The last time Geraint Thomas came this way, the yellow jersey was on his back and his Sky teammates were the men beating a pathway for the Tour de France through the unruly forest of flares, flags and flailing limbs that always sprouts up along the 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez.
Four years on, the mountain’s unique ecosystem remained more or less intact – “I got hit a couple of times on the arm, but luckily there were no flares, which is good, because that can choke you,” Thomas said – but the race unfolding within it was altogether different.
As in 2018, Thomas once again found himself in a reduced groupe maillot jaune nearing the top of the mountain, but this time he was absorbing the punishment rather than imposing it. Yet even if he rides this Tour as a challenger rather than a conqueror, the Welshman had every reason to be satisfied with his display on Thursday afternoon.
After channelling ONCE with their all-out offensive that put Jonas Vingegaard into yellow on stage 11, Jumbo-Visma performed a more than passable imitation of the Sky of old on Alpe d’Huez 24 hours later, with Wout van Aert, Steven Kruijswijk, Primož Roglič and Sepp Kuss gradually turning up the dial as the climb progressed.
Thomas withstood that tempo better than most, including podium contenders such as Romain Bardet (DSM) and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), who were distanced with 6km or so to race. More notably, he was then able to limit the damage when Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) tested Vingegaard with a brace of sustained accelerations inside the final 4.5km.
On each occasion, Thomas had the strength to keep the duo in sight and the nous not to try to close the gap too quickly. He bridged back up to Pogačar and Vingegaard in even instalments both times, and he would remain with them all the way to the finish.
“I’m feeling good, I was just trying not to get carried away when they were jumping,” Thomas told reporters after he wheeled to a halt past the finish line. “I was just trying to ride a pace. I was obviously accelerating, but not too much. Then in the end, felt like I could have gone in that sprint, but maybe I should have got the elbows out a bit more.”
Thomas’ display lifts him above Bardet and into third place overall, 2:26 down Vingegaard and four seconds behind Pogačar. His teammate Adam Yates, meanwhile, is now 3:44 adrift in fifth. Having started the season seemingly earmarked as a supporting rider at the Tour, Thomas is gradually…
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