TDF: Thomas wins atop Alpe d’Huez

Geraint Thomas became the first British winner at Alpe d’Huez and he did so wearing the yellow jersey – Nibali and sprinters out of the race,Froome attacked on the climb by spectator

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TDF: Thomas wins atop Alpe d’Huez

Geraint Thomas became the first British winner at Alpe d’Huez on the occasion of the 30th finish in the ski resort of the Oisans. He’s also the first rider to win a road stage to Alpe d’Huez with the yellow jersey on his back. He outsprinted Tom Dumoulin, Romain Bardet, Chris Froome and Mikel Landa to extend his lead in the overall ranking.

Pic: Getty Images

161 riders started stage 12 at Bourg-Saint-Maurice. One non-starter was last year’s runner up Rigoberto Uran (Education First). After a fast start in the Tarentaise valley, Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic) was the first climber in action up to the col de la Madeleine. A front group of 30 riders was formed up the climb and split several times. GC contenders Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) were part it, as well as KOM fighters Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) and Barguil. Alaphilippe smartly outsprinted his two rivals to extend his advantage.

Alaphilippe and Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) rode away on the downhill of la Madeleine before waiting for their former breakaway companions. Pierre Rolland (EF) escaped at the exit of the feed zone of Saint-Avre (km 74.5). He crested the Lacets de Montvernier alone in the lead and got reinforced at the bottom of the col de la Croix-de-Fer by Valverde and Kruijswijk who was the virtual leader of the Tour de France as Team Sky led the bunch with a deficit of four minutes.

Barguil was first to rejoin them up the hill and it became an 11-man front group with 80km to go. GC contender Kruijswijk rode away solo 73km before the finish. He got a maximum advantage of 6’15’’ over the peloton led by Mathias Frank for AG2R-La Mondiale and later by Marc Soler for Movistar but Team Sky seized the reins of the peloton again on the descent to the Oisans valley.

Pic: Getty Images

Kruijswijk started climbing to Alpe d’Huez with an advantage of 4’20’’ over a group of thirty riders comprising all the members of the top 15 overall. It was down to 3’30’’ with 10km to go. Successively, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) tried to escape but Team Sky brought them back quickly.

The attack of Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) with 7.5km to go enabled the Frenchman to ride away until he got caught with 4km to go by Froome who overtook Kruijswijk 3.5km before the line. Bardet attacked again with 2.5km to go. While Nibali was chasing back after crashing, five riders were reunited at the front and Thomas proved to be the fastest of them all. He also took the 79th yellow jersey of Team Sky (since 2012), just as many as Movistar who was leading the tally among the participating teams of the 105th Tour de France.

In other news from the race, a man was arrested who punched Chris Froome on the final climb. Its reported that a spectator rushed forward and appeared to throw a punch at him. Another spectator was caught on video shoving the British rider as he passed, while there were various reports that Team Sky’s riders and vehicles were spat at on the famous 21-hairpin climb, which is a traditional lightning rod for rowdy behaviour from fans who often spend days camping out waiting for the arrival of the peloton. Vincenzo Nibali [Bahrain Merida] was forced to abandon the race with a fractured verterba after coming down as a result of coming into contact with a spectator, a crash where Geraint Thomas said afterwards he rode over Nibali’s back wheel and almost came down himself.

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Geraint Thomas: “I can’t believe it – I’m speechless,” he said. “I don’t know what to say – not a chance in hell did I think I would win today. It was unbelievable – can we go to Paris now?! Maybe I can keep this yellow jersey for the next few days, but this race is so hard, and you never know how the body is going to react. I’m still riding for Froomey – he’s the man, probably the best ever, a legend of this sport. I’m just going to enjoy this whilst I can.”

Kruijswijk put a hell of a lot pressure on us, we were struggling. [In the final climb], I was following Froome. Froome attacked. I went back by myself. This is just unbelievable. I couldn’t see this happening. I just tried to follow Dumoulin. I knew I had to be the first on the last corner if I wanted to win the stage, so I got around Landa and then sprinted out of the saddle with everything I had. It was after some second that I realised I was winning. Maybe I can keep the yellow jersey for the next few days. But this race is so hard, you never know for sure. I am still riding for Froome, he is the man. I don’t know how I will do over three weeks.”

Pic: Getty Images

Chris Froome: “He’s ridden the race of his life so far at this Tour. It’s been faultless and he fully deserves to be in yellow, having won two stages and the most iconic stage of the race Alpe d’Huez. It’s a massive, massive feather in his cap. I think it’s a dream position for us to be in – first and second on GC. It allows us to play both our cards like we did today. Yesterday G went up the road and left other riders scrambling to try and chase. Today I went up the road and G sat on Dumoulin which worked out really well in the final. It meant G had a good punch at the finish. It’s just a dream scenario for us right now.”

