After three weeks and 3,356.8km of racing, just 14 seconds separated Geraint Thomas from winning the Giro d’Italia. As he reflected on his race behind the podium in Rome on Sunday evening, it was hard to tell what stung more, the margin of the defeat or the manner of it.
Thomas had carried the maglia rosa into the stage 20 time trial up Monte Lussari, and he initially looked to be fending off Primož Roglič’s challenge on the lower slopes of the climb. The upper reaches, however, proved an ordeal. The Welshman had deftly avoided crises across the three weeks of this race, only for his most trying moment to come right at the death.
