Sky takes over | St.Galler Tagblatt

Chris Froome (before) and his teammate Sky Geraint Thomas in the descent of the Bisanne Ascent. (Chrisophe Ena / AP (July 18, 2018))

The only thing that remained cold that day was artificial snow on the finish line of La Rosière, a Welsh named Geraint Thomas and Kenyan native Chris Froome. The artificial snow shone a bright white on the Rosière. The Thomas and Froome sky duo were not impressed by all the attacks of the competition and came after their own appearances on the places of the stage 1 and 3 and the total of places 1 and 2. Thomas trimmed even clarified the questions about the captain role in Sky. "We are driving for Chris, for me, the tour has already reached its climax with the stage win and the yellow jersey," said the Welshman and seemed tough in the round of reporters.Nobody wants to contradict him. Too much dominating was Sky and different dominant than usual.No of the safety of the train did the accelerations.On the contrary, they were embedded in a fireworks of almost every class cyclist, from Bardet to Martin, Valverde and Dumoulin

Sky let Valverde go

Already 10 kilometers after the start of the 11th stage, the climb of Bisanne.C was the prelude to several great battles. The organizers of the event were graciously increased by two percent, but four riders missed the target, including sprint stars Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish.

Alejandro Valverde Movistar was already attacking the ascent of the second mountain of the day, Col du Pré, putting pressure on Team Sky. The Spaniard was also able to count on the help of his teammate Marc Soler, who dropped out of the breakout group and helped his captain. Sky, however, was not attracted to the reserve and let Valverde shoot. "We had to weigh in. If a driver as strong as Alejandro goes so early, he wants to blow up the other teams.For us, it was important to stay compact.It is what the team has done, "said Nicolas Portal, Sky's sports director

. "We did not want to help Sky and not hurt Valverde.We just wanted to test out there were a few people in the group showing weaknesses," said Nibali coach Paolo Slongo to our newspaper . Whatever the case may be, the result has been that Valverde 's advance has melted to less than a minute.

In the last 20 kilometers, the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin left the field. He also had a teammate in the breakaway scatter, reaching Valverde. Both stayed long in the no man 's land among the best of the escape group. At about six kilometers from the finish, however, the race has entered its completely crazy phase. Because suddenly Thomas attacked. His teammate Froome let him go, he looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was reacting. Nobody reacted, at least not immediately.

A lot of work, little done

About 100 meters later, the leader of the AG2R, Romain Bardet, decided to attack. Now Froome has closed the gap, having Quintana and Nibali in the back. As soon as the British reached the French, he attacked himself. He attacked again, again without success. Shortly after, he followed a counter attack by Irishman Daniel Martin. This tore apart. When Froome almost reached his team-mate Thomas, who had gone up to Dumoulin in the meantime, accelerated the Welsh – and thus won. Froome finished third behind Dumoulin but is second overall.

The competition was found with only admission: a lot of work, few achievements. Team Sky, however, is fully on schedule. Today, the climb follows the Alpe-d'Huez

11. Stadium, Albertville – La Rosière (108.5 km): 1st Thomas (GBR) 3:29 36. 2. Dumoulin (NED) 0:20 back. 3. Froome (GBR), same time. 4. Caruso (ITA) 0:22. 5. Nieve (ESP), same time. 6. Martin (IRL) 0:27. 7. Herrada (ESP) 0:57. 8. Bardet (FRA) 0:59. 9. Nibali (ITA). 10. Quintana (COL). 11. Roglic (SLO), all at the same time. – In addition: 13. Landa (ESP) 1:47. 15. Sakarin (RUS) 1:58. 23. Valverde (ESP) 3h30. 26. Fuglsang (DEN) 3:53. 27. Jungels (LUX) 4:42. 28. Yates (GBR), same time. 49. Stefan Küng (SUI) 16:31. 54. Mathias Frank (SUI), same time. 69. Michael Schär (SUI) 22:23. 71. van Avermaet (BEL). 76. Silvan Dillier (SUI), both at once. 84. Alaphilippus (ENG) 24:51. 119. Sagan (SVK) 26:07. – 165 drivers started, 161 classified. – Arrived after the closing time, including: Cavendish (GBR) and Kittel (GER).

General classification: 1. Thomas 44:06:16. 2. Froome 1:25. 3. Dumoulin 1:44. 4. Nibali 2:14. 5. Roglic 2:23. 6. Steven Kruijswijk (NED) 2:40. 7. Landa 2:56. 8. Bardet 2:58. 9. Quintana 3:16. 10. Martin, at the same time. 11. Valverde 4:28. 12th Fuglsang 4:53. 13. Sakarin 4:58. – In addition: 15. Jungels 5:50. 16. Adam Yates 5:51. 27. Van Avermaet 20:11. 30. Rigoberto Uran (COL) 31:03. 48. Frank 44:49. 50. Küng 45:17. 103. Dillier 1:12:48. 123. Schar 1:22:23.