“I definitely feel as if I’m building into this race. I’m really happy with how I’m feeling since we’ve hit the mountains. It was always a bit of an unknown after the Giro but I’m really happy with the first sensations and looking forward to the Pyrenees next week.”

Tom Dumoulin: “Today was absolutely mental. Lots of GC riders attacked early on and it was a full on chase the whole day. It was really crazy. I could have had a chance to win if I did everything well, but I ended up in last position before the sprint started and that’s when I lost the stage. I think that if I was in good position then I would have had a chance. I am disappointed for sure – I hope that I stay strong but anything can happen in the third week.”

Mikel Landa: “It was such a hard stage for me – my back hurt a lot. I was able to keep the pain away from my mind for a bit in the finale and try to get into contention, but the whole Alpe d’Huez climb was full of pain for me. Bernal set a really fast pace and I was always on the verge of dropping back. All in all, I think I can be satisfied with this performance. When I was able to bridge back I saw it wasn’t long until the finish, and told to myself: ‘It’s been to be caught while in the lead than staying at the back of the group and be distanced again.’ I suffered a lot, the back hurts like hell, I had a bad day to be honest. It’s a muscular injury, and as much as I want to forget it, I can’t leave that crash behind – it was a serious crash. Let’s continue day-by-day.

“Being the team leader or not isn’t really important to me – if you don’t believe me, look at Alejandro’s job today, while also being a leader of this team. The GC win will be really hard, that’s something we already knew before coming here, but we’re going to keep fighting, whether it’s a victory, a podium… whatever. I think we saw Sky doing a little bit worse than yesterday, even if they won again today. I feel like there could be some chances in the upcoming days. We tried to hurt their legs again to day, we had a strong will to shine, but that attack wasn’t to be. Thomas is showing excellent condition, but Froome has tremendous stamina: he’ll be the main reference at the final week. However, that’s not something I really care about too much, rather than my own situation”.

Nairo Quintana: “It was a really fast, difficult stage, and sadly, I didn’t have the energy I needed for the last climb. I was riding on full steam, I even tried to pick up the pace with that attack, but there was nothing left in my tank. I gave it my all and it’s now about how I recover and what I can do in the next mountain stages.”

Matt White – (Ds for Adam Yates) “It didn’t work out how we had hoped with Adam. His form is still good but he has struggled with the heat in the last couple of days so he will take a couple of easy days and look for some opportunities in the final week. Now that the general classification is very well established, there certainly will be some opportunities in the mountains.”

Peter Sagan: It’s been a really hard day, I can’t remember any stage like this. It’s been difficult for everybody but I survived, it’s OK. I’m sorry for Gaviria, Greipel and Groenewegen [who pulled out], but it was really hard also for me. Tomorrow it could be a sprint, but with some sprinters less, it could also be harder to keep the race under control. Now, the green jersey for me is not about counting the points, it’s about staying healthy. We still have the third week ahead of us.

Dan Martin: “By the end of the stage we weren’t racing- it was just about getting to the top. I had nothing left in my legs and just wanted to make the finish line in the best time possible. I felt really good in the first climb of the day, but then general fatigue set in. We’ve had three hard days of racing in the mountains and a week of tough racing before that so it’s not a surprise. Unfortunately I let go of the group to ride at my own tempo, which I think was a mistake as I didn’t realise how much wind there was. I got gapped and couldn’t get back. That said, I’m still happy with my race and there’s plenty of time to go until Paris.”

Bahrain Merida: “The clinical examinations have shown the vertebral body fracture of the tenth thoracic vertebra and therefore its impossibility to continue the competition. Tomorrow in the morning, Vincenzo Nibali will return to Italy where, in the next days, he will undergo a new clinical evaluation.”

Pic: Getty Images

Steven Kruijswijk “It was worth a try”, Kruijswijk said, who was in front alone for over seventy kilometres. “It went very well today. Only the last bit was too much. I was riding alone for a long time and the valley towards Alpe d’Huez cost me a lot of power. I knew this when I started my attempt, but I still had less power remaining than I had hoped. It’s a little disappointing that I didn’t win, but it was a beautiful day. Fortunately, I didn’t lose a lot of time and I’m happy that I’m still in a good position in the overall ranking. It was a tricky effort, but I really like to race like this. I’d rather keep attacking and lose than not trying at all in three weeks racing. I gambled and lost, but I’ll definitely try again. Now it’s time to recover from this and then we’ll see what we can do next.”

