Quote Originally Posted by slinkedog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tour_de_France

The final stage into Paris in 1989 was a time trial. The only time, ever, I think. Edited to say that there has never been a time trial for the final stage since 1989.
You are right. I thought it was odd. I watched that race, but back in those days, we got one hour of coverage per week. Here's the info from the official Tour history. Sorry if you don't read French. It goes on to say that Lemond used a time trial setup for his bike. Prior to that, racers just used their normal bikes. Now everyone has specialized TT bikes. Interesting.

La veille de l'arrivée, le Français possède 50 secondes d'avance sur l'Américain qui le domine dans la dernière étape contre la montre et gagne le Tour avec 8 secondes d'avance : le plus faible écart jamais enregistré. Meilleur Jeune : Philippot.