Chris Froome kept his composure in a hostile environment as he virtually secured a fourth Tour de France title after extending his overall lead in a 22.5km time trial through Marseille.
The Briton was booed by the crowd in the Stade Velodrome - where the penultimate stage started and ended on Saturday - and also in the Old Port and on the climb up to Basilica Notre Dame de la Garde, as he took third place behind two Poles, with Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) winning in 28:15 ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski.
Froome finished six seconds off the pace and five behind his Sky teammate Kwiatkowski, who has been instrumental in his leader's ride to what should be his third consecutive, and Team Sky's fifth, victory in the last six years.
Providing Froome avoids any calamities on the 103-km trek from Montgeron to the capital he will take his Tour haul to four in the last five years -- just one behind cycling greats Miguel Indurain of Spain, Belgian's Eddy Merckx and Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil.
Australia's Michael Matthews, who similarly only needs to avoid disaster to win the green jersey, finished in 78th.
"It's going to be mixed emotions today. We're going to enjoy the jerseys and the three weeks we've had, but then we have to focus on the final," he told cyclingnews.com
"We have another opportunity tomorrow so I think everyone is going to be really focussed on it. We'll see how the legs are. It's been a tough few days and everybody is going to be a bit tired but we'll see what we can do.
Despite the boos, Froome was gracious.
"The atmosphere here is incredible, it's huge," he said.
"I think it was normal with a Frenchman in second place behind me on the start line, racing in Marseille and finishing in a football stadium. Certainly I have no complaints."
While Froome won at least a stage in 2013, 2015 and 2016, he has not raised his arms in celebration this year in a very tight race and has not won a single race this season.
"It's a three-week race and we rode it as such," he said.
Froome, 32, goes into the record books as the first person to win three Tours in a row since Indurain who was unbeatable between 1991-95.
American Lance Armstrong won seven Tour titles from 1999-2005 but was later stripped of them for doping.
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