Geraint Thomas hung on for a moment behind an accelerating Tadej Pogačar on the lap of Spandelles before shaking his head a bit and settling into his place. That place was third.
Thomas’ last week has been one of consolidation. He is third, he has been third, and every day that passes he is more third in this Tour de France. The two in front of him gain time; the two behind lose it. Float on a river of bronze, row furiously against a raging current only to stay exactly where you started. On Thursday, he finished third third than any day before and it seems likely, given his time trial strength, that the time trial will send him even further into third place in two days.
Thomas is generally unable to respond when Pogačar and Vingegaard attack, preferring to sit at their pace while the two he dubbed “whippersnappers” after Alpe d’Huez have fun down the road. But his pace is superior to that of Nairo Quintana or David Gaudu. As of Thursday evening, he is eight seconds further ahead of the fourth, who is now Gaudu and not Quintana, than he was on Thursday, extending his gap to the riders behind him from 2’57 to 3’05.
“I’m not going to tempt fate, but I’m definitely in a good position,” he said.
It’s not all sitting, riding the beat. He struck out once on Thursday. It came after a series of moves from Pogačar, one of more than seven moves the Slovenian instigated in his last-gasp bid to get rid of Jonas Vingegaard. In one of the breaks between uphill sprints, Thomas flew past the lead duo, in the open, tantalizingly, albeit a handful of seconds closer to second, before being checked once more.
A TV attack, he said. So confident is his third that he can afford a little physical banter. “Everybody’s been talking about when I’m going to attack,” he said. “Then there’s a television attack for everyone at home.”
He seems to be enjoying himself. Third is better than what was probably expected of him this Tour de France, but from the first pedal strokes he turned angrily into Copenhagen, it was clear that Thomas was here to play. He ran with his gym on and still only lost 20 seconds; given what we know about aerodynamics, many of them were seconds from the gym. It’s thin, it feels strong, and it wears long enough to ignore the whippersnappers and get on with its job. Rarely has a Tour de France podium been won so easily, or made to look so easy to achieve. This is to his calmness, the collected credit, as it certainly has not been simple.
“I was going through a bit of ups and downs today,” he added after Hautacam. “I felt good and when it started I thought I was going to be at my own pace, so I passed those guys. I had had enough of those attacks they had been doing so I just kept doing my thing own pace. And the last climb I wanted to stay with them until the steep part because that’s the fastest part, then just build up my pace a little bit. I struggled a little bit there, I had a little bit of a bad patch, but then I got out of it.”
He came out, of course, very third.