Tour de France 2018: Geraint Thomas warns rivals over stage 19 attacks after eventful 24 hours for Team Sky

Thomas heads into the final three stages with a two-minute buffer but knows Friday’s 200km stage 19 will not be so calm, and that he is likely to face an array of assaults

It has been an eventful 24 hours for Team Sky. The climax to stage 17 saw Chris Froome fade away and Geraint Thomas come to life, but disaster was only narrowly averted when the Welshman managed to stay on his bike as a spectator leant over the barriers leading to the finish on the Col du Portet and grabbed his arm.

A few minutes later Froome was knocked off his saddle by a confused gendarme who mistook the four-time Tour de France champion, riding to his team bus dressed in an inconspicuous grey jacket, for a trespassing fan and floored him. Froome dished out an expletive in response which was caught on camera.

So stage 18 must have felt a relief, as a hot and sticky but ultimately serene ride to Pau was won by the French sprinter Arnaud Démare and had no effect on the overall standings. Thomas heads into the final three stages with a two-minute buffer but knows Friday’s 200km stage 19 will not be so calm, and that he is likely to face an array of assaults on a route which takes in the draining Col d’Aspin and Col d’Aubisque either side of the highest pass in the French Pyrénées, the Col du Tourmalet.

After the stage Thomas warned his rivals they risk blowing up on Saturday’s individual time trial if they attack too hard on Friday, the final mountain route of the race.

“I’m expecting the worst, hoping for the best,” he said. “We’re expecting a lot of attacks straight from the gun, on the break, maybe on the Tourmalet halfway through, and certainly on the last climb.

“Obviously it’s the last mountain stage and I think guys will try to take every opportunity they can, but I think in the back of their minds they’ve still got to have the TT (time trial). They can do a big big move tomorrow, maybe steal two or three minutes, and quite easily lose a chunk of time in the TT – it’s that hard.”

Froome lost nearly a minute in the finale of stage 17 and said afterwards that he would be riding for Thomas all the way to Paris, but the race leader sounded doubtful over the role his old friend would play.

“Hopefully we won’t have to use Froomey. Hopefully we’ll have strength in numbers and he can just follow as well, but obviously having Froomey at my disposal, so to speak, is phenomenal.

“It will be a big test. I think it’s more one for the team to control most of the day and obviously the last climb will be down to the legs. It will be good to just keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

Team Sky have received a hostile reception from some along the roadside during the Tour, ranging from boos to spitting and even physical interference on the bike, and following the incident on the Portet, Thomas had a clear message for their most vehement detractors.

Geraint Thomas finished safely in the pack (AFP/Getty Images)

“Just stay at home,” he said. “Don't come out and try affect the race like that. I could have quite easily fallen and lost a bit of time. There was no time for fear, I didn’t really know what happened. I thought it was maybe an accident, just an over-exuberant fan, but when we got back to the hotel Wout [Poels, his team-mate] showed me the pictures and it was obviously something else.

“It’s not nice, it’s not what you want, we came here to just race our bikes, the whole peloton did, and you don’t people trying to affect the race like that because I could have quit easily crashed. I would have been OK, but certainly wouldn’t have made the time I did. It’s not something you like to see.”

There has also been plenty of support out on the road with British flags waving and a notable number of Welsh red dragons flying high. “Most definitely,” he said of receiving a boost from his supporters. “It's like that a lot of the time as well. Obviously there are some boos but the majority are really good and the amount of Brits and Welsh out here is incredible. It's great for us.”

Sir Dave Brailsford meanwhile defended Froome over his response after being knocked from his bike by the gendarme.

“If a policeman pulls you off the bike unexpectedly it’s shock of that, an immediate shock because you think you’re being attacked,” said Team Sky’s principal. “And I think every fair-minded person would agree that your first reaction is going to be an emotional one. And you should never be judged on that.”

Brailsford also echoed Thomas’s sentiment ahead of Friday’s mountainous day: that it is one for Sky to tackle by strength in numbers, the tactic which has underpinned so much of their dominance over the past seven years. It is up to the rest to find a way to break them.