Tour de France: Thomas and Bernal all smiles after show of force in echelons
Geraint Thomas' smile as he arrived at the Team Ineos bus said it all. His teammates had again used their strength to force a split in the crosswinds, drove hard all the way to finish, and so gained significant time on many of their overall rivals during stage 10 at the Tour de France.
"That wasn't bad, was it?" Thomas said to a fan as he climbed onto his bike on the rollers in the shade of his team bus to warm down after the stage Albi.
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) all lost 1:40 to Thomas, teammate Egan Bernal, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and a select group of 28 riders.
Alaphilippe now heads into the first rest day with a 1:12 lead over Thomas, with Bernal four seconds further adrift. Pinot dropped from third overall at 53 seconds to 11th at 2:33.
Asked if it was a decisive blow to his rivals' chances, Thomas was understandably upbeat.
"It is certainly a good blow. You just got to be on it and ready to go at any moment, and that's where we were. But yeah, we race boring anyway, don't we?" Thomas said, hitting back at the critics who often claim Team Ineos are so strong they stifle the racing at the Tour de France.
Bernal pulls on best young rider white jersey as Team Ineos take control
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