THOMAS'S RISE TO TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER

2007

Thomas, having barely turned 21, is the youngest rider to start the Tour de France. He su fers terribly in a race hit by several doping scandals and comes 139th overall, nearly four hours down.

2010

All eyes are on Sky leader Wiggins, but national road champ Thomas is ifth in the prologue at the Tour, then second in the cobbled Arenberg stage. He wears the white jersey for four days.

2011

Comes an impressive 10th in a very hard Tour of Flanders, making the key break over the Muur. That was built on a close second at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Both races were won by Nick Nuyens.

2012

The year is mostly about riding track at the Olympics, but Thomas serves notice of his potential and talent when he is second in the irst and last-day time trials at the Giro d’Italia.

2013

Thomas hits form early with a TDU stage win along with third overall, but it looks like he has a burgeoning Classics career - he is fourth at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and E3 Prijs Harelbeke.

2014

Finds Classics consistency, with third in E3, eighth in Flanders and seventh in Roubaix. Also achieves his best result yet at the Tour – 22nd overall, after leader Froome crashes out early.

2015

A breakthough Classics win at E3 is followed by an impressive performance at the Tour, where he is in the irst four deep into the race until he concedes time on the penultimate Alpine stage.

2016

Finally takes his irst overall win in a WorldTour stage race, at Paris-Nice. He survives a spectacular inal-day long-range attack by Alberto Contador to win the GC by just four seconds.

2017

In preparation for his main target of the year, the Giro, Thomas takes his irst GC win in a mountainous stage race, at the Tour of the Alps, seven seconds ahead of Thibaut Pinot.

2017

After crashing out of the Giro, Thomas recovers then takes the yellow jersey at the Tour by winning the stage 1 TT in teeming rain in Düsseldorf. He leads for four days, but crashes out in the Jura.

2018

Dominates the Critérium du Dauphiné. Despite crashing in the prologue, he is third, second, second and ifth following the TTT (which Sky won) and wins the GC by a minute.