Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas was awarded the prix de la combativité at the end of the twelfth stage of the Tour de France, thanks to the part he played in the breakaway of the day. The Welshman was part of the six-man group that escaped in the second kilometre of the stage, then upped the pace near the top of the Col du Tourmalet and hit the bottom of the final climb with FDJ rider Jérémy Roy.
The two riders were caught midway up the final climb to Luz-Ardiden, but the 25-year-old enjoyed his day at the front of the race.
“I was feeling good and the buzz from the crowd helped a lot as well. We're missing Brad [Wiggins] and wanted to get stuck into the race. We got out there and gave it a good bash. It's just great to be up the front racing on a day like today - it was a great day out.”
"I found myself going a bit too hard [up the Tourmalet],” he added. “I had to back off a bit because I wanted to be able to get up this [Luz-Ardiden] as well.
Thomas’ day was not all plain sailing though. On the very first corner on the descent of the Hourquette d'Ancizan he locked up his back wheel and crashed onto the grass at the side of the road. He remounted unhurt but, a few moments later, he left the road once more as his tyres skidded on a bend.
“In the first crash, I just slipped,” he explained. “Both wheels slid and I ended up crashing. The second one happened because there was a bit of mud on the tires and I just lost the plot a bit. I skidded and just went straight on.
“I changed my bike and it was a bit better after that,” he added.
The Welshman’s blushes were spared in part though, when a number of riders at the head of the peloton suffered the same fate on that first corner, including yellow jersey Thomas Voeckler (Europcar).
In the mid part of the stage, Thomas and his five companions managed to open up their lead to more than nine minutes, making him the yellow jersey on the road. He could have become the first Welshman to pull on the jersey in the race’s history, but the group saw its lead slashed before they reached the foot of Luz-Ardiden, leaving them no chance of staying away.
"We only had about two and a half minutes at the bottom of the final climb so I didn't really fancy my chances, to be honest, but I kept plugging away and kept on trying. I thought that being caught with seven kilometres to go wasn't too bad but it seemed as though there was another half hour of pedalling after that!”
At the start of the stage Thomas was 5’51” behind Voeckler; most of this though, was lost on stage seven, when the decision was taken for the entire Sky team to wait to see if Wiggins could restart the race. The British champion retired though, and the wait cost Thomas more than three minutes.
Without Wiggins, the team has no overall classification contender, but the rest of Team Sky is ready to face the rest of the race.
"Everyone is going really well though,” said Thomas. “Morale and confidence is good in the team.”