After eight Tours in the service of others, since 2013 as the strongest squire who has accompanied Chris Froome in his four victorious campaigns in France, Geraint Thomas, who turned 32 on 26 May, rises to the top of world cycling by winning the 105th edition of the Tour, the race that alone is worth a career and entry into the clubs of the greats.
Thomas closes a Tour course without ever an empty joke. He won two Alpine stages, he didn't miss a ride in the Pyrenees, almost always arriving in the bonus area: for days no one had questioned his triumph, but to secure it in the safe, giving vent to his joy, Thomas wanted to wait for the outcome of the time trial yesterday which once again saw him as the protagonist fighting to the last for success: he didn't make it by a whisker, finishing third 14” from a spectacular Tom Dumoulin who in turn snatched the victory from a great Froome.
Espelette, the French chilli capital, did not fail to spice up the finale of a Tour that Team Sky has dominated at all times. And today in Paris on the Elysian Fields, under the Arc de Triomphe, Geraint, the Welsh Brit, will enjoy the celebration of his triumph, on the top step of the podium, shivers and emotions he has never experienced in his career. He will be on the podium with him, splendid second at 1'51", Dumoulin - who after the Giro confirms himself as one of the top players in world cycling - and also Chris Froome, his captain for years who with a time trial from Froome regained the third place in the general classification that the Slovenian Primoz Roglioc was unable to defend, protagonist of a race against the clock under expectations.
Far from being saddened by having missed out on the Giro-Tour double, Froome spoke of the finale of this Tour together on the podium as a "dream scenario" with "Thomas deservedly yellow after years of sacrifices in my favor". Froome admitted that it was a light and dark Tour for him: “falls and moments of joy, on the Aubisque it was tough, today I had good legs, too bad they didn't allow me to close the time trial two seconds earlier…".
Froome does not win his fifth Tour, but it is a defeat that can serve his character by transforming boos and insults into applause towards an authentic champion of the pedal that the French have never loved and with him the whole team of Team Sky, accused of being too strong and likely to narcotise. "But it was precisely these hostile demonstrations - said Thomas - that strengthened our union with the common goal of winning". And the strength and quality of Team Sky was also evident in the Espelette time trial with Mikal Kwiatkowski fourth in the order of arrival close to Thomas and Froome. But while dominating the standings with Thomas' yellow jersey and Froome's third place, Team Sky failed to bring back the Tour per team: a ranking which, calculated on the top three for each team, sees Movistar in the lead, despite the disappointment of occupying only seventh place with the first of its three big names, MIkal Landa, while Nairo Quintana, who was fifth after the feat on the Col du Portet, after yesterday's bad time trial (69th over 4 minutes behind Dumoulin) crashed to the bottom step of the top ten from which Alejandro Valverde had come out for days (14th almost half an hour behind Thomas).
