'My pacing was too aggressive': Geraint Thomas ships 30 seconds in final 8km of Dauphiné time trial
The Welshman had been fastest at the intermediate time check, at which point he knew he'd overdone it
Geraint Thomas admits his pacing was too aggressive on the Critérium