Tour de France 2018 – The victory of Geraint Thomas crowns another turbulent race

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"The last time I cried, it was when I got married … I do not know what happened to me."

It 's not the first time that a loyal support runner has emerged from the shadow of his former leader, but what sets Thomas' s campaign apart, it 's the only time he' s going to be there. absence of tension between Chris Froome and Chris Froome "What the best wins" is usually pronounced through the clenched teeth.Not this time.This was a strangely quiet note in the middle of a turbulent race. 19659002] Thomas – who needed only to stand on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday to make the victory official – won because Froome hesitated, but there was more … Sky has the deepest pockets ( 40 million dollars, double that of the richest organization) and the deepest bench of the company.In the highest mountains, Colombian talent inca ndescent of 21 Egan Bernal worked for both men.

Thomas has fallen twice in previous rounds but has avoided incidents this time, and has made his own luck by sprinting on more than one occasion. Froome catapulted the course in the opening phase and lost time that he never caught up

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The Team Sky rider Geraint Thomas has stated that he had not thought of winning the Tour de France yellow jersey in the penultimate stage

Yet, there was an underlying doubt about Thomas up until the end of his career. At the last dynamic stage of the Pyrenees Friday – a feeling that Froome still held a non-played ace, or that Sky was longing for It recalibrated after Lance Armstrong's seven wins.

But Froome, with three Grand Tour victories over the last 12 months in his legs and a massive microscope trained on him for much longer than that, was clearly tired when the rubber hit the road during the major climbs. (Not too tired to keep up in third place and get on the podium in Saturday's time trial, though.) Thomas and Froome have avoided the corrosive ego clashes that sow seeds. whole teams. Welshman, 32, and two-time Olympic track team champion on the track took the lead in the overall standings when he won the 11th stage at La Rosière. He consolidated the following afternoon with a sprint at the top of Alpe d'Huez and seemed a little dazed but delighted with each subsequent day in yellow.

His competition began to clear up even before the first round of altitude tests in the Alps. The Australian Richie Gate (BMC) has collapsed into anxious miles before the first of the 15 paved sections of the 9th stage. Rigoberto Uran (EF-Education First) descended in the same stage and slammed two days before retiring.

These two starts could be attributed to the cyclist's normal bumps, but Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), winner of the 2014 Italian Tour, plummets on the overpopulated roadside of the Alpe d & # 39; Huez – exacerbated by smoke and especially the uncontrolled crowd – felt particularly unnecessary and obscured the intensity of the competition.

Those who remained to challenge Sky did not go. Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Giro champion of Italy in 2017, showed that it was not a coup de maître. He beat Froome by one second to win the time trial on Saturday. a combination of world champion hastily sewn by a seamstress summoned to the retreat that morning, when her own disappeared. Less memorable was the three-dimensional approach of the Spanish Movistar team, who animated a few steps but proved ineffective against Sky's goal

The breathtaking line taken by the former ski jumper Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) on the fog, The perilous descent of the Aubisque Pass on Friday was one of the most indelible moments of the race. This stage – a traditionally difficult mountain race by the Tour standards which included the Col du Tourmalet as out of work for Aubisque – has proven to be more entertaining and decisive than the 40-miler well. marked with an ascending finish that preceded it. (Memo to the race organizers: please drop the goofy "gate" start.)

This was a valiant finish round off the handful of runners contesting the event. together.

Slovak superstar Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), who managed to clear his way to a sixth green jersey for a total sprint and victory points, crashed heavily in the Pyrenees and carried a Unusual look of anguish on his face as he sailed the next two days. If he had had another race, he would have booked a trip to the house.

Lawson Craddock (EF-Education First), one of five American pilots to start the Tour, fractured his shoulder blade and burst into tears while he told reporters that he had worked too hard to go home the first day. Motivated by a fundraiser for his native velodrome, Craddock became the first wire-to-wire red lantern or last rider. Healing in motion on two mountain ranges is a feat that most of us will never understand.

During the same stage in the Alps where Thomas took the lead, Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) from Great Britain stayed in the saddle for a long time. knew that he would not make time to cut. He had nothing to gain or prove, but rather than discreetly going down and disappearing in the broom, he continued to climb with the tenacity that earned him 30 stage wins and completed the stage.

Cavendish was part of a fleet of great sprinters who could not survive the mountain, and it remains to be seen if this winnowing is heralding the coming things of the Tour organizers . Disrupting the pre-ordered schematics of flatter stages is a laudable concept, but speed specialists have long been some of the most charismatic characters in the sport. Rounds like Sagan come only once in a generation, if that.

The predictability that is of great concern to many spectators this year is that of Sky, who has won six of the last seven tours with three different riders. The hostility of the fans towards Sky has created a useless polemic around fouls – attributed variously to the team, race organizers, the frustration of the host country and all that precedes – which is impossible to pin down. Runners and staff absorbed stoically the abuse, aside from the physical blow launched by Gianni Moscon who had him expelled from the race and the verbal salvo launched against French culture by general manager Dave Brailsford , who later apologized. sports know that domination causes adulation or resentment and rarely something in between. The public figure of Froome was further complicated by the investigation to find out if he had exceeded the allowable dose of an asthma medication last year – a process that does not help. Was resolved only the week before the Tour, after the organizers of the race threatened the start. The fact that Froome was booed loudly down the starting ramp of the time trial, and Thomas was not, may have as much to do with the boredom of the spectators as it was. with the doping controversies that have dragged Sky since its inception. Froome, finishing a third graceful, becomes a more sympathetic figure? Will Thomas – until now a friendly counterpoint to the omnipotence of his team – help in some hearts and minds alienated? It's a task that could be much more difficult than winning a bike race, even the most difficult in the world.