Thomas toasts first Tour victory
PARIS — From spitting to jeers to eggs — and even attempts to knock cyclists off their bikes during grueling climbs — Geraint Thomas never flinched at anything fans threw at him or Team Sky in this year’s Tour de France.
He didn’t back down from his rivals, either.
Thomas was the steadiest rider from the start of the three-week, 21-stage crucible, and then he became the strongest in the Alps and the Pyrenees. On Sunday, the 32-year-old Welshman concluded his transformation from a support rider into a champion of cycling’s biggest race.
“With the boys, that’s the main thing for the whole three weeks — we stuck together through some tough times, stayed strong,” Thomas said. “Everything just clicked this race.”
Thomas started the day with a lead of 1 minute, 51 seconds over second-place Tom Dumoulin and held on to it in the mostly ceremonial final stage. Chris Froome, Thomas’s teammate and a four-time winner of the race, finished third, 2:24 behind. Froome rode next to Thomas as they crossed the finish line and applauded.
Thomas was a support rider during Froome’s Tour de France victories, but he emerged as Sky’s strongest member this time around after Froome crashed early on and couldn’t keep up in the mountains.
Sky — and consequently Thomas — became a target for many fans due to an asthma drug case involving Froome that stemmed from last year’s Vuelta a Espana, which Froome won. Even though Froome was cleared of doping days before the start of the Tour de France, that didn’t stop some fans from abusing the British team’s riders throughout the race.
“When there is negativity like that, it brings us as a team closer together,” said Froome, whose Grand Tour reign ended after he also won last year’s Tour and this spring’s Giro d’Italia. “It feels like it’s us against the rest of the world. … You can choose to let it get to you, or you can choose to let it motivate you, and we let it motivate us.”
Thomas stormed into the lead by winning back-to-back mountain stages in the Alps, including the iconic climb up Alpe d’Huez, then defended his advantage in the Pyrenees. During Sunday’s podium ceremony, he draped the flag of Wales over his shoulders before ending his victory speech with a mic drop.
“All I can say is that I do it the right way,” Thomas said when asked about concerns of alleged doping within Sky. “We train super hard, and there’s nothing I can say that will prove it. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing. It will stand the test of time.”
An all-around rider who began his career on the track, Thomas helped Britain to gold medals in team pursuit at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics before turning his full attention to road racing. He is the third British cyclist — and first Welshman — to win the Tour. Bradley Wiggins (2012) and Froome (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017), who also won for Sky, are the others.
“I have my own goals, and I kept doing what I’m doing and kept focused on that. … Obviously it’s not nice to hear (the jeers), but I do what I do and focus on myself,” Thomas said. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in or get angry or depressed, but I stay in my own world.”
Riding a yellow bicycle to match his yellow jersey as the race leader, Thomas shared glasses of champagne with his teammates during the casual ride into Paris before buckling down to keep up with the other leaders on the jarring cobblestones of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
“It’s going to take a while to sink in,” Thomas said. “Normally that stage is really hard, but today I just seemed to float around it. I had goose bumps going around there. The support from the Welsh, British flags. … To ride around wearing this (yellow jersey) is a dream.”
The mostly flat 72-mile leg began in Houilles, just outside Paris, and concluded with nine laps up and down the Champs-Elysees. Norwegian rider Alexander Kristoff with UAE Team Emirates won the last stage in a sprint finish, narrowly beating John Degenkolb and Arnaud Demare.