Geraint Thomas wrests yellow jersey in the Alps at Tour de France

By Luke Maguire

Geraint Thomas rode his way into the yellow jersey with a memorable victory on stage 11 to La Rosiere as Mark Cavendish became the latest casualty of this year’s Tour de France.

On the day of the first alpine test, Thomas (Sky) claimed an emphatic solo win on the climb to La Rosiere to take the

maillot jaune.

Ireland’s Dan Martin continued his strong run of results to place sixth on the day, 27 seconds behind Thomas.

Welshman Thomas attacked with 6km to go and managed to reel-in all the members of the day’s early breakaway, before catching and passing Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott) just 500m from the line.

“It is unreal and I didn’t expect it at all,” said the Cardiff native.

“I knew there was a good chance I could take the race lead today, but I didn’t know how anyone else was going to ride. To wear the yellow jersey is always a massive honour.”

Though Dan Martin initially looked to be struggling on the final ascent, the Team UAE rider rejoined the leaders in the closing stages and attacked immediately with only Chris Froome able to follow.

“It was a really good opportunity. I was coming up fast from behind so I thought I’d give it a go. I knew that on that last 4km everyone would be looking at each other and not really riding and if I was able to get a gap I’d have a good chance of pulling some time back.

So, all in all, I’m really happy. I was pretty tired at the end, but considering how I’ve been feeling, today was a really good operation.

Martin is now 10th in general classification as several big days in the mountains loom.

Froome finished third on the stage, 20 seconds behind Thomas, and cited Martin’s attack for helping him claw back time.

“Dan Martin put in a big acceleration, I was surprised I was the only one that held on to his wheel but Dan’s been riding really well,” Froome said.

At the other end of the race, Cavendish, who struggled to make the time-cut in the first mountain test on stage 10, finished well outside the time limit and will be eliminated from the race.

Cavendish, along with other sprinting heavyweight Marcel Kittel rolled into over the permitted 31 minutes after the stage winner and will take no further part in the race.

Today the 161 survivors in this year’s race will depart the town of Bourg and finish on the infamous slopes of L’Alpe d’Huez.