by the end, you just want the things that matter most to you.

Jai Hindley, who celebrated a successful race debut, finishing seventh on general classification after winning stage five and spending a day leading the race in the yellow jersey, was on that page when asked about the first thing he planned to do once arriving in Paris.

"Hug my girlfriend, hug my parents and just enjoy the moment with all the people that have supported us, me and the team, to make it to that point, really enjoy it with those people," he said.

Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) had earmarked the 2023 Tour as an objective not long after becoming the first Australian to win the Giro d'Italia in May last year. Preparation, in his own words, included living like a monk, a lot of time at altitude, plus a five-to-six-week stint on the road with his coach, training and reconning stages.

The 27-year-old was on course for a podium finish, comfortably sat third overall on the general classification before a crash on stage 14 affected consequent performances and denied Hindley the chance to fully show himself in the third term of the race, as he had initially hoped for.

"The actual day that I crashed I was feeling not too bad but then I think the crash was taking it out of me a bit, stopping me from getting maximum power out of the seat, so that's not ideal, and then also when I ride out of the seat it's really painful, so it's sort of just like suffering the whole time, even in neutral," he said.

But he persevered to Paris, mindful of the team supporting him in that endeavour and the work he'd put in just to arrive.

Hindley's coach Hendrik Werner earlier said it would be important, when the dust settles, to weigh up the price of a podium bid at the Tour.

"Maybe in the future we can even put more focus on it but that's something we also have to see with rear perspective because we can't see how he copes with this in two or three weeks of all we asked for," Werner said.

"You have to imagine he spent with me quite some time away from home and maybe sometimes you don't realise, what was the price for all this success? We always just look on the success and say that's so positive, but if you're really taking a balance afterwards, say like okay, but this success didn't come for free. I paid with this and this and this sacrifice. That's something we have to look at retrospectively, then we can also see what targets and goals will attract him for next year.

"I see quite some room for improvement. I'm looking forward to everything that comes."

Hindley arrived in Paris happy with his performance despite the setback where the lithe, 61kg climber crashed at a purported 60km/h, landing on his tailbone.

In the end, he was one of only three riders to wear the yellow jersey, the other two being Vingegaard and Adam Yates, who finished third behind UAE Team Emirates teammate Tadej Pogacar on the overall standings.

"I don't really see it as mine to give away, but I think for sure I'll give one to my parents," Hindley said of his plans for the coveted lycra.

After the final stage he rode back to the team buses with a large sign under his arm that read "Laruns" — where he won his first Tour stage.

"I definitely want to come back and see what else I can throw at this race, and I want to be better in the GC. The dream is to be on the podium one day," he said.

"It's going to take a lot of work to get there, and we'll go back to the drawing board and see what we can do to come back better next year."

O'Connor enjoys temporary role reversal

Ben O'Connor was the other Australian who entered this year's Tour with a real shot of finishing on the podium.

The AG2R Citroen team leader, who won a stage and finished fourth on general classification in his race debut in 2021, entered with promising form, having finished third at the Criterium du Dauphine, a litmus test for the Tour, in the lead-up.

But a slow start that he and his team will analyse saw him abandon general classification goals in the first week, giving him the freedom to recover, then try something different.

"I still want to be a GC rider and I wish I was in the top five overall, but it wasn't to be," he said.

O'Connor's moves at the beginning of the race, down to roadside conversations with his wife, were recorded by a crew filming a second Netflix series on the Tour but their presence didn't increase the pressure that comes with being a title contender.

"They're super nice guys I actually trust quite a lot," he said.

"I guess you become oblivious [of their presence] in a way. You know how to present yourself and you also have to be honest, too. Just don't explode in front of the camera and look like a d---head — that's the main thing."

O'Connor trusted he would come good and enjoyed a bit of role reversal notably supporting a teammate to a win on the queen stage and finishing third twice in two lumpy stages.

But the 27-year-old ruled out a career re-direction from climber to rouleur.

"I've always liked being aggressive and in those kinds of races. Although I'm not fast at all I don't think I'm narrowed down to just being a pure, pure climber," he said.

"You're paid to be a certain kind of rider and it's also what you're expected of as a team leader in our team. Maybe with others you could have more variety when there's a team of lots of big leaders but in the end it's my responsibility to be a GC leader in races.