Stage 15 of the Tour de France, the hottest of the race so far, was set to be a showdown between the sprinters and the breakaway artists, but the 202.5km race to Carcassonne turned into much more than that.
It was an unexpectedly fraught day for Tour de France race leader Jonas Vingegaard, who lost co-leader turned lieutenant Primož Roglič to crash injuries before the stage, lost super-domestique Steven Kruijswijk to a crash during it, and also fell himself.
Geraint Thomas, co-leader of Jumbo-Visma's rival Ineos Grenadiers squad, said after the stage that he sympathised with the Dutch squad's plight, but noted that a weakened Jumbo-Visma should make the final week of the Tour, and the Pyrenean mountain battles, a more interesting one.
"For sure it's not good for them to lose two guys," Thomas told reporters after he had finished his warm-down outside the Ineos Grenadiers bus. "Like Roglič – even if he was struggling, he still rode pretty well yesterday.
"And then unfortunate, the Kruijswijk crash. I don't really know what happened there, I didn't see it. But yeah, it'll make next week a bit more interesting but yeah, I just don't really want to think about that for the minute – I just want to enjoy the rest day tomorrow."
Barring the loss of 13th-placed man Kruijswijk, there was no other GC upheaval on a stage which was never expected to provide any. The consequences of the four-and-a-half-hour day in the saddle could greatly affect the race after the rest day, however.
For Ineos Grenadiers, there was no such drama, with Thomas commenting that the stage largely went as expected, with he, fifth-placed Adam Yates, and nine-placed Tom Pidcock all staying out of trouble.
The team did, however, move to the front on a section of road just inside the final 10km. Thomas explained that they had expected crosswinds there but added that the gusts weren't strong enough when they actually got to the strip of road.
"Better than expected, really," Thomas described the day. "We were 50-50 thinking, is it going to be a sprint or a breakaway, and luckily the sprinters all committed to that. It was a decent enough breakaway which made the stage as easy as it could be. And then a crazy little final.
"We thought I'd go a bit nuts on that last climb, trying to get rid of some of the sprinters, and that's what happened. Yeah, for us, we all managed to stay cool. Plenty of ice and water, and now looking forward to tomorrow.
"We knew there'd be crosswinds at 8km to go," Thomas explained about the team's venture to the front towards the end of the day. "But this morning it looked stronger than what it was today. So, we knew it wasn't going to be strong enough to split, but we still wanted to be there in the right place and just stay out of trouble because it was a bit chaotic really."
Asked for a summary of the race after 15 days, and with several key stages to come next week, Thomas replied in his usual matter-of-fact manner.
"In a decent position," he said. "You know it's tough with the two guys leading, but ahead of the rest, which is nice."
