Asdasdasdasdasd STONE ME!
Thomas is up for a fight on the cobbles now IT’S DAN S-MARTIN
THEY are more feared than any stretch of cobbles beyond Coronation Street – and Geraint Thomas is ready to be shaken up like a bag of bones.
For eight largely flat days, the peloton has barely encountered a bump in the road.
But today’s close encounter with flagstones from a Flintstones age is likely to blow the Tour de France wide open – and claim some bigname casualties.
Team Sky wingman Thomas, second on the leaderboard and just seven seconds off Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet in the Yellow Jersey, warned the 15 sections of cobbles totalling 13.5 miles will make riders sore in places they never knew existed.
And if he chaperones Britain’s defending champion Chris Froome safely from Arras to Roubaix, it will be the best result on cobbles since serial killer Pat Phelan got his comeuppance in Weatherfield.
Thomas rolled safely home with Team Sky’s big hitters in Amiens, but after Bastille Day comes the big boneshaker. He said: “I’ve got a bit of a sore a*** already.
“So the thought of all those cobbles coming up isn’t the most appealing, but you have to grit your teeth and go for it.
Crazy
“It’s going to make your bones rattle and everything aches afterwards – your arms, shoulders, neck, knuckles and hands.
“The whole day is going to be full-on. It’s going to be crazy. The first two or three cobbled sections are kind of spaced out, but later on they come thick and fast.
“Your team-mates can help you out to some extent, but a lot of the time you’re going to find yourself on your own and do it yourself.
“A lot can go wrong in 15 cobbled sections, but I do enjoy the cut and thrust of Classics-style racing.
“Back in 2010, I was second on a similar stage behind Thor Hushovd and I’m looking forward to it as much as you can look forward to your whole skeleton being shaken up.
“It’s a lot harder to ride as a team because the best place to be is on the crown of the cobbles in the middle – instead of in the gutters where you are vulnerable to punctures and potholes – and everyone will be wanting that DAN MARTIN had to be helped aboard his team bus after a late crash left him in agony.
Birmingham-born Irishman Martin (right) tried to climb the UAE Emirates bus steps on all fours, but only made it halfway on his own.
Martin said: “I was in the shower and it bloody hurt – but there’s nothing broken.”
Holland’s rising star Dylan Groenewegen won his second stage in as many days in Amiens with a powerful sprint finish. middle ground. But we’ll try and help each other out and, hopefully, arrive together at the front.”
Froome will be well-placed to tackle this week’s three brutal mountain stages in the Alps if he comes through the ordeal ahead of tomorrow’s rest day.
Va Va Froome didn’t even make it to the cobbles in 2014.
Then he crashed out with a fractured wrist and broken thumb, and he expects major contenders in the general classification to fall by the wayside again.
Brutal
Froome said: “It could go either way – a lot of it will be about luck and staying out of trouble, not having a puncture or a mechanical at the wrong time or getting caught up in a crash. “There will be losses among the GC contenders, it just depends which side of the line you’re on. We hope to be on the right side, but it’s going to be brutal. “If anyone tries to conserve anything on the cobbles, they are going to be out the back.”