Geraint Thomas climbs to second straight Tour de France stage win on Alpe d'Huez
Friday 20 July 2018 07:08, UK
Geraint Thomas produced a brilliant ride and timed his sprint to perfection to win a second straight Tour de France stage atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez.
The Welshman, who won in La Rosiere on Wednesday, led home Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin and AG2R La Mondiale's Romain Bardet at the end of the 175.5km stage from Bourg-Saint-Maurice, with his Team Sky team-mate Chris Froome fourth and Movistar's Mikel Landa fifth.
The quintet had attacked and counter-attacked one another on the way up one of cycling's most famous climbs, but were back together in the final few hundred metres before Thomas accelerated out of the last bend to take the stage win for the second straight day.
Thomas, 32, becomes the first Briton to win a stage of the Tour de France on Alpe d'Huez.
Thomas won by just a couple of seconds from Dumoulin, with Bardet one second behind him and Froome a further second back, but with bonus seconds applied, he extends his lead in yellow over Froome by 14 seconds to one minute and 39 seconds, with Dutchman Dumoulin a further 11 seconds back.
Thomas had appeared in danger of losing yellow at the mid-point of the stage after LottoNL-Jumbo's Steven Kruijswijk launched an extraordinary long-range solo attack 64km from the line.
The Dutchman, who began the day sixth overall at two minutes and 41 seconds down, built himself a lead of more than six minutes, which was then eroded to four minutes 18 at the foot of Alpe d'Huez.
But the gap began to tumble as the gradient bit and attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group upped their pace.
Landa, Bardet, Froome and Dumoulin all tried moves off the front as the ski resort came into view, but they were all together on the final bend before Thomas burst forward.
Nowhere do the crowds get more up close and personal than they do here, and Froome was slapped by one spectator on the final climb and appeared to be spat at by another.
The four-time Tour winner briefly turned to remonstrate with the man who hit out at him with around seven kilometres to go, but will be happy to have made it up safely.
And despite claiming his second stage win, Thomas insisted Froome was still Team Sky's leading rider.
"I'm still riding for Froomey," he said. "Froomey is still the man. He knows how to ride for three weeks. Legend gets used way too much but he's probably the best ever so I'm just going to enjoy this.
"I'm speechless, I don't know what to say. Not a chance in hell I thought I was going to win today. I just followed. Dumoulin, Bardet and Froomey were attacking. It's just unbelievable. Can we just go to Paris now?"
Stage 12
1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 5:18:37
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb +2s
3 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale +3s
4 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky +3s
5 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team +7s
6 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo +13s
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida +13s
8 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team +42s
9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team +47s
10 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo +53s
General Classification
1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 49:24:43
2 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky +1:39
3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb +1:50
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida +2:37
5 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo +2:46
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale +3:07
7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team +3:13
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo +3:43
9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team +4:13
10 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates +5:11
