Philippa York's Tour de France analysis
'It's remarkable no one has figured out how to challenge Team Sky'
It's all over, and Geraint Thomas has won the 2018 Tour de France for Team Sky, claiming their sixth victory in seven years. That the Welshman was never really put in difficulty was, of course, as much to do with his team's strength as it was his own impressive form and exemplary seizing of every opportunity to distance his rivals.
Whether or not Chris Froome was one of those rivals, I'll leave to others to discuss to death.
Disappointments
On to the disappointments, starting with the podium hopefuls.
Richie Porte has an excuse that he was taken out by a crash when there was everything still to play for, so his woes are entirely defendable and BMC are compensated by the TTT stage win and Greg Van Avermaet's subsequent stint in yellow. For Porte, it's another year of 'what if'.
Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) gets the same benefit of the doubt, that he might have come good in the final week if he hadn't been taken down on Alpe d'Huez, but he had already shipped time and been found lacking at La Rosière.
Neither was it for AG2R La Mondiale, with Romain Bardet never really looking strong enough to shake things up. This certainly wasn't the Bardet of previous Tours when he was robust enough to survive the Sky-led tempo. This time there were moments you thought he might sustain his attack but, ultimately, he couldn't. Pierre Latour's white jersey is some consolation but the team - and the French fans - hoped for more.
It wasn't all doom and gloom, though, as Bora-Hansgrohe could rely on Sagan, while the Astana team were saved by two individual efforts from Omar Fraile and Maguns Cort Nielsen, but that just highlighted that trying to do the GC and have a sprint train isn't really a viable option with an eight-man team.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*
Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets
After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59
Join now for unlimited access
Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Philippa York is a long-standing Cyclingnews contributor who provides expert racing analysis. As a professional rider, she finished on the podium at the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, as well as winning the mountains classification at the 1984 Tour de France.