'Now Or Never' for Thomas

 

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Sitting second on general classification entering the Tour’s first rest day, Team Sky’s resident amiable Welshman Geraint Thomas wasn’t keen to get ahead of himself. Asked about his prospect of grabbing a GC result and being allowed by Sky to race for himself, he said: “We’ll see how I feel and how Froomey [Chris Froome] feels and we’ll go from there.”

It was a typical response from Thomas who, despite being caked in the dirt of northern France after stage nine’s cobbles, remained a staunch team-player. The suggestion that he would likely take the yellow jersey from Classics specialist Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) when the race hit the mountains was treated with a similar caution. “A lot can happen; it’d be nice to go into yellow,” he said. “It’d be a good bonus.”

But speak to those who know Thomas and there is a widely held belief that this is his best chance to not just wear yellow — he donned it for three stages last year — but maybe to wear it into Paris in two weekends’ time.

Best chance yet