Tour de France 2018: Geraint Thomas takes historic win on Alpe d’Huez to extend lead

A heart-in-mouth finale saw the race favourites reel in lone escapee Steven Kruijswijk amid controversy as Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali was felled by the camera strap of a spectator and defending champion Froome was victim of a lunge from a fan on the typically heated hairpins of Alpe d’Huez.

It was a dog-eat-dog battle on the animated 21 hairpins of the Alpe as Nibali set the tone with an early acceleration in pursuit of the tiring Kruijswijk. Subsequent attacks from Frenchman Bardet, Dutchman Dumoulin, Movistar duo Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa, and a large dig from Froome himself, spelled the end for Kruijswijk. But it was the battling Thomas who made the decisive move – kicking clear on the home straight to secure back-to-back wins in the high Alps.

Thomas beat Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) by two seconds with Bardet (Ag2R-La Mondiale) pipping Froome for third place a further second back. Yo-yoing Spaniard Landa completed the top five at seven seconds, while Nibali fought back alongside Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) to finish 13 seconds down after his crash four kilometres from the finish.

Having ridden more than fifth kilometres off the front of the race after a gutsy solo attack on the Col de la Croix de Fer, the impressive Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) started the final climb with a four-minute gap – and in the virtual yellow jersey – but had to settle for tenth place behind the fading Colombian Quintana and Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang (Astana).

Booed by some fans on the podium, Thomas, who now leads his compatriot and team-mate Froome by 1’39” in the general classification, denied that he had emerged as Team Sky’s number one, insisting that the whole team was still behind Froome’s bid to win a record-equalling fifth Tour crown.

“This race is so hard and you never know how the body reacts,” 32-year-old Thomas said. “Like I said yesterday, I’m still riding for Froomey. He’s still our man. He knows how to ride for three weeks. The word ‘legend’ gets used too much, but he’s probably the best-ever. So, I’m just going to enjoy this.”

Dumoulin, who finished runner-up to Froome in May’s Giro d’Italia, is third on GC at 1’50” with Nibali and Roglic impressively limiting their losses to stay in the top five, at 2’37” and 2’46” respectively.

It later emerged, however, that Nibali, the 2014 champion, was taken to hospital in Grenoble with a suspected fractured vertebra following his crash, which came after the motorcycle slowed on a narrowing road. The Bahrain Merida rider subsequently withdrew from the race.

Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) retained the polka dot jersey but now faces a stiff challenge from compatriot Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic) after both riders starred in the large break which edged ahead on the first climb of the day, the Col de la Madeleine.

But the gruelling 175.5km stage from Bourg-Saint-Maurice took many victims as sprinters Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors), Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) all called it a day after struggling on the third of four climbs, the seemingly interminable Col de la Croix de Fer.

The thinning down of the sprinting field means world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) – who had an uncharacteristically quiet day in the saddle – now leads the green jersey standings by a near-insurmountable 210 points over Norwegian Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates).

Meanwhile, Frenchman Pierre Latour (Ag2R-La Mondiale) was part of the break en route to retaining the white jersey as best young rider – although he will face stiff opposition from Colombian tyro Egan Bernal, who put in a titanic performance for Team Sky in setting up Thomas and Froome for what proved to be the most exciting finish in the 105th edition of the Tour to date.

KRUIJSWIJK HEROICS: If the performance of Thomas – not to mention the unsavoury boos that rained down on the Welshman as he picked up his yellow jersey – will make the headlines, it will be the brave ride of Steven Kruijswijk that will live long in the memory.

Part of a large break that formed ahead of the Col de la Madeleine, the LottoNL-Jumbo rider kept his power dry as Alaphilippe did battle with polka-dot rivals Barguil and Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) for KOM points before Frenchman Pierre Rolland (EF Education First) soloed over the summit of the picture-postcard Lacets de Montvernier ahead of the break.

But it was the Croix de Fer that separated the wheat from the chaff as a strong leading 11-man break formed featuring Kruijswijk, his team-mate Robert Gesink, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and French duo Rolland and Barguil.

With 73km remaining, Kruijswijk made what looked like to be a highly ambitious move. But the 31-year-old crested the summit of the 29km climb with three minutes in the bag ahead of a chasing trio of Makja, Barguil and Nieve.

That lead stretched out to six minutes on the descent before the Sky-led main pack reeled in all the remnants of the break to set up a grandstand finale. Movistar and Ag2R-La Mondiale had combined to pressurise Sky near the penultimate summit – but it was business as usual by the time the pack hit the Romanche valley, with six Sky riders pulling to bring down Kruijswijk’s lead to 4’20” as he swung onto his 13.8km date with destiny.

Dreaming of the first ‘home’ victory on Dutch Mountain since Gert-Jan Theunisse in 1989, plucky Kruijswijk had neutral fans – and the well-oiled hordes of partisan spectators on Dutch Corner – on his side. But it was to prove bridge too far: once the fireworks were set alight behind, the gap dropped like a stone – and Kruisjwijk was agonisingly swept up inside the closing four kilometres, just as it all kicked off.

CLIMB CONTROVERSY: Sky’s Bernal set an infernal tempo on the climb to neutralise early attacks from Nibali and Quintana before Landa and Bardet combined with 7km remaining, finally upsetting the savage tempo.

If Landa quickly tired, Bardet rode on – closing in on Kruijswijk while the elite group of favourites was whittled down one by one. The lone leader was forced to swerve on the road after a fan running alongside him collided with another taking a photo – a taste to come of the hectic scenes which followed.

It was Froome who brushed off a swinging arm from a spectator to lead the chase on Bardet, jumping clear of his rivals after an exhausted Bernal had peeled off. As the four-time champion rode clear, Nibali caught his handlebars on a camera strap as the road narrowed heading into the barriers amid the throng of fans and the smoke of flares.

As Froome passed Bardet and then Kruijswijk, Dumoulin then surged back into contention with an acceleration that dragged both Thomas and then Bardet back into contention. Suddenly it was Froome who looked on the ropes as the Dutchman roared past – while further back, Landa found a second wind and managed to join the leaders under the flamme rouge.

It was Landa who continued his momentum and made the first move as the finish line beckoned – only for Thomas to show his class with a telling turn of speed that left his rivals (and team-mate) for dead.

THOMAS ELATION: “Honestly, I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say,” the shell-shocked Welshman said after becoming the 30th winner on Alpe d’Huez.

On paper, this should reopen the door to the few sprinters remaining after a tough few days in the Alps. But when was the Tour last raced on paper?

An early climb could prove the perfect springboard for a break while a succession of sharp hills – the Monts du Matin – in the final third could hinder the chase ahead of a speedy downhill run to the finish. Throw in the possibility of some Mistral winds and this is far from a routine transitional stage for the fast men.