Britain’s Geraint Thomas on Friday stretched his Tour de France overall lead as Slovenian Primoz Roglic won the 19th stage in controversial fashion to push defending champion Chris Froome off the podium.
Thomas, who has held the race lead since stage 11 after winning back-to-back stages in the Alps, finished second on the final stage in the high mountains 19 seconds behind Roglic after the Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider launched a series of small attacks before the summit of the Aubisque.
The Welshman’s final sprint to clinch second place earned him six bonus seconds, which increased his overall lead on Dutch rival Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb to 2 minutes, 5 seconds ahead of yesterday’s penultimate stage, a time trial.
Photo: AFP
Roglic moved up to third overall at 2 minutes, 24 seconds behind Thomas, with Froome fourth at 2 minutes, 37 seconds.
However, while the 28-year-old Slovenian celebrated, Dumoulin was furious at the finish, claiming that Roglic “used the slipstream of the motorbike” that had moved in front of him shortly after the summit to build an advantage that in the end proved decisive.
Asked about the allegation, Roglic said: “What can I say? I can’t comment on things on which I don’t have influence over.”
“I don’t see where the problem is,” he added.
Roglic, a former ski jumper, was a constant thorn in the side of Team Sky on the final climb, where his accelerations left four-time champion Froome struggling to hold the wheel on several occasions.
The Slovenian redoubled his efforts shortly after cresting the summit, defying the shrouds of mist to accelerate away from Thomas, Froome, Dumoulin, Spaniard Mikel Landa and Frenchman Romain Bardet to leave them in a desperate chase on the 20km descent to the finish.
Later, as the accusations poured in, Thomas voiced his suspicions, saying: “All of a sudden it seemed Roglic got a gap.”
“The way he did get the gap was a little surprising... but I didn’t actually see it myself,” he said. “I was concentrating on the corners, following Tom’s wheel. There has been an issue with motorbikes getting too close, but I didn’t see it.”
Although Thomas’ yellow jersey was not at stake, except in the event of a catastrophe, Sky are desperate to see Froome finish among the podium places in Paris today and were in no mood to give Roglic a free run to the finish.
Froome managed to limit the damage by following wheels most of the way down before finishing eighth and last from the seven-man group of favorites who crossed the line 19 seconds behind Roglic.
Fans will be expecting Froome, a six-time Grand Tour champion, to overcome his 13-second deficit to Roglic and secure a place in the top three.
However, Roglic, who only took up cycling six years ago, is no slouch in the race against the clock. Six of his 22 professional wins were in time trials, including one at the 2016 Giro d’Italia.
“The only thing I can focus on in the time trial is myself,” Roglic said.
Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe did enough over the first two big climbs, the Col d’Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet, to secure the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey.
“It’s exceptional,” Alaphilippe said after finishing 36th — 18 minutes, 38 seconds behind Roglic. “It was my dream to win a stage, now I’ve won two and I’ve got the polka dot jersey on my shoulders. It’s an incredible feeling.”
Slovakian Peter Sagan also battled through a final, grueling day in the mountains, finishing 38 minutes, 23 seconds behind Roglic to secure his sixth green jersey for the points competition.
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