Tour de France 2018: Geraint Thomas on brink of Tour glory despite Tom Dumoulin time trial win

Updated 28/07/2018 at 17:12 GMT

Geraint Thomas will ride into Paris on Sunday as winner of the 2018 Tour de France after finishing third in the decisive final time trial behind Stage 20 winner Tom Dumoulin and team-mate Chris Froome.

Geraint Thomas (Sky) lors du dernier chrono du Tour de France 2018

Image credit: Getty Images

Resplendent in his yellow skinsuit, Team Sky’s Thomas set the best time at the two intermediate time checks before easing up on the final third to finish 14 seconds down on the world time trial champion Dumoulin (Team Sunweb).

Thomas roared in delight and punched the air as he all but secured a maiden Tour victory. The 32-year-old will carry an insurmountable lead of 1min 51sec over Dumoulin onto the famous cobbles of the Champs-Elysees. Barring disaster, he will become the first Welshman to win cycling’s biggest race.

Highlights: Thomas holds his nerve in time trial to effectively win Tour de France

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Dutchman Dumoulin – who finished runner-up behind Froome in May’s Giro d’Italia – pipped the outgoing defending Tour champion by one second to complete the undulating 31km course from Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle to Esplette in the Basque Country in a winning time of 40:52.

Froome’s solid ride on the penultimate stage of the 105th edition of the Tour may not have been enough to gift the four-time champion a stage win – but did see the 33-year-old leapfrog Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic onto the final spot of the podium.

LottoNL-Jumbo’s Roglic seemed to pay for his stage-winning efforts from Friday by fading fast after a strong opening segment of the ITT. The silver medallist at the world championships in Bergen, Roglic could only muster the eighth best time 1’12” down on Dumoulin, dropping 58 seconds behind Froome in the general classification ahead of Sunday's processional stage through the capital city.

Roglic is joined in the final top five by his team-mate Steven Kruijswijk after the Dutchman successfully defended his fifth place. But a bad day at the office for the Movistar team saw both Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana drop a place to seventh and tenth respectively.

On a dominant day for both Sky and Sunweb, Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) finished fourth and Denmark’s Soren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) finished fifth.

THOMAS TRIUMPHANT: A double Olympic gold medallist on the track from London 2012 and Beijing 2018, Thomas will now carry off cycling’s biggest prize after assuming the leadership role at Team Sky following Froome’s victory in the Giro – despite never having previously finished in the top 10 of a major three-week stage race.

Following Froome’s four wins and Bradley Wiggins’ 2012 success, Thomas’s Tour triumph will mark Sky’s sixth victory in seven years. He will also become the first British rider born in the British Isles to stand atop the podium in Paris.

Fast out of the traps on a highly technical course still damp from a series of showers, Thomas set a blistering pace to record the best time at the first intermediate check at 11km by 14 seconds over his team-mate Froome – despite one heart-in-mouth moment when his back wheel seemed to skid on a tight right-hand bend.

Watch the heart-in-mouth moment as Geraint Thomas almost crashes

Thomas still led by 13 seconds after the second check at 22km before seemingly taking his foot off the gas on the 10% ramp of the Col de Pinodieta, which he confirmed in an emotional post-race interview.

“I can’t believe it. I’m welling up – I don’t know what to say. It’s just overwhelming,” Thomas said after his third-place on Stage 20.

I didn’t think about it all race. And now, suddenly, I won the Tour! I felt good, I felt strong. I felt really good, actually. I heard that I was up and maybe pushing it a bit hard sometimes around the corners. Nico [Portal – Sky directeur sportif] told me to relax, take it easy, just make sure I won the Tour. So that’s what I did.

Like I say, it’s overwhelming. I can’t speak. It’s incredible. I believed that I could beat the guys here but to do it on the biggest stage of all, over three weeks, that’s insane. Last time I cried was when I got married. I don’t know what’s happened to me. I…

FROOME FLURRY: Starting a penultimate day time trial in the Tour for the first time since 2012 not in a yellow jersey but a regulation team skinsuit, Froome acquitted himself superbly – and almost came away with an eighth career stage win.

Having started his bid for a record-equalling fifth Tour win on the back foot after conceding the best part of a minute following a crash in the opening stage, Froome readjusted well over the course of the three weeks to a support role alongside Thomas at Sky.

But in the final race of truth it was each man for himself – and the 33-year-old had the perfect opportunity to salvage something from the Tour while regaining the podium spot he lost to rampant Roglic 24 hours earlier.

Roglic: I pushed as hard as I could ... it's been a crazy race, l like it

Until the yellow figure of Thomas charged through, Froome had set the fastest times at both the two intermediate checks – showcasing his imperious TT skills despite an at-times hostile reception from the many peppery Basque fans on the side of the road.

While his ride was not enough to take the stage win or move above Dumoulin in the general classification, Froome did ensure he moved back onto the third step of the podium, where he finds himself 2’24” down on his triumphant team-mate Thomas.

Having won the previous three Grand Tours to hold an historic grand slam, Froome’s failure to win a fifth Tour was always going to be something of an anti-climax. But his Sky manager Dave Brailsford had nothing but praise for his rider’s performance.

There was a moment a few days ago when I think he realised that he wasn’t going to win the Tour. A guy who has won as much as he had – I mean, he won the Giro, he came to win this race – it would have been pretty normal for his performance to drop. But to be fair to him, the first thing he did was get on the front and help Geraint.

That’s rare – and that sums him up. To have the class to do that at the moment when he’s most challenged says it all. To do all that and come out with a podium is superb. Geraint will be a legend in Wales and Britain, but Chris is a titan. That was some reaction.

DUMOULIN DELIGHT: A mix-up with the timing at the finish actually had Froome winning the 31km TT by two seconds – until the official results trickled through and Dumoulin, the world time trial champion, was confirmed as the Stage 20 winner by a single second.

But a delighted Dumoulin admitted afterwards that his third career stage victory on the Tour may not have come were it not for some quick thinking by his team following a mix up with his skinsuit.

Dumoulin: 'I thought Froome had beaten me when I crossed the line'

“That’s crazy. I didn’t know anything about the split times. I still thought Froome was one second ahead of me when I crossed the line. So it’s crazy, wow! It was an amazing last day. I was so nervous,” the 27-year-old said.

This morning we found out that we’d lost our skinsuit. So Etxeondo, our clothing sponsor, they’re from the Basque country, they made a new one – they sewed a new one! – this morning, and I’m wearing it now, and I’ll be forever thankful. It’s allowed me to be here in this beautiful world championships jersey. I cannot believe it. It’s amazing, really. One second!

Like Froome, Dumoulin rode both the Giro and Tour competitively this season – finishing runner-up in both, where Froome won the former and came third in the latter. Next year, both riders are likely to put all their eggs in the Tour basket: Froome targeting the fifth win that eluded him this year, and his Dutch rival a maiden win in a race he seems destined to conquer sooner rather than later.

COMING UP: Stage 21 – Houlles to Paris (115km)

The traditional champagne celebrations for the man in yellow will precede the annual showdown on the Champs-Elysees, which last year saw Dutchmen Dylan Groenewegen pick up his maiden Tour stage win in fairy tale circumstances.

Britain's Mark Cavendish has a record four wins in Paris but is no longer in the race along with a whole host of sprinters – most notably German duo Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel, themselves both double stage winners in Paris.

The upshot is that we will see a new winner on the famous cobbles of the Champs-Elysees with the likes of Peter Sagan, Arnaud Demare, Alexander Kristoff, Christophe Laporte and John Degenkolb all in with a chance of final-day glory.

Tour de France 2018: Stage 21 profile

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