From the Olympic champion to the assistant at the domineering round

Geraint Thomas at the awards ceremony in Paris Sunday night (Image: KEYSTONE / AP / LAURENT REBOURS)

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When Bradley Wiggins becomes the first Briton to win the Tour de France in July 2012 His teammate at Sky, Geraint Thomas, started to be champion Olympic for the second time in home games in London. Four years earlier in Beijing, Wiggins had also been one of the victorious foursome of the British Railways. When Chris Froome won the Grand Loop for the first time in July 2013, Thomas finished 140th, almost four hours behind his team captain.

Yet this achievement was remarkable too, as the Welsh had been remarkable already in the first stage of the fall a small fracture in the pelvis shot. Contrary to all expectations and despite the great initial pain, Thomas went to Paris for the anniversary tour, where he celebrated the general victory with Froome and the other teammates of Sky

2017: Yellow Jersey and Task

He participates in the Tour de France every summer. Thomas has also regularly shown his skills. So last year with the triumph in the early season trial in Düsseldorf before Stefan Küng and the next four days in yellow. Almost as regularly, he also had to survive difficult times. The tour of last year had to abandon second place of the 9th stage and after a fall in the descent of the neck of the Biche because of a broken collarbone. Even the very bad days, on which he lost a lot of time on the best runners, moved the 32-year-old from the Welsh capital Cardiff in three-week return trips again and again. In 2015, he went from 4th to 15th place on the third day of the tour

Eleven years after his first Tour de France, that he finished second ("It was hard to l & # 39; 39, time, but it was part of the learning process. "), And five years after Froomes celebrated his first victory, Thomas now celebrates his own triumph, staying in the 3351-kilometer tour of the world. Atlantic island of Noirmoutier-en-l Island at the finish on the Champs-Elysées of Paris Unlike its competitors spared by misfortune and weak phases.

Whether in the eventful finish of the trays , cobblestones, the Alps and the Pyrenees, or even the time trial: Thomas is still showing – unlike the real team leader Froome At the two stages of victories in the Alps, he showed at the competition that was the strongest: "Winner at L'Alpe d 'Huez in yellow jersey, it was incro yable. "Not really in the last few weeks, but there is pressure on every mountain. But I tried to stay strong. I did it and it gave me an extra boost.

Will Thomas stay with Sky?

Thomas had a good time in the second half, Tom Dumoulin in seven stages. This is only in the long trial against the penultimate day that the Dutch has shown for the first time a few seconds faster. "Geraint is a great fighter who never gives up and has always wanted to win as a junior," says Brailsford. For Sky's general manager, the Dauphiné's victory was the key to the success of the Tour: "It gave his confidence the necessary boost."

Like Froome, Thomas has also been signed to Sky since 2010, By the end of the year he will expire. The Dominator of the 105th Tour de France may not have been on the cards this weekend of his greatest triumph while he continues: "I'll take care of it later." I just want to celebrate. "Brailsford, however, believes that Thomas will stay with Sky:" He has always been faithful, I have never had the slightest doubt. "When the team needed him, he was always After all these years of giving, he was rewarded himself. "