Geraint Thomas explains incidents during which it was made clear to him that Chris Froome was undisputed leader of Team Sky. And that extended to giving him absolute preference, without even partial concessions to Thomas.
Geraint Thomas on how Team Sky favoured Chris Froome
Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas has revealed how Chris Froome remained Team Sky’s favoured rider deep into the Tour de France.
The team was very open about its favouring Froome, even after Thomas had built a considerable lead on his team mate.
Thomas said he was told before the TTT that the team would not wait for him if he punctured. They would only wait for one rider; Froome.
And when a situation arose in a hotel that left only one air conditioning unit available for one rider, the team informed everyone Froome was getting it.
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Thomas said Froome told him, and the rest of the team, on two stages when he planned to attack. And he did that even though there was a chance it would backfire and they would both lose time.
Froome was open about his plans even though Geraint Thomas was race leader. But Thomas says now that, looking back on it, he’s glad it happened.
It meant Froome continued to try to win the race. And Thomas said when he ran out the winner, the fact Froome had continued to race to win showed he was stronger than Froome.
Nobody could say now he had only won because Froome had held back an attack at some point.
He believes they can both ride the same races and both try to win them. However, he would not ride against Froome, though he believed he could win the Tour again.
Geraint Thomas wins on Alpe d'Huez at the end of stage 12 in the yellow jersey. Chris Froome changes a wheel on stage 10, just after Thomas was reminded of his place in the team's pecking order when the power tripped at the team hotel.
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Not only was he still getting better, despite being aged 32 years now; he was also still hungry. He said he was hungrier than Bradley Wiggins was after winning the 2012 Tour.
Thomas believed that after winning the race, Wiggins was not completely motivated ever again.
While the TTT on the Tour was early, stage 3, Thomas was already 6th overall. He was just 15 seconds down on race leader Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe).
And Froome was back in 76th, some 1:07 down on Sagan. Furthermore, Chris Froome was already 52 seconds down on Thomas after crashing on the opening stage.
But the team was still firmly behind Froome going into the third stage TTT. And it was refusing to hedge its bet even a little and decide on a two-pronged approach of waiting for either Thomas or Froome if they had a difficulty in the test.
Thomas said when informed the team would only wait for Froome and not him, he stewed for a period before saying: “That’s a bit shit. Fucking hell, guys; could you really not wait for me?”
He added: “I was frustrated because I thought I was also a protected rider.”
The decision, Thomas said, had come after the team debated it and made up their minds.
“I said my bit, and they said: ‘No.’ So you have to accept it. But at the time I thought it’s a shit situation. Yeah, it dragged me down a bit, but you let it go.”
Power goes in hotel on Tour
Geraint Thomas made his comments speaking to journalist Donald McRae in The Guardian newspaper.
Later in the race, on stage 9 over the pavé to Roubaix, Thomas was now 2nd overall. He was 43 seconds down on Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing).
And he was 59 seconds up on Froome overall. But still Team Sky management was open in continuing to put all its eggs into its Chris Froome basket.
The hotel was hot after stage 9 and when the team plugged in eight air con units the power supply tripped.
“So they said: ‘Only one person can have it – Froomey’,” Thomas explained.
Fortunately, Thomas took one of the other units and wheeled it into his room. And when he turned it on it did not trip the power.
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