Tour de France: Momentum still with Bernal as Thomas loses five seconds in fraught finale
Who's the boss? The five seconds Egan Bernal gained on Geraint Thomas when the peloton split on the drag to the line at Épernay on stage 3 won't decide the hierarchy at Team Ineos, far less the outcome of the Tour de France itself, but it felt like a microcosm of their contrasting approaches to this race all the same.
The short, sharp haul up the Rue de Coteaux was all about momentum. Bernal, fresh from Tour de Suisse victory last month, has it in spades. Thomas, who endured a truncated build-up, is a man still in search of it.
After a rugged finale that fizzed through champagne country, lone escapee Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was already celebrating stage victory and a stint in the maillot jaune by the time the reduced chasing peloton hit the 350m kick towards the line.
Thomas was well positioned towards the front of that elite group when the climb began, but as the gradient bit, he sat back down into the saddle, unable to hold the wheel in front as searing accelerations from men like Michael Matthews and Jasper Stuyven stretched the group to breaking point and men like Sonny Colbrelli moved past him.
Together with Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Bernal was the lone overall contender to keep pace with the sprinters and puncheurs in the final reckoning. The Colombian came home 12th on the stage, 26 seconds down on Alaphilippe, while Thomas was the next rider across the line, a further 5 seconds back. In the overall standings, Bernal lies 6th overall, 40 seconds down on Alaphilippe, while Thomas is now 7th at 45 seconds.
After the stage, Bernal and Thomas warmed down side-by-side on the rollers outside the Ineos team bus, though at that point, both men were unaware that the commissaires would assign a five-second gap between them on the stage after reviewing the finish line footage. Bernal, mind, was safe in the knowledge that he had not missed a beat in the frantic dash towards the line by finishing ahead of all the contenders bar Pinot.
Thomas: Short, steep climbs aren't necessarily what I love
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