The Switcheroo who won the Sky Team of the Tour de France

That's how the squad was caught off guard in the middle of the Tour this summer when, suddenly, the team that leaves no detail at random did not even seem to know who was the strongest.

It was Chris Froome, the four-time Tour champion who won a superb, physically grueling victory at the Giro d'Italia. At least it was until the Tour reached the Alps. It was then that his teammate, a 32-year-old Wales rider named Geraint Thomas, took over the leader's yellow jersey

Froome, the most accomplished stage runner of his generation, is become a luxury servant. And Thomas, who had never won a Grand Tour, was transformed into a leader of the sky, until victory on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday.

"It's amazing to be sitting here with this jersey." Crazy, "said Thomas before the ceremonial stage of Sunday in Paris." A big thank you to Froomey … J & # I like to have the best rider coming up for me. "

To understand Team Sky's internal reorganization process, it's important to understand how cycling teams structure themselves for a race like the Tour. Any team with real hopes of taking the yellow jersey sits around a leader, with the other seven riders dedicated to protecting and pacing for it to be as cool as possible when the time comes for a decisive attack.

He spent five years at Sky, who had always been Froome, since he took over from 2012 Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins. He became so dominant that he decided to win a full set of Grand Tours, an achievement that he has successful in the last 12 months. But his attempt to win the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France five weeks later was too difficult for him.

Suddenly, Froome was the winning Super Bowl quarterback holding a clipboard for his backup. And the substitute, the affable former track specialist, who spends his free time watching rugby, has found himself winning one of the Tour's most ostentatious victories, from recent memory.

"I do not think there's a problem for Chris, because in the end, it's his legs," said Sky's sports director, Nicolas Portal, the tactician behind the success of l & # 39; team. "You accept it more easily when you think it's a fair result, when you feel you've been beaten by the road, when you feel the people in front of you were stronger."

Thomas's flawless run, from start to finish, saw him becoming the first man in 25 years to chain consecutive victories in the Alps. Even though he had not proved himself in the third week of a Grand Tour, he had somehow legs to sprint to the line in the Pyrenees. And he even had a chance to win Saturday's final time trial until Portal told him to cool him down late and not take so many risks in turns.

Which was not bad for a 32-year-old man, largely underestimated, who has the reputation of crushing himself in crucial moments.

"He was fit," said Tom Dumoulin, of the Sunweb team. place to enter the last leg of Sunday. "He made no mistake – he was never put in any difficulty by anyone in the mountains or on any scene."

Froome had to be content the third step of the podium. But even though he called it a "dream" to finish third by supporting Thomas, it was clear that Froome had not had a fun tour of France.

He was only allowed to run the week before the start, after a nine-month investigation into his abnormally high levels of an asthma medication at the Vuelta a Espana de last fall. Then, once he was introduced, he was ruthlessly booed by the fans on the French roadside. We even tried to swing him to Alpe d'Huez

"When there is negativity like that, it brings us closer to the team," said Froome. "You can choose to let go or you can choose to let him motivate you.And for us it was a motivation."

The headache now for the rest of professional cycling is that the badembly line Sky has somehow produced another champion. The team has now won six of the last seven rounds with three different riders.

"It's not too difficult when you have a team like this," Portal said. "The most difficult thing is not to crack under the pressure."

What this means for Sky 's internal dynamics is an enigma that the team will have to solve before next summer. It would be unfair to say that Froome's time at the top is over, because Froome is still Froome, the winner of six Grand Tours that arrived in France exhausted and distracted. But Thomas also proved that he had clbad to face anyone, especially with the Sky machine behind him.

"It's the strength of our team: we really have only one goal," said Wout Poels. "But you need a range of very, very strong pilots to make a plan like this … you all go there."

Write to Joshua Robinson at [email protected]