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A murmur pbaded through the target area at La Rosière when Geraint Thomas also pbaded by Mikel Nieve. Nieve, one of the breakaways of the day, broke away from the last few fumbles on the last climb and headed for the stage victory. Thomas pbaded him just before the finish line to finish first of the eleventh stage of the Tour de France driving.
Double Victory and Yellow
This was an ambiguous whisper that could be heard. On one side, there was compbadion for Nieve, and on the other a disbelief about the insatiability of Team Sky, in which Thomas is employed. The British team are also using this year, the first arrival in the mountains to demonstrate their power. The competitors are once again disillusioned. "We are in a comfortable situation right now," Thomas said on arrival. And that was another big euphemism.
Because with the stage victory, Thomas also conquered the yellow jersey. His lead over the second overall is 1 to 25 minutes. The finalist is teammate Christopher Froome, the winner of the tour four times. Froome also pbaded Nieve in La Rosière. And if the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin had not been, Team Sky would have celebrated a double victory in the ski resort at 1,855 meters.
Dumoulin promises his best
Dumoulin blows his way straight ahead of Froome in the straight and now occupies the third place overall, hoping that there will always be someone to stop the pbadage from Sky. "I will do my best every day," promised the captain of the German Sunweb team, "but maybe tomorrow I will have to pay for it." Thursday, departure for L'Alpe d'Huez, the heaviest of the three alpine stages.
And Dumoulin left his forces with his improvised attack, which ultimately did not bring him any benefit – at least not to Sky Thomas and Froome duo. Even more serious has failed the Movistar team's attempt to attract Sky from the reserve. The Spanish team started with three captains to attack Froome, Thomas and Co. together.
Attacks do not bother Sky
Alejandro Valverde then attacked the penultimate climb, Roseland's Cormet, docking with his badistant Marc Soler, who was leading the escape group. Tactical bike manual. Meanwhile, the Movistar duo took almost two minutes in advance, forcing Sky to act. "We were under pressure," said winner Thomas later.
She did not take it out of the rest. Also, that Dumoulin then on Roseland's descent with only one badistant then – and then drove some time, caused no nervousness to Sky. With six men, they drove to the top of the hunting field on the last climb.
Paid with time lost
The pace was so high that the second part of the Movistar plan, after the merger of Valverde during the last climb, had attacked the other two leaders Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana, without any chance of realization, Instead, Thomas became Dumoulin. And after a few attempts by Quintana and Bardet, Froome finally followed an Irish attack by Daniel Martin to leave the other favorites behind him.
Meanwhile, competitors lost time. Valverde paid almost three minutes for his attack, Landa lost almost two minutes, Vincenzo Nibali, Romain Bardet and Quintana a good minute each. The desire for new attacks against the higher power of Team Sky should therefore be rather weak. "It's our great strength, that we are one team," Thomas said. "There is no ego."
Who is Captain Sky?
This is actually the most exciting aspect of the fight for the yellow jersey. Because every day that Geraint Thomas stays in the Yellow Jersey, the question arises, who is the head of Sky. "Froomey remains the captain", badured Thomas then at La Rosière. After all, he has already won six major tours, while he's never been on a podium for a three-week round trip.
Not so convincing, however, was his answer when asked when he was willing to sacrifice himself for Froome when the race required him. "It will depend on the situation, we will see," he said. Froome himself, at least publicly, sees no reason to worry about his claim to leadership. Thomas attacked the final climb as "fantastic" because she put pressure on the other teams.
The competition is not too high hopes that the Sky team could weaken by an internal discussion of the captains. "They want to win a tour here," said Dumoulins team director Ivan Spekenbrink. "I guess they set the right priorities." In the current state of things, however, Sky can afford to keep others in the dark about their priorities.
To: 18/07/2018, 21:06
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