White jersey for Geraint Thomas while the British team's key riders avoid losses as crashes split the race
Team Sky enjoyed a relatively fortunate day in the first stage of the Tour de France. The crashes that split the peloton to pieces in the closing stages cost none of its key riders any time, although there was a brief scare when it was not known if Bradley Wiggins would be given the same time as the lead group after he was held up in the final 2km.
“When you consider what happened to other teams then we’ve come out of it very well,” said the team’s director sportif Sean Yates. “No one crashed; no one lost time; although there was a little scare there for [Bradley] Wiggins.”
Wiggins was blocked by the crash that happened with around 2km to go and finished in the same group as Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard), who lost 1’20”. There was initial panic because the 3km rule that gives crashed riders the same finishing time as the group that were with does not generally apply to uphill finishes. A quick check of the race’s rulebook though, showed that the only times where it will not be applied are stages 4 (Mûr-de-Bretagne), 8 (Super-Besse), 12 (Luz-Ardiden), 14 (Plateau de Beille), 18 (Galibier serre-Chevalier) and 19 (Alpe d’Huez).
This was confirmed by race director Jean-François Pecheux, and the team could breathe again.
“So that was a bit disconcerting but it turned out okay,” said Yates. “G [Geraint Thomas] took the white jersey and we are relatively up there on the team classification which gives us a good start place for the TTT tomorrow.
“It was super nervous being the first day of the Tour,” he added. “That final few km’s was a nightmare for a GC man in that it was fast, downhill with a tailwind into a bunch of roundabouts.
“The Tour happens but once a year and when it suddenly comes back round you remember – it’s a big deal. The roads on the coast have lots of traffic calming measures and for bike racing it is a nightmare, hence the number of crashes.”
It was not the narrow, twisting roads, or road furniture that caused the first crash though, but a fan who clipped the shoulder of Maxime Iglinskiy as the peloton sped by.
“The one with 10k to go was on a perfectly straight bit of road where an Astana guy clipped a spectator,” Yates explained. “Everyone is standing close and you are screaming down trying to move up. We are car number 20, it’s pretty hectic – but we are back in the Tour! But we know G, when he’s on it he’s on it and he showed yet again that he is the man when it comes to that type of thing. He helped out Bradley great today.”
While Wiggins’ non-loss of time was a big relief, the highlight of the team’s day Thomas’ sixth place, earning the Welshman the white, young rider’s jersey for the second straight year.
“It was a typical Tour stage,” said Thomas afterwards, “especially with the yellow jersey on the line. It’s like the Classics in Belgium: a bit of fighting, get the elbows out; like track racing.
"There was that crash there a couple of k’s out and I got a caught up a little bit so it was every man for himself from there really,” he explained “I had the legs to move up a bit and get stuck in. I’ve been feeling good and we’ll give it a good go tomorrow too. We’re in there with a real fighting chance.
"I could get used to it,” he said of his new white jersey. “It's always nice wearing this.
“It was a nice surprise as well because I hadn't really thought about it."
The Welshman is near the top of a 75-strong list of riders that trails race leader Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) by six seconds. Thomas recently gave up his British champion’s jersey to Wiggins, reverting to a regulation Sky jersey; should Team Sky win the team time trial tomorrow though, he will swap white for yellow.