page_title: Geraint Thomas
section_title: 2018: Tour de France victory
hierarchical_section_title: Geraint Thomas / Professional career / 2018: Tour de France victory
caption_attribution_description: English: The 2018 Tour of Britain has just finished in London; Geraint Thomas cycles back to the team bus past applauding fans and photographers.
context_page_description: Geraint Howell Thomas, OBE is a British professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Ineos, Wales and Great Britain, competing on both track and road. Like older compatriot and teammate on both track and road, Bradley Wiggins, he is one of the few riders in the modern era to achieve significant elite success as both a track and road rider, with notable victories in the velodrome, in one-day racing and in stage racing.
  On the track, he has won three World Championships, and two Olympic gold medals, while on the road he won the 2018 Tour de France.
  Thomas's early successes were in track cycling, in which he was a specialist in the team pursuit. He won three World Championships and was Olympic gold medallist twice, in 2008 and 2012. Thomas had an early win on the road at the 2004 Paris–Roubaix Juniors and later had a senior victory at the 2010 British National Road Race Championships.
context_section_description: Thomas began his 2018 season in February at the Volta ao Algarve, where he won the 20.3-kilometre (12.6-mile) individual time trial on Stage 3 to increase his overall race lead. However, he missed out on overall victory on the final stage when a 31-man breakaway went clear in the opening kilometres including his teammate, the second placed rider Michal Kwiatkowski. Kwiatkowski held on to win the stage on the Malhão to take overall victory by 1 minute 31 seconds over Thomas. In March, Thomas again suffered misfortune whilst leading Tirreno–Adriatico when on Stage 4 he suffered a mechanical issue 1.5 km from the summit of the final climb to Sarnano–Sassotetto that saw him lose 34 seconds and the overall leader's blue jersey. He eventually finished third overall, again behind teammate Kwiatkowski and Damiano Caruso of BMC Racing Team.
  In April, Thomas returned to Paris–Roubaix, but abandoned after crashing in the opening cobbled sector of the race.
  In June, Thomas led Team Sky at the 2018 Critérium du Dauphiné in the absence of Chris Froome, who had won the Giro d'Italia a week earlier. Thomas crashed during the opening prologue and finished over 20 seconds down on Kwiatkowski, who won the stage. Team Sky won the team time trial on Stage 3 with Thomas rising to fourth overall. Thomas took the race lead after finishing second on Stage 5 to Valmorel and increased his lead over Adam Yates to 1 minute 29 seconds on the following stage. Despite having to chase back twice after suffering two punctures on the final stage, Thomas held on to take overall victory ahead of Yates and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale).
  In July, Thomas entered the 2018 Tour de France as 'joint leader' of Team Sky with Chris Froome. A crash for Froome on stage 1 saw him lose time to Thomas. Sky finished second behind BMC Racing Team in the team time trial on Stage 2. After avoiding the crashes and mechanical problems suffered by many of the other GC contenders in the first week, Thomas sat second overall when the race entered the Alps on Stage 10, just 43 seconds behind the leader Greg Van Avermaet, whilst Froome was in eighth place. and speculation over team leadership began, though Thomas himself diplomatically fielded any questions regarding leadership: "I think it’s early to be talking about that", Thomas said about any disputes over leadership between him and Froome. ”Maybe if I’m still right there after Alpe d’Huez [on stage 12], it’s a bit different then. But we haven’t even done a proper climb yet. I’m certainly not getting carried away".
  On Stage 11, with a steep finishing climb to La Rosière, Savoie, Thomas attacked from the group of favourites, including Froome, 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) from the finish and caught up with Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), who had attacked on the stage's penultimate climb. Thomas attacked again in the final kilometre to distance Dumoulin, and he passed lone breakaway rider Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton–Scott) in sight of the finish line to take the stage win and the race leader's Yellow Jersey. The following day, Thomas won Stage 12 in a sprint finish atop Alpe d'Huez ahead of Dumoulin and Froome, who arose as the likely contenders for overall victory in Paris. By doing so he became the first rider to win a Tour de France stage on Alpe d'Huez in the Yellow Jersey and the first British winner on Alpe d'Huez in the Tour de France.
  On Stage 17, the first of the three Pyrenean stages, a 65-kilometre (40-mile) stage to the summit of the Col de Portet, Thomas extended his lead by placing third behind stage winner Nairo Quintana of Movistar Team. Froome's challenge faded on the approach to the summit and he dropped to third position in the general classification, 2:31 behind Thomas. Dumoulin moved into second place, 1:59 off the lead. On the mountainous stage nineteen from Lourdes to Laruns, Primož Roglič of LottoNL–Jumbo attacked on the final climb, the Col d'Aubisque, and soloed to the finish nineteen seconds ahead of the chasing group of overall favourites. Thomas was able to consolidate his position in the yellow jersey by picki
caption: Thomas at the 2018 Tour of Britain
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