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In realizing his childhood dream, Geraint Thomas became the third Briton to win the Tour.
On the final podium of the 105th Tour de France, which he had just won, his shoulders draped in a Welsh flag, Geraint Thomas spoke to the crowd surrounding the Champs-Élysées circuit, as is now the tradition that gives the Grand Loop winner a platform.
"I started cycling because I was following the Tour de France on television, which I loved watching the champions " said the third British winner of the biggest cycling race. "Here I am, twenty years later, I want to tell children to dream, to keep dreaming, when you work hard, it's possible, you can do it, I'm proof of it." [19659005] The Welshman has repeated his happiness and his emotion
"I do not have a child yet, but this brings me sensations that only my marriage had procured me" has it said. "Normally, the end of the Tour and this last stage are always difficult, but here I was flying, I knew the eight best laps on the Champs-Élysées that I could live in. I really took advantage of these Last moments, all these fans, the atmosphere, the Welsh and British flags, it was incredible. "
Far from what Geraint Thomas had known, eleven years earlier, during his debut in the race in the yellow jersey
"In 2007, I had suffered every day to stay in the race, to hang on and finish penultimate" he remembered, pensive. "Today, I live on the other side of things, it's crazy, another world, another sensation, I really realized, Saturday, after the clock, the wall broke when I I saw my wife on arrival in Espelette, I knew she had left Cardiff to go to Paris and suddenly she was there on arrival, everything was real. "
Geraint Thomas also recalled what was his particular journey, he the former pistier become road and now winner of the Tour de France.
"Winning the Tour has always been a dream when I was a kid" he says. "You know my career, curiously, I have a background very similar to that of Bradley Wiggins, it really inspired me, I took his steps and reproduced a little everything he did six years After him, like him, I grew up on the track, I was junior world champion, then Olympic champion, then my goals changed, I turned to the road, the effort was different, four minutes to twenty minutes, but if you can go fast for a short time, you can ride fast.The important thing is to go fast.I first won races for a day, then Paris- Nice then the Dauphine, like Wiggins again. "
The June stage race turned the ambitions of Geraint Thomas around.
" I had a click in Dauphiné, I knew I could to win such a race over a week, but will I stay at the Tour after three weeks? The stage of La Rosière, when I took the The yellow jersey gave me confidence, I was better than the others, but for how long? That was the question again. "
At that time, the Welshman was busy slowly but surely taking over the leadership of his team.
" Between Froome and Me, It's Always Opened " Continues "We are honest, we always thought that the road was going to decide. After the Portet stage, he understood that he would not win, I think. He started working for me. He is a legend, I think it's the best of all time. I have a lot of respect for him. I want to thank him because it could have been complicated between us. But no, he behaved like a champion, I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart. "
With four excellent riders in the first four places of the final clbadification, this Tour 2018 confirmed the inability of climbers to win again The Great Loop
"That's right, Dumoulin, Roglic, Froomey and I were the strongest, but I think a climber can still win" Thomas continues. "Landa and Bardet we have really put pressure on the last mountain stage. I was afraid of all the mountain stages. At Alpe d'Huez, before winning, that's where I suffered the most. I stayed calm and the whole team around me. The most important thing is that we never panicked, we supported each other, we trusted each other. After, the most dangerous was Tom (Dumoulin). His way of running is impressive. Everything is calculated, he knows himself perfectly, he never lets himself be overwhelmed by his emotions, he does not react to attacks, but always returns to his rhythm. "
Arrived at the end of the contract, the winner of the Tour de France must negotiating its future
"Before that, I want to enjoy my victory, I do not know where I'll be next year," he said. "We'll see, I do not think about it at all. I just want to celebrate my victory with my teammates, my wife, my friends … "
Chris Froome:" Proud to be on the podium with Geraint "
Chris Froome was fully satisfied with his third place,
Christopher Froome's victories in the Tour de France are therefore stuck at four, equaling the record of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, the four quintuple winners of the Great Loop. so postponed by at least a year for white Kenyan, already 33 years old.
We had suspected more and more since the beginning of the week, we knew it since the end of it. Chris Froome has no doubt paid for the efforts he made to double the Italian and French Towers and even had to fight to the end to save his place on the podium, alongside his former lieutenant, who became his successor.
A situation with which Froome could compose without the slightest thought. From the first day, the Tour had started badly for the British, caught in a fall and conceded almost a minute to Thomas.
"No, I never had the slightest regret" [19459008explainedtheBritish "I have been a friend of Geraint's team for ten years now, we are friends, we live next to each other (NdlR: in Monaco), we train together We ran together and he participated in all my successes on the Tour (Thomas was in the Sky team during the four victories of Froome) I quickly realized that he would be on the podium and I am very happy to have participated in his victory and very proud to be on the podium with him. "
Sky's rider refuses to think that his participation victorious to the Giro is the main cause of his defeat.
"I do not know" he says. "I remain convinced that the Giro-Tour double is possible, I have won consecutively the last three great laps I took part in before that." The fact that there was this extra week between Giro and the Tour, because of the World Cup, was a reason for my choice, but see Tom Dumoulin, he finished second of these two big rounds, it shows that it's possible, I also want to say that I do not will not make my victory at the Giro against a success in the Tour.I won the three big rounds, it's incredible.I will keep it until the end of my days "
For all his team, but especially for Cristopher Froome himself, this 105th Tour de France was played under very special conditions, sometimes in a hateful climate, with boos, whistles, threats …
"Even though this Tour has was more difficult outside the bicycle admits, t [19659029] it made us stronger, it brought us together, welded together. We fought against the rest of the world. It's amazing how the team managed to get by. "
And to the question of who will next year be the leader of the Sky Tour, like Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome has kicked in touch
"It's a question for the management of the team, not for the runners" he smiled.
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