Geraint Thomas washes away the pain with historic Tour de France glory

Thomas is the third Briton to win the Tour de France and the first from Wales, and he held the red dragon over his head as he revelled in the pinnacle of his career

Geraint Thomas celebrates with champagne alongside team-mates (AFP/Getty Images)

For once, Geraint Thomas enjoyed the ride. He has talked of how much he suffered on Alpe d’Huez, how he dug to his deepest reserves to cling on up the Aubisque, but on Sunday the pain washed away and the champagne flowed as he bobbed to Paris to collect the maillot jaune. He is the third Briton to win the Tour de France and the first from Wales, and he held the red dragon proudly over his head as he soaked up the moment.

Team Sky sat up together, clinking glasses, smiling and laughing for the cameras. Perhaps there was some relief in there too: this has been a testing Tour, riding though abuse on the roadside and handling a change of leadership mid-race which sowed seeds of doubt. ‘Can Thomas last three weeks on the front line of a grand tour?’ The answer was emphatic.

He finished with an advantage of nearly two minutes over his nearest rival, Tom Dumoulin, in a performance built on constant pressure, taking small chunks of time out of the Dutchman on seven separate stages, resisting a flurry of attacks in the mountains before retaliating with assaults of his own. He earned 33 bonus seconds compared to Dumoulin’s 12 and Froome’s four, a mark of his opportunism, and earned two spectacular stage wins in the Alps.

All along he insisted he was not thinking about victory, taking it stage by stage, even warning on Saturday night that the final day in Paris is “always hard”. But this was surely the easiest stage of the lot: 116km of procession more than competition, neutralised by a traditional truce, from the Parisian suburb of Houilles to the Champs-Élysées.

Geraint Thomas with his team-mate and close friend Luke Rowe (AP)

There the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff won in a bunch sprint, holding off Jon Degenkolb and the local favourite Arnaud Démare. It was Kristoff’s first stage win of the Tour, justifying his selection by UAE Team Emirates who collected their second stage after team leader, Ireland’s Dan Martin, had clinched the sixth at Mûr-de-Bretagne.

Thomas crossed the line a moment later with a punch of the air. For years he had arrived in Paris as just another domestique in Sky’s train, having served Froome or Bradley Wiggins, and there was little doubt he had earned his time to wear yellow.

“I’ve not got a good track record with speeches so I’ll keep it short,” Thomas said on the podium. “Big respect to Froomey, obviously it could have got awkward, there could have been tension, but you’ve been a great champion and I’ll always have respect for you.

“I got into cycling because of this race. I remember running home from school to watch it. The dream was always just to be a part of it. Now I’m here in the yellow jersey it’s just insane. I just want to say a final thanks to the crowd, you’ve just been amazing. Oh, and my wife.”

He added: “Kids, just dream big. If people tell you it can’t be done, keep going and believe in yourself. With hard work, everything pays off in the end. Thank you very much and vive le Tour.”

Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome clink glasses on the road (AFP/Getty Images)

What next for Thomas? “We’ll have a party tonight and it will probably last two weeks,” he said on Sunday morning. “Maybe even a month.” That wouldn’t be the best preparation for the Vuelta a Espana, which begins in late August, but there is a chance he will lead the team in Spain. He would arrive as a Tour de France winner, having crushed his opposition for three hard weeks all the way to Paris.

What next for Froome? The 33-year-old is flying straight home to be with his wife, who is due to give birth to their second child any day now. He has ridden four grand tours in succession, winning three and finishing third here, and he will now take a rest. He says he is still hungry to add to his collection of six grand tours, but his position at the head of the best team in the peloton is no longer so assured.

For Team Sky it is a sixth victory in seven years since Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour in 2012. They have won all of the past four grand tours, now have two Tour de France winners on their roster and in the talented young Colombian Egan Bernal they already have the man who Sir Dave Brailsford believes will be Froome’s long-term successor.

Exactly how to beat Team Sky remains the biggest question around cycling. Race organisers have tried to tweak the race, throwing in curve balls like the intense 65km stage 17 with a grid start in an effort to rid Sky of their strength in numbers. But their dominance shows no sign of abating, and right now there is not a team nor a rider who appears strong enough to usurp them. Thomas’s win was a surprise given Froome arrived in France as the team’s leader, but it is another sign of their strength that even when the four-time champion faltered, the team did not.

For Thomas it is the realisation of years of hard work, developing from Olympic champion on the track to a stage racer on the road, winning Paris-Nice in 2016 and then the Dauhpiné in June, always an indicator of strength in July. Now he has conquered the mountains of the Tour de France, reaching the pinnacle of the sport at the age of 32. The champagne tasted sweet. The party will be long.