Geraint Thomas’s hopes of winning this Tour de France evaporated into the thin Pyrenean air as the infernal pace set by his rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar kept him at a distance him on the road to Peyragudes.
But on a day when the Dane and the Slovenian rode so fast that it made their peers look pedestrian, the Welsh rider fought hard to consolidate his third place overall and with one mountain stage to come, can now begin to think of a podium finish in Paris. “I didn’t feel quite as light on the pedals as I had done earlier in the race,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t feeling tip-top today, but I was there.”
