Tour de Romandie 2021 - Geraint Thomas back to winning ways as blistering TT delivers GC title

Updated 02/05/2021 at 15:04 GMT

Geraint Thomas is back to winning ways with the 2018 Tour de France winner securing the overall victory at the Tour de Romandie. It is all the more sweet for Thomas after his dramatic crash on the penultimate stage and sets up his season well as he targets the Tour de France again in the summer.

Tour de Romandie: Stage 5 highlights as Thomas claims yellow jersey

Geraint Thomas enjoyed his first win since the 2018 Tour de France as he overcame a bizarre crash on Saturday to claim overall victory at the Tour de Romandie.

Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) was placed second in GC 11 seconds behind Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) having crashed right at the finish of Saturday’s penultimate stage.

But Thomas is a consummate time trialler and showed he was serious about winning the race when taking the lead at the intermediate time check from Remi Cavagna, during the 16.9km TT in Fribourg.

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“I’m very happy, especially after the little mishap [on Saturday] which wasn’t ideal," said Thomas.

"It definitely made it more of a challenge today. I felt good and, to be honest, it kind of reminded me of when I won the Tour back in Espelette.

"It was a similar sort of stage. The last TT was kind of like this and the last descent on the radio they were telling me to take it easy, don’t do anything stupid, don’t crash in the corners.

"And then obviously you’re overthinking a bit then. But I’m really happy to finish it off and it’s been a great week with the team."

Woods rides into yellow as Thomas suffers ‘inexplicable’ crash on Stage 4

Woods then came through the same time check 31.42 seconds down on Thomas as the momentum swung towards the man looking to claim his second Tour de France title this year.

Thomas trailed Cavagna by 17 seconds at the finish as he missed out on the stage win, but Woods came in a minute over Cavagna's time to assure Thomas of the yellow jersey.

Ineos team-mate Richie Porte finished second in GC, 28 seconds in arrears, with Fausto Masnada a further 10 seconds back.