The 164 survivors came home to Paris on Sunday, leaving the 2014 Tour de France without a fulcrum rider, but Lars Bak of Lotto-Belisol and Perrig Quemeneur of Team Europcar finished on les Cuspides of the general classification for the Point d’Appui. Bak finished in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 41 seconds behind the tour winner, Vincenzo Nibali of Astana.

The riders on the cusp after Stage 20 decamped in opposite directions. Imanol Erviti Ollo of Movistar stayed forward with the leading group on the Champs-Élysées and moved up a spot in placement, while Blel Kadri of AG2R-La Mondiale dropped off the back after helping lead his team out earlier in the day.

Bak and Quemeneur have been close to the center of the peloton on numerous occasions this tour, although neither was within 10 places of the fulcrum at the half-way point of the tour, and they did not land on the cusps until the final Stage 21 of the tour. Previously, Bak, a Danish time trial champion, was briefly on the cusp of fulcrum after Stage 9 of the 2012 Tour de France.

Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team had the time closest to the overall tour median time of 3 hours, 1 minute and 12 seconds.

Cheng Ji, the long-suffering Lanterne Rouge, lost more time on the final stage, but survived the time cuts and became the first Chinese bicyclist to ride in the tour and to finish the tour, albeit 6 hours behind Nibali.

The winner of Stage 14, the stage that happened to have the middle distance of 177 kilometers, was rookie Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo, who attacked the escapees on the final climb to claim his first stage victory in Risoul.

The tour, of course, will be less remembered for rookies than for the number of top contenders who abandoned due to injuries: Andy Schleck, Christopher Froome, Alberto Contador, Andrew Talansky and the sprinter Mark Cavendish.

Let’s take a brief look at a few of the 34 riders who were not able to finish the tour but who are not household names:

• Mark Cavendish was not the only rider out before the end of Stage 2. Sprinter Sacha Modolo of Lampre-Merida, riding in his first Tour de France, abandoned during Stage 2 due to illness. He was still 30 kilometers from finishing the day. Said Modolo: “It’s a great disappointment to me. I dreamed of this race. I tried to not give up, but it was not enough.” The day before, he missed out on the bunch sprint for the only stage he finished because a teammate fell at a crucial point and he waited to help lead the rider back into the peloton.
• Andy Schleck had to abandon in Stage 4. Gregory Henderson of Lotto Bellisol also abandoned during Stage 4 after a late crash that also brought down two of his teammates and spoiled lead-out hopes for Andre Greipel in that day’s sprint finish. Upbeat despite the crash (or perhaps still slightly dazed), Henderson wrote to fans: “Silly crash and I landed on my weak knee. It just exploded. Messy looking thing. Off to surgery now.”
• Alberto Contador abandoned during Stage 10, and another rider did as well. Mathew Hayman, at 36 the oldest bicyclist to be riding in his first Tour de France, said before the race: “The Tour is obviously every pro rider’s dream. But I didn’t have the chance to ride it yet. A matter of circumstances. … My goal is really to complete this Tour all the way to Paris.” His top finish was 12th on the cobblestone Stage 5. After crashing out on Stage 10, the Australian native told the Sydney Morning Herald: “I appreciate that I at least got to start and experience racing in the U.K. with those crowds. But I still feel like there’s a bit of a hole there … [after] the waiting that I’ve done for years to get there.”
• Simon Spilak, suffering a stomach ailment, abandoned Stage 17 after about 31 kilometers just prior to the mountains. Spilak also abandoned during his last Tour de France in 2010. In the 2009 tour, however, he rode into Paris in 109th place. This year, Spilak won stages in the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de Romandie, and his loss from the tour hurt his Katusha team. Of all those who abandoned this year, Spilak had the average placement closest to the average of stage finishes of all the abandonments put together.

The Gray Jersey traded hands eight times during the race after Tom Veelers finished Stage 5 as the first Point d’Appui of the tour. Twelve stages, including the finale finished without a fulcrum. The stage-by-stage general classification results for Point d’Appui:

• Stage 1 – No fulcrum.
• Stage 2 – No fulcrum.
• Stage 3 – No fulcrum.
• Stage 4 – No fulcrum.
• Stage 5 – Tom Veelers of Team Giant-Shimano
• Stage 6 – Tom-Jelte Slagter of Garmin-Sharp
• Stage 7 – No fulcrum.
• Stage 8 – No fulcrum.
• Stage 9 – Jérémy Roy of FDJ.
• Stage 10 – No fulcrum
• Stage 11 – Sébastien Reichenbach of IAM Cycling
• Stage 12 – Ben King of Garmin-Sharp
• Stage 13 – Daniele Bennati of Tinkoff-Saxo
• Stage 14 – Johan Van Summeren of Garmin-Sharp
• Stage 15 – Matthieu Ladagnous of FDJ.fr
• Stage 16 – Koen De Kort of Team Giant-Shimano. De Kort finished in 92nd, within 10 spots off the fulcrum.
• Stage 17 – No fulcrum
• Stage 18 – No fulcrum. Vasili Kiryienka, the winner of the 2012 Tour de France Point d’Appui was one of les Cuspides in Stage 17 and 18. Kiryienka finished the full tour in 86th, only 3 spots off the fulcrum.
• Stage 19 – No fulcrum
• Stage 20 – No fulcrum
• Stage 21 – No fulcrum