Thomas chooses hay over trees
Briton Geraint Thomas crashed for the third time this week during the Tour de France on Saturday, but managed to maintain second position to Chris Froome.
Thomas actually caused his Sky team leader Froome to go off road as well, around 50km from the end of the 187.5km eighth stage, won by France’s Lilian Calmejane.
But Thomas, who also crashed on the second and fourth stages, said he suffered no harmful affects after hitting some hay bales.
“I had just gone back for bottles and had just got back to the front and I went into the corner a bit too hot,” said Thomas.
“I was looking to my side and the boys were breaking, there was a split second delay, then I hit the gravel.
“It was a choice between going into the trees or the hay bales, so I chose the hay. I front flipped but it was a better option than the woods!”
Thomas climbed back on his bike and lost no time to the other favourites so remains second overall at 12sec off reigning champion Froome.
“We came into a very tight right-hand corner. I think Geraint hadn’t got his line quite right, the corner sprung up on us a bit,” said Froome.
“A couple of us went off road and Geraint went over the barriers!
“Luckily I only went off road and managed to tuck back in.”
It was a hectic day in the saddle as the first hour of racing was incredibly fast, with dozens of riders trying to get into the day’s breakaway.
“There wasn’t time for a leak all day, we were on the pedals, racing all day,” added Thomas.
“A tough day, but tough for everyone.”
None of the favourites attacked on the stage, except Ireland’s Dan Martin, who briefly accelerated away from the peloton on the plateau to the fi nish, although he was quickly caught.
“It was an opportunity, there was a tailwind, and I had momentum,” said Martin, who is fourth overall at 25sec.
“I was coming up fast from behind to move up, and just thought I’d sprint and see what happened. I got a little gap but the others were pretty alert.”
Belgian Serge Pauwels was one of the breakaway riders and had designs on snatching the yellow jersey off Froome.
He started the day just two minutes behind Froome but with Pierre Latour also in the breakaway and just 1: 07 down, Sky weren’t going to let the leash out too much.