Geraint Thomas moves from fifth to second ahead of Tour de France rest day in frantic stage 10
GERAINT THOMAS followed the man in the Yellow Jersey and took a big step towards getting back.
He was part of a group that followed current leader Julian Alaphilippe, whose Deceuninck-QuickStep team went full gas for the last 20 miles into Albi and it left some huge rivals behind, including Giulio Ciccone, Thibaut Pinot and Jakob Fuglsang.
The defending champion, 33, leapfrogged three riders to go second on general classification ahead of the first rest day of this year’s race.
And he can thank some aggressive riding from rival teams, who pulled Team Ineos along with them, but the Welshman is adamant it was no fluke.
Thomas said: “I couldn’t think of anything better, I had a really good day.
“Especially on a day like today you wouldn’t expect it really, now I think it’s just a positioning error from from them and they lost over a minute and a half.
“It was great from our point of view.
“I had a little go a little bit earlier and it wasn’t the right conditions. EF had a little go and then Quick-Step, we were always just attentive and ready. It was a good day in the end.
“Obviously from our point of view we had everyone bar two guys and we were all just committed.
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“Behind you could tell they went full on the climb, to try and close it.
“But because they didn’t then they just ran out of gas and the elastic snapped and we just got a big gap.”
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