Thomas stays in second after fall
GERAINT Thomas had his third crash of this year’s Tour de France, but held onto second place in the overall standings.
The Welsh star remains 12 seconds behind his Team Sky leader Chris Froome following a tough day of racing through the Jura Mountains during the 187.5km stage eight from Dole to Station des Rousses.
Thomas hit the deck after misjudging a corner when returning to the front of a dwindling peloton following a visit to a team car to pick up fresh drinks for his hard-pressed colleagues.
He took the scab off a wound on his left leg and the incident saw defending champion and three-time winner Froome have to take a detour off-road to stay upright.
“I had been back for bottles and had just got back to the front when I went into the corner a bit too hot,” explained Thomas.
“I was looking to my side and the boys were braking. There was a splitsecond delay then I hit the gravel. It was a choice between going into the trees or hitting the hay bale, so I chose the hay.
“I front-flipped, but it was a better option than the woods. I’m fine. I took the scab off where I crashed the other day, so it looks worse than it is. I was lucky really.”
The racing was fast all stage with a dangerous near 50-strong breakaway group and Sky losing some horsepower when their Welsh workhorse Luke Rowe was surprisingly dropped early in proceedings.
Although he finished 37min 33sec behind stage winner Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), who won alone in his maiden Tour after earlier being part of the escape, Rowe finished in- side the time limit and remains in the race.
“It was certainly a tough day, but at the same time it was tough for everyone because there was no real flat, it was just up or down all day,” added Thomas.
“On the ‘painometer’ it was definitely it was an eight or nine out of 10. It was a medium mountain stage, but there was still more than 3,000m of climbing. Sunday is going to be another tough day.”
Froome, who is 14 seconds ahead of third-placed Fabio Aru (Astana), the Italian champion, predicted fireworks during stage nine, which contains three super-category climbs, seven in all and a terrifying 60mph plunge to the finish,
“It’s is going to be a really decisive stage of this year’s Tour. I think the gaps between the main GC (general classification) guys are going to open right up.”
Froome was happy with the work Thomas and company put in to keep him in the leader’s yellow jersey.
“That was a really tough day, especially with Sunday in mind – it was
really quite selective. My teammates were fantastic, from start to finish we were in control of the race. STAGE EIGHT RESULT: 187.5KM,
DOLE TO STATION DES ROUSSES: 1, Lilian Calmejane (Fra) Direct Energie 4hr 30min 29sec; 2, Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo at 37sec; 3, Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty-Groupe Gobert at 50sec. GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER
EIGHT OF 21 STAGES: 1, Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky, 33hr 19min 10sec; 2, Geraint Thomas (Wales) Team Sky, at 12sec; 3, Fabio Aru (Italy) Astana, at 14sec.