Tour de France 2018: Geraint Thomas predicts 'war' as battle with Chris Froome heads for the Pyrenees
When asked just how testing the coming days would be, both riders admitted they would not expect the other to drop back to help should they be suffering
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Your support makes all the difference.Geraint Thomas predicts the final week of the Tour de France will be “war” as he and Chris Froome prepare to take their rivalry to the Pyrenees to decide the fate of the yellow jersey.
Thomas leads his Team Sky team-mate by 1 min 39 sec at the top of the general classification, with Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin a further 11 seconds back, heading into five decisive stages beginning with Tuesday’s 218km mountainous route from Carcassonne to Bagnères-de-Luchon close to the Spanish border.
Sitting side-by-side in a packed media tent at the team’s hotel on the edge of Carcassonne, Thomas and Froome appeared to enjoying each other’s company, and together they pushed the company line that their aim was simply to have a member of Team Sky at the top of the rostrum in Paris in a week’s time.
But when asked just how testing the coming days would be, both riders admitted they would not expect the other to drop back to help should they be suffering.
“We’ve had a look at the stages coming up, or at least the end of them, and we know it’s going to be tough,” Thomas said. “Tomorrow is a descent to the finish, the short stage [on Wednesday] will be tough, and the last one [on Friday] is a lot of climbing, we do the Tourmalet.
“The Alps block was probably tougher as three days back to back – we get a sprint day in between – but it’s going to be war out there.”
Thomas described his relationship with Froome as “good mates”, jokingly adding “for now” as he and his long-time team-mate shared grins and the occasional eye roll, perhaps a sign that the galvanising effect of this Tour’s external strains are, so far, outweighing any internal conflict.
Froome echoed Thomas’s sentiments and insisted he is out for the team, not himself, and he played down the suggestion that it could come down to a straight shootout between the pair in the stage 20 individual time trial.
“It’s all about winning this race,” he said. “As long as one of us wins that’s the main thing. As long as there’s a Team Sky rider on the top step in Paris, I’m happy.”
Froome and Thomas will go into the final week without the help of their team-mate Gianni Moscon, who was disqualified from the race on Sunday after race commissaires assessed video of the Italian punching a fellow rider, Elie Gesbert.
“I was disappointed but there’s nothing we can do,” said Thomas of Moscon’s actions. “We’re a rider down but all the boys are riding together now.”
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