Tour de France 2019 news - Geraint Thomas hits back after Team Ineos strike crucial blow

Monday’s dramatic Stage 10 saw a crosswind split the peloton with 30km to go, with General Classification contenders Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) ultimately losing time as Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) sprinted to victory.

Team Ineos were on the right side of the peloton split, meaning Thomas and team-mate Egan Bernal gained 1:40 on riders including Pinot, Porte, Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana).

It all means Thomas is now placed second in the GC behind Julian Alaphilippe, who holds a 1:12 lead having crossed the line with the Briton.

"It is certainly a good blow. You just got to be on it and ready to go at any moment, and that's where we were. But yeah, we race boring anyway, don't we?" Thomas said in a response to Team Ineos’ critics.

"It's especially nice on a day like today, where you'd never expect it, really.

"It was just a positioning error, and then they lose over a minute and a half. It's a great day from our point of view. We were attentive. We knew it was going to be stressful and nothing might happen, but you have to be there. It worked out, it did split, and we were in perfect position. It was a really good day."

After pulling on the white jersey as the best young rider on the Tour, 22-year-old Bernal is not getting ahead of himself.

"It was a good day for us, but you have to keep our feet on the ground. You don't even know who's where, who's not. Echelons are very hard, totally mad; you have to be very concentrated and very focused," Bernal said.

"I'm just very happy. It's very special to have this jersey for the first time. Today was very hard, but every day in the Tour is hard. We should be happy because Pinot and others lost some time. But this is the Tour; sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. Today we won."

Meanwhile, Team Ineos general manager Dave Brailsford toasted what was a “significant” afternoon for Thomas and Bernal.

He said: "It feels like we've just scored a goal. [The time gap] is significant. It's quite rare to get that block of time on a whole bunch of GC guys, unless it's a hilltop finish or team time trial. I can't remember getting that kind of time before, so that's cool."

Brailsford added: "Egan had never ridden in the crosswinds before [Paris-Nice], so I think that's a great experience. That sort of skill he's learnt there, he had to use today.

"Geraint can ride in the crosswinds as well as anybody in the world, and of course then you've got Luke [Rowe], Dylan [Van Baarle], Michał [Kwiatkowski], Gianni [Moscon] – once you've got those guys in front, it's hard to bring them back."