Tour de France: Thomas wins atop Alpe d'Huez

Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) took his second consecutive victory at the Tour de France and also made history by winning atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez while wearing the race leader's yellow jersey.

The Welshman reached the finish of the legendary 13.8km climb with a select group of four others, and opened his sprint with 300 metres to go after the decisive left turn, crossing the line ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), while his Team Sky teammate Chris Froome was fourth and Mikel Landa (Movistar) fifth.

Thanks a two-second gap and a ten-second time bonus, Thomas increased his lead in the overall classification to 1:39 ahead of four-time overall champion Froome and 1:50 ahead of Dumoulin.

It was an all-out battle through the 21 hairpins of Alpe d'Huez, and in the end it came down to five remaining contenders as Thomas and Froome each responded to the inevitable and searing attacks that came from both Bardet and Dumoulin, while Landa spent much of that time just trying to hang on, yo-yoing off the back of his rivals' high speeds.

A chasing Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), who initially appeared to have been taken down accidentally by a police motorbike squeeze with around four kilometres to go, managed to climb back on his bike and continue to pursue the five leaders with Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) on his wheel. Roglic finished sixth and Nibali 7th, at 13 seconds behind Thomas. [It was later suggested that Nibali crashed after his bike was hooked by the strap of a spectator's camera. Doctors confirmed after the stage that Nibali fractured his T10 vertebra and he was forced to abandon the Tour de France - ed.]

They were not able to make contact before the finish line, and Roglic crossed the line in sixth and Nibali seventh, both 13 seconds after Thomas.

"Honestly, I'm speechless," Thomas said while shaking his head in disbelief in the post-race interview. "I don't know what to say. There is not a chance in hell that I thought I was going to win today.

"I just followed Dumoulin, Bardet, while Froome was attacking, and it was bad luck for Nibali, who I nearly rode over his back wheel and nearly came down myself.

"I don't know what say. This is unbelievable. Can we just go straight to Paris now? I did say yesterday that this race was made for me, and after today, I can be happy.

Asked if he is now considered the leader for Team Sky, Thomas insisted that the leadership role belongs to Froome.

"This race is so hard and you never know how the body reacts. I'm still riding for Froome. He's still the man. He won it four times and is probably the best ... ever. I'm just going to enjoy this now."

A fight to the finish  

Stage 12 of the Tour de France was the third of three successive and brutal Alpine stages. It was always expected to be the queen stage as the parcours routed over three hors-category giants; Col de la Madeleine, the Croix-de-Fer and summit-finish on the Alpe d'Huez, along with the smaller category 2 Lacets de Montvernier mid-stage.

Drastic times called for drastic measures and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), who started the day in sixth place overall at 2:40 down on the yellow jersey, understood that if he wanted to make an impact on the race's overall classification, and on Team Sky's dominant pair of Thomas and Froome, he would have to do something big.

Instead of waiting for the final punch to the summit of Alpe d'Huez, the Dutchman rode into the day's early breakaway over the Col de Madeleine and then showed his true boldness by riding his breakaway companions Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Pierre Rolland (EF Education First- Drapac) and Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic), off his wheel on the Croix-de-Fer to gain six-minute advantage on the Team Sky-led peloton.

A time trial effort through the valley got him to the bottom Alpe d'Huez with 4:16 minutes ahead of Team Sky, and still as the virtual race leader, but his hopes for the stage victory were dashed as his gap was slashed in half at the half-way point of the climb. The gap dropped by another minute with five kilometres to go, and ultimately, he was reeled in completely by the blistering speeds of the Team Sky's chase, led by Egan Bernal.

On the lower slopes of the climb, attacks came from Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and then Nibali, but they were snuffed out by Bernal's quick tempo. Bardet made his first of several moves on the heels of an attack from Landa, and although he gained a small gap with seven kilometres to go, Bernal brought him back into the fold.

Bardet opened another small gap, but Bernal had no more left to give, and he peeled off, leaving Thomas to close the gap. Froome took over with an attack of his own, and he caught and passed Bardet, which forced Dumoulin into time-trial mode to catch the Briton.

Kruijswijk could only watch on as they passed him with under four kilometres to the top.

As soon as Dumoulin made contact, he jumped with Thomas on his wheel, but Froome and Bardet shut him down. Landa, in the meantime, struggled to stay with the leaders and was distanced after every attack but kept his own tempo and regained contact each time.

Knocked off his bike with 4km to go but was helped back up by a spectator, while up front, in an apparent show of fair play, Froome, Bardet, Dumoulin and Thomas eased off and waited for him. However, Bardet soon broke the pact and made an attack, with Froome chasing after him. Behind Nibali kept a slow but steady pace, with Roglic on his wheel, to try and regain contact with the leaders.

Racing under the flamme rouge, Dumoulin led Thomas and Froome, then Bardet and Landa. As the five riders looked back they saw Nibali and Roglic in their shadows only a few metres behind.

Landa led the four riders into the final 300 metres and into the last corner but Thomas took the better line on the outside and was the first to start his sprint. He was faster and stronger and crossed the line two seconds ahead of Dumoulin, and another second ahead of Bardet and Froome. Landa finished in fifth at seven seconds and then Roglic and Nibali at 13 seconds back.

How it unfolded

After the previous day's brutal Alpine stage that finished in La Rosière, there were only 161 starters for stage 12. Standing in his yellow jersey at the start line, Thomas had predicted that the day would be a challenging one. "It's a long day, the hardest of the three in the Alps. It's a big, big finish up Alpe d'Huez. I'm sure it'll be exciting to watch."

He was right.

