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On Monte Bondone on Tuesday, it was Primož Roglič who faltered. At Val di Zoldo on Thursday, it was João Almeida’s turn. Geraint Thomas, however, continues to withstand everything this Giro d’Italia throws at him. Two days from the end of the ultimate elimination race, the Welshman remains on course to carry the maglia rosa to Rome.
Two days ago, Thomas cut his cloth smartly on Monte Bondone, bridging across to Almeida’s acceleration just as the gradient relented and then combining with the Portuguese rider to put half a minute in Roglič. On stage 18, meanwhile, it was Roglič who made the splash and Almeida was the man treading water, but Thomas, as ever on this Giro, was swimming smoothly.
The maglia rosa didn’t yield an inch here when Roglič, paced by Jumbo-Visma teammate Sepp Kuss, forced the pace on the penultimate ascent of Coi, and he tracked the Slovenian all the way to the finish, picking up 21 seconds on Almeida in the process. In the overall standings, he retains his 29-second buffer over Roglič, while Almeida drops to third at 39 seconds.
“It was good to gain some time on Almeida and not get dropped by Primož,” Thomas said when he arrived in the mixed zone afterwards, but then he said something pretty similar at Monte Bondone, just with the names reversed.
The more this Giro d’Italia changes, the more Thomas stays the same. A subdued opening time trial aside, he has scarcely put a pedal stroke askew since the race left Abruzzo. He has used his energy sparingly throughout, responding to attacks rather than making them.
Roglič delivered a show of force at Fossombrone, but Thomas absorbed the blow. Almeida had his moment at Monte Bondone, but Thomas didn’t miss a beat. In an attritional Giro, Thomas has made it calmly towards the final weekend by largely avoiding any alarms and surprises.
After the opening time trial to Ortona, Remco Evenepoel looked to be on another level to the rest, but his challenge was cut short by COVID-19 on the first rest day. Thomas’ teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart looked to have the condition to win this race, but he would be forced out with a broken hip three days later.
But then, as Thomas knows better than anyone else, staying on your bike is a fundamental part of Grand Tour racing. A glance at his record illustrates as much. After placing 15th at the 2015 and 2016 Tours de France while racing in the service of Chris Froome, the Welshman was finally handed the freedom to chase three-week glory of his own from 2017…
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