Team News – Geraint Thomas Second

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Ahead of the British champs this week, Geraint Thomas in awesome form as he finishes second in the Tour de Suisse

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Team News – Geraint Thomas Second

On the final stage time trial, Geraint Thomas battled hard for the overall victory but was just edged into second place overall following a thrilling finale at the Tour de Suisse.

Spilak

Photo © Tim De Waele / Team Katusha

After nine stages the race came down to the wire across a technical and undulating time trial in Bern, with Thomas ending the event just five seconds back on winner Simon Spilak.
The Welshman headed into the deciding stage looking to overturn a 34-second deficit to overnight leader Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and quickly put big chunks of time into the Frenchman.

Yet the real pressure came from behind, with Spilak (Katusha) trading seconds with Thomas through the opening splits before gradually edging away to the tune of 18 seconds. That meant the second step on the podium for Thomas after a valiant ride to fifth on the stage. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) rode his way into third overall with a victorious ride across the 38.4-kilometre stage, besting Spilak by 18 seconds and Thomas by 36 in the scenic Swiss city.

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“I think coming into the week, I didn’t really know what to expect,” Thomas told TeamSky.com after the race. “To be so close to the win is kind of nice but it also makes it hurt a bit more. I think whenever you lose by a small margin like that you always look at your ride and try to pick holes in it and things like that. But I got it all out and I can be proud of how I rode all week and so can the rest of the boys in the team.”

“At the moment it’s still gutting to not get the win but it’s been a decent season and I think I’ve definitely made that next step up. Hopefully long may it continue.”

The 29 year old also admitted he was pleased with how he’d approached the race, taking time out of his rivals on a number of occasions. “I was on the ball all through the race,” he added. “There wasn’t really much I could have done to change what I did. It was maybe only the last few metres on the queen stage where Spilak gained that bit of time on me. That’s probably the only place where I could maybe have hung onto him. But I can still be proud of how it went.”

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