Winds of change: Defending champ takes advantage
ALBI, France — Geraint Thomas and his teammates don’t need a mountain to deliver a hammer blow on their competition at the Tour de France.
They can do it on the flat, too. With a little help from the wind.
The defending champion was the big winner of a chaotic Stage 10 in southern France on Monday when French rival Thibaut Pinot and other title contenders were caught napping by a treacherous combination of winds and narrow roads.
Unable to all ride at the front, Pinot and other riders got left behind when the winds first stretched and then shattered the peloton into groups over 20 frantic final miles of a 135mile trek from SaintFlour to Albi in southcentral France.
Perfectly positioned at the front when the pack took different routes around a traffic circle, triggering the first split, Thomas and his Ineos teammates put pedal to the metal to make the gap on Pinot and other contenders caught behind as big as possible.
The bill for the French podium finisher in 2014, as well as Rigoberto Uran, Jakob Fuglsang, and Richie Porte was costly. They rode in a whopping 1 minute, 40 seconds behind Thomas.
“At the start, we said at some point this race is going to split,” explained Luke Rowe, one of Thomas’ teammates. “We were all over it with numbers at the front.”
Once opened, the gap increased speedily, with yellow-jersey-holder Julian Alaphilippe and Ineos riders setting a frenetic tempo until the end.
“We were straight on the front foot, we knew it was on us to drive it to the line,” Rowe said. “I was saying to the guys, ‘This is a TTT (team time trial) all the way to the finish line.’ ”
Tour de France rookie Wout Van Aert won the stage with a sprint to the line, but Thomas was the headline act.
“I couldn’t think of anything better,” Thomas said. “It’s especially good on a day like today when you never expect it. It was just a positioning error from them and they lose a minute and a half. That’s how it goes.”
Ahead of big Pyrenean stages this week, Thomas vaulted to second place overall, 1:12 behind Alaphilippe, with teammate Egan Bernal in third place, four seconds further back.