Jakob Fuglsang: I was not so bad, everyone else is also starting to feel the legs. I was just hanging on there and once they started attacking, I knew I had to manage myself instead of exploding like yesterday happened. Today I had to manage the way I did the final climb, it was damage control all the time. I dropped one time and I came back again, but after a second attack at the front I dropped again but I just kept fighting. It was nice to show that yesterday was an incident. It’s not over yet, we will fight till Paris. –

Julian Alaphilippe (KoM leader): “I felt good in the morning and wanted to feature in the break to add more points to my tally in the mountain standings. Having accomplished the mission makes me happy, because each day in the polka dot jersey is a special one. After being reeled in, I rode the second part of the day in the gruppetto, which was a nice experience, as I got many cheers and applause from fans. Hopefully, the next days will be calmer and I will have a long run in this jersey. It’s still early to say what will happen, but I am prepared to keep fighting”, said Julian after opening a 14-point lead over his closest opponent.

Pic: Getty Images

André Greipel (DNF): “The past three days weren’t easy and too hard for me. I knew that this would be another tough day in the saddle. I could only hope the peloton would ride up the first climb rather slowly, but that wasn’t the case. Soon, I felt this would be the end of the Tour for me. Others might choose to hold on to the team car, but if I can’t arrive at the finish on my own, I rather go home. I’m not sad; I’m a realist and a fair sportsman.”
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Withdrawals from the race
11 URAN RIGOBERTO TEAM EF EDUCATION FIRST – DRAPAC P/B CANNONDALE DNS
25 GALLOPIN TONY AG2R LA MONDIALE WITHDRAWAL
103 GAVIRIA RENDON FERNANDO QUICK – STEP FLOORS WITHDRAWAL
123 GRUZDEV DMITRIY ASTANA PRO TEAM OUTSIDE THE TIME LIMIT
148 ZABEL RICK TEAM KATUSHA ALPECIN WITHDRAWAL
163 GROENEWEGEN DYLAN TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO WITHDRAWAL
171 GREIPEL ANDRÉ LOTTO SOUDAL WITHDRAWAL
177 SIEBERG MARCEL LOTTO SOUDAL WITHDRAWAL
188 TAARAMÄE REIN DIRECT ENERGIE OUTSIDE THE TIME LIMIT

RESULT
1. GERAINT THOMAS TEAM SKY
2. TOM DUMOULIN TEAM SUNWEB ‘ 02″
3. ROMAIN BARDET AG2R LA MONDIALE 00′ 03″
4. CHRIS FROOME TEAM SKY 00′ 04″
5. MIKEL LANDA MEANA MOVISTAR TEAM 00′ 07″
6. PRIMOŽ ROGLIC TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 00′ 13″
7. VINCENZO NIBALI BAHRAIN – MERIDA 00′ 13″
8. JAKOB FUGLSANG ASTANA PRO TEAM 00′ 42″
9. NAIRO QUINTANA MOVISTAR TEAM 00′ 47″
10. STEVEN KRUIJSWIJK TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 00′ 53″

12. DANIEL MARTIN UAE TEAM EMIRATES 00H 01′ 45″
14. ALEJANDRO VALVERDE MOVISTAR TEAM 04′ 29″
75. ADAM YATES MITCHELTON – SCOTT 28’ 54″

OVERALL
1. GERAINT THOMAS TEAM SKY
2. CHRIS FROOME TEAM SKY 01′ 39″
3. TOM DUMOULIN TEAM SUNWEB 01′ 50″
4. VINCENZO NIBALI BAHRAIN – MERIDA 02′ 37″
5. PRIMOŽ ROGLIC TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 02′ 46″
6. ROMAIN BARDET AG2R LA MONDIALE 03′ 07″
7. MIKEL LANDA MEANA MOVISTAR TEAM 03′ 13″
8. STEVEN KRUIJSWIJK TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 3′ 43″
9. NAIRO QUINTANA MOVISTAR TEAM 04′ 13″
10. DANIEL MARTIN UAE TEAM EMIRATES 5′ 11″
11. JAKOB FUGLSANG ASTANA PRO TEAM 5′ 45″
12. ALEJANDRO VALVERDE MOVISTAR TEAM 9′ 07″
13. BOB JUNGELS QUICK – STEP FLOORS 9′ 09″
14. ILNUR ZAKARIN TEAM KATUSHA ALPECIN 9′ 37″
15. MIKEL NIEVE ITURRALDE MITCHELTON – SCOTT 15′ 28″
16. PIERRE ROGER LATOUR AG2R LA MONDIALE 16′ 41″
17. GUILLAUME MARTIN WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT 18′ 39″
18. TANEL KANGERT ASTANA PRO TEAM 20′ 41″
19. EGAN ARLEY BERNAL GOMEZ TEAM SKY 21′ 22″
20. WARREN BARGUIL TEAM FORTUNEO – SAMSIC 23′ 55″
21. RAFAL MAJKA BORA – HANSGROHE 28′ 38″
22. ADAM YATES MITCHELTON – SCOTT 34′ 55″
23. BAUKE MOLLEMA TREK – SEGAFREDO 36′ 16″
24. SERGE PAUWELS TEAM DIMENSION DATA 36′ 35″
25. JON IZAGUIRRE BAHRAIN – MERIDA 36′ 48″

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