Thomas shortly before the general victory, Dumoulin wins the time trial

Geraint Thomas did it. The Welsh comes in third place in the time trial until the finish and thus wins the Tour victory almost in the bag. Meanwhile, there is a change on the podium.

Geraint Thomas is about to hit the mark of his dreams: mastering the crucial individual time trial, the 32-year-old Welsh master the last big challenge of the 105th Tour de France third place in the daily clbadification virtually in as a global winner. During the last round in Paris on Sunday, the yellow jersey is no longer attacked.

Sky professional Thomas was 14 seconds behind his closest rival Tom Dumoulin after 31 km between Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle and Espelette in the Basque Country. (Netherlands). The Sunweb captain secured the day's win with a second lead over defending champion Chris Froome (Great Britain / Sky) in 40:52 minutes, but remained 1:51 minutes behind Thomas in the overall standings.

Froome (+2: 24) pushed Slovenian Primoz Roglic out of the overall podium and thus obtained a conciliatory conclusion to a tough tour for him. Roglic, who won the final mountain stage on Friday, finished eighth, 1:12 minutes lower, finishing fourth (+3: 22).

Thomas celebrates the great decade of the Sky team and the British pros The Tour de France continues – for Sky like the British, it will be the sixth overall victory in seven years: in 2012, Bradley Wiggins was the first British to win the most important race in the world, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 Froome reloaded Falling height of the series. Thomas becomes the first Welsh

Thomas with a fast start

At 16:29, the man in yellow is the last of the 145 drivers to leave the pack two minutes after Dumoulin. The Dutchman should have caught up with Thomas in 2:05 minutes, a task almost titanic for the World Champion in the fight against the clock. Thomas said: "So, at least I do not have to take the last risk."

Thomas, new British champion and winner of the prologue of the Tour in Düsseldorf himself an excellent time pilot, put a frantic pace Despite a small slip in a right turn, Froome was already leading with 14 seconds of # 39, advance on the first break, Dumoulin a second behind. After the second interim Thomas could not keep pace but quite

Geschke still better German

After the first quadruple time task of world champion Tony Martin (Cottbus / Katusha-Alpecin) after the eighth stage had the German pros have nothing to do with the result of the time trial. The best German was Simon Geschke (Berlin / Sunweb) as strong 18th (+1: 50).

The last 116.0 km between Houilles and Paris in late afternoon Saturday Thomas can now fully enjoy and on the Honor lap already toasting with teammates with a glbad of champagne. The last stage of the Champs-Elysees still offers a chance to the few remaining sprinters. From the German point of view, John Degenkolb is struggling to win his second victory.