Britain’s Geraint Thomas on Sunday fulfilled his childhood dream by winning the Tour de France after the 21st and final stage won by Norway’s Alexander Kristoff.
Team Sky’s Thomas finished the race in Paris with a near two-minute lead on Dutch rival Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb to secure his first maillot jaune, with teammate and four-time and defending champion Chris Froome finishing third at 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
“It’s still not sinking in, it’s incredible,” said Thomas, looking gaunt and tired after three weeks of “suffering day-to-day” on the 105th Tour.
Photo: Reuters
The 32-year-old Welshman, the third Briton to win the race after Froome and Bradley Wiggins, secured Team Sky’s sixth victory in the past seven editions.
“Big respect to Froomey,” Thomas said. “It could have been awkward, there could have been tension ... he’s a great champion and I’ve always had respect for you. The dream was always to participate and that dream came true 11 years ago. Now, up here, being in the yellow jersey in front of all of you [the crowd] is just ... wow.”
Thomas, known for having a beer while watching his favorite sport of rugby union, was quick to grab a Welsh flag before he jumped on to the top step of the podium before listening to a rendition of God Save the Queen — the British national anthem.
“I started cycling because of this race. I remember running home from school to watch it,” said Thomas, who paid a heartfelt tribute to his wife Sara, who was emotional as she stood on the sidelines. “The amount of support I’ve got ... ah, my wife. Big thanks to Sara. She’s been with me through thick and thin.”
Thomas, who won back-to-back stages in the Alps before sealing victory with a third-placed finish in the penultimate stage time trial on Saturday, took a 1:51 lead over Dumoulin into the 21st stage from Houilles to the French capital.
The final stage is usually a festive affair and Thomas was seen celebrating with his teammates early in the stage as he soaked up becoming the first Welsh maillot jaune winner.
It took several laps of the inner-city circuit around the Champs Elysees for the race to kick into action and after a six-man breakaway was reeled in late on, the sprinters’ teams upped the pace to chase down a last-ditch attempt by Belgian champion Yves Lampaert of Quick-Step Floors.
Lampaert was caught with only 220m remaining to the line and from there UAE Team Emirates sprinter Kristoff came off the wheel in front of him to surge to the line and hold off Germany’s John Degenkolb of Trek-Segafredo and Frenchman Arnaud Demare of Groupama-FDJ.
“It’s a dream come true,” Kristoff said. “I’ve dreamed about this victory for many years.”
Thomas rolled over the line seconds later, smiling and joking with teammate, training partner and close friend Froome.
Slovakian sprint king Peter Sagan failed to get in contention for the final sprint days after suffering injuries in a spectacular crash in the Pyrenees, but the Bora-Hansgrohe rider consoled himself with three stage wins as well as winning his sixth maillot vert for the points competition, equaling the record of Germany’s Erik Zabel.
“I’m very happy, I suffered a lot in the last three days, but I’m very proud to take my sixth green jersey,” Sagan said.
Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe of Quick-Step Floors had already secured the maillot a pois for the King of the Mountains competition, a prize which came with two impressive stage wins, in the Alps then the Pyrenees.
“We’re on the most beautiful avenue in the world, I’ve got this jersey and two stage wins,” Alaphilippe said. “The race is over, but it’s not sinking in.”
France’s Pierre Latour of AG2R La Mondiale claimed the maillot blanc for the best-placed rider aged under 25.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier