Geraint Thomas is closer to victory at the Tour de France

His general victory becomes more and more probable: Geraint Thomas. (Image: Sébastien Nogier / EPA)

Basically, it would be a mistake to cancel Chris Froome prematurely. This should be clear at the latest since the Giro d'Italia in May. There, the most successful classification driver of recent years acted first as he had almost forgotten cycling. Froome crashed while entering and threatened to be hanged by his teammates. However, the third to the last day, he made a solo breakaway, thanks to which he caught up with more than three minutes on all the rivals and still took the final victory.

But resurrections can not be arbitrarily reproduced. Even Lazarus of Bethany, according to the Gospel of John, was only resurrected once among the dead. After Wednesday's events on the last ramps of the Col du Portet, it is unlikely that Froome wins the Tour de France 2018 for the fifth time. But he was compared to the general leader, his teammate Geraint Thomas, too weak.

When two kilometers before the goal of 2215 meters Slovenian Primoz Roglic attacked Froome lost a few meters to the group around Thomas, who immediately and without problems counted. Froome was beaten, but soon after, the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin accelerated the pace, he could not do it anymore. On arrival Froome lost to Thomas another 48 seconds. With this, the change of the guards in Team Sky took place at this Tour de France. Thomas, who is simply called by his colleagues "G" and has already rolled into the yellow jersey at the eleventh stage, can now count on the full support of his team. This confirmed Froome on arrival as he was rolling on a reel. "Congratulations to he was fantastic," said Froome. "I hope he'll wear the yellow jersey now in Paris." Thomas, who put a few meters between him and his last rivals in the final sprint, is now 1:59 minutes ahead of Dumoulin in the overall standings. "It's a pretty comfortable buffer," said the defending champion. He finished third at 2:31 behind

Before the time trial of the penultimate stage, part of the Pyrenees remains to face Friday, which offers in principle a dramatic catch-up potential to the 39, penultimate stage of the Giro. Froome has excelled. It goes through Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque. But the situation in May was different. Froome was able to push the other favorites into the ground because his team had previously lagged behind with a frightening pace. On Friday, it is unthinkable that Sky brings his own boss into trouble.

Thomas knows that his general victory has become more likely. "I'm in an excellent position," he said at the finish. However, he would not be tempted to become euphoric. The 32-year-old man looks surprisingly serene for days remembering that he rode for the first time at the Tour de France for the final victory. Thomas reported that Froome had reported four or five kilometers before the arrival on the team radio that he was not doing well. "It has given me confidence," said Thomas. "I knew that when Froome suffers, they all suffer."

It's hard to imagine that in Team Sky, in the last two and a half weeks behind closed doors, there's no had bitter discussion about the leader. However, this impression is important for the two best drivers. Thomas said that he had "been of course" with Froome "generally" over the last two and a half weeks, Thomas said.

Froome will still have to fight for his podium, and not just on the last mountain stage. Slovenia's Roglic, who finished fourth just 16 seconds behind him, was faster than the British in 2017 at the world time trial championships. The same applies to Dumoulin, the world champion in special discipline.

The victory of the day was won by Colombian Nairo Quintana, who kept his promise of the day before with an attack almost at the foot of the Col du Portet. He hopes for a great day and wants to leave like a lion, said Quintana, for whom the Tour de France did not go as desired. Quintana flew to the finish line on the 16-kilometer, steep slope of 8.7%, without ever giving the impression that another driver could beat him that day -the. He also kept the Irishman Daniel Martin at bay, who unlike the Colombian seemed temporarily like he had fallen a moment later exhausted from the bike. Martin's pioneered a path up to second place.

Meanwhile, the biggest loser of favorites was Frenchman Romain Bardet, who lost to Froome. The host country's hopes dropped to eighth overall and said, "It was a terrible day." Another Velostar narrowly escaped a drama. Slovak Peter Sagan crashed downhill. The world champion three times seemed to be caught, but he was able to continue and reached the finish in time for the time limit.