After some early accelerations, Ed Theuns (Team Sunweb) was the first to make a solo move, 10km into the 175.5km stage and that move was next followed by veteran Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie). But in both cases, the wide-open valley roads made it hard for them to gain any substantial time.

In much the same fashion as their previous day's breakaway efforts, Fortuneo-Samsic then worked to set up their Frenchman Warren Barguil for the breakaway, attacking the slowing field just several kilometres from the bottom of the hors category Col de la Madeleine. The 25km-long ascent with an average grade of 6.2% was the first major test. Barguil cleared the field with a group that swelled to 30 riders.

Sensing the lead group was too big, Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) made a move halfway up the ascent bringing with him eight others that included Kruijswijk, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Barguil and mountain leader Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data).

Team Sky set a brisk pace that saw even their own teammates Luke Rowe and Wout Poels struggle, and riders like Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) hurt just to stay on the tail end of the field, while Nibali, Bardet and Dumoulin sat in close behind.

Over the crest, at the 53.5km mark, Alaphilippe sprinted to the line to pick up 20 points to help him defend his polka-dot jersey. Barguil put up a fight but he didn’t have the same punchy sprint as his compatriot at settled for second while Pauwels was third.

There was no reprieve for Rowe and Poels, who worked their way back to the front of the main field but had to immediately help set tempo for their Team Sky leaders. The pair led the peloton over the top of the Madeleine, 2:45 behind the breakaway.

The gap pushed out to 3:05 at this point, which meant that Kruijswijk was in the virtual race lead as he started the day in 6th overall at only 2:40 behind Thomas. Although Team Sky reduced that down to 2:38 at the 119km-to-go-mark, the gap swelled out to again to 4:10, as the breakaway merged back together with 30 riders.

The large group included Pierre Rolland and Daniel Martinez (EF Education First-Drapac), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Rafal Majka and Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Alejandro Valverde and Andrey Amador (Movistar), Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale), Warren Barguil, Amaël Moinard, Maxim Bouet (Fortuneo-Samsic), Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida), Robert Gesink and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Laurens ten Dam (Sunweb), Nicolas Edet and Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) and Jesper Hansen (Astana).

Still not happy with the size of the lead group, Rolland attacked again on the category 2 Lacets de Montvernier, a much smaller 3.4km climb but with an average grade of 8.2%. On the spectacular hairpins he was able to punch away with a 30-second lead as he crested the top with 83kms. He picked up the lesser set of points on offer at the top, and as the chasers approached the line at the summit, it was Alaphilippe taking second-place points followed by Pauwels.

Uran's withdraw from the race meant the Rolland could give everything he had to the stage, and he tried to pushed his gap out along the eight kilometres that separated the top of the Lacets de Montvernier and the base of the Croix-de-Fer. However there were a number of races within the race today, making for a dramatic day of racing.

The battle on the Croix-de-Fer

Rolland's move was successful in dragging out only the strongest from the 30-rider chase group on the steep lower slopes of the hors category Croix-de-Fer, a 29km ascent with an average grade of at 5.2%. His efforts cut the group in half and he was joined by Valverde and Kruijswijk, and then Martinez, Barguil, Nieve, Zakarin, Majka, Amador, Izagirre and Gesink.

As the 11 men carried on in pursuit of stage glory, all others from the original breakaway sat up and waited for Team Sky-led field at roughly 4:30 behind.

As the slope lessened, Kruijswijk made an acceleration that was powerful enough to distance his rivals. His gap opened to 20 seconds and then increased to over a minute. More importantly, he was over six minutes ahead of Thomas and Team Sky. However it was a bold move with 70km remaining on the difficult stage.

Kruijswijk climbed the 29km climb alone in just over an hour and reached the summit in the hope that he could maintain some of his six-minute lead over Team Sky-led field. He was having the ride of his life, reminding many of his performance at the 2016 Giro d'Italia where he led the race before a crash on the descent of the Coll dell'Agnello, ultimately cost him the pink jersey.

Behind Team Sky set such a fast pace that only 17 riders remained in the GC group over the top of the Croix-de-Fer, but they didn't put a dent into Kruijswijk's lead on the ascent nor on the 25 kilometres of descending into the valley roads.

There were still 20km of flat roads through the valley before reaching the base of the final climb and Team Sky's Jonathan Castroviejo, Egan Bernal and Michal Kwiatkowski set a pace that was quick enough to reel in Valverde's group, and shortly after Barguil's group too.

Kruijswijk treated the flat stretch of road as a time trial as he fought a headwind, and even though his lead dropped slightly to 5:30 with 27km to go, he pushed on in an attempt to start climbing Alpe d'Huez with as much of a lead on Team Sky and the GC peloton as possible.

He reached the climb already as the hero of the day and as the most combative rider, but his time gap was not enough to hold off Team Sky.

With his legs fatigued after the day's brave effort, he was caught with four kilometres to go, and could only watch on as Froome passed him, followed then by Dumoulin, Bardet and Thomas, and the rest of what was left of a completely shattered field. 

The mountain finish marked the end of the Alpine stages that have dashed the hopes of many riders, including the world's best sprinters. Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) missed the time-cut on the previous day's brutal stage to La Rosière. Today the mountains put an end to Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), and double stage winners Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors). They all failed to finish the stage.

It also saw the demise of GC contenders Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First- Drapac), who didn't start after struggling with injuries from a crash over the cobbles of stage 9 at the weekend. Bardet's AG2R La Mondiale team is down another rider as Tony Gallopin abandoned, after already losing Alexis Vuillermoz and Axel Domont in the early stages of the race.

The riders will be happy to see the back of the Alps on stage on Friday, when the 169.5km stage heads from Bourg d’Oisans to Valence. It is a day for a breakaway or sprint as the GC riders catch their breath and recover before the Pyrenees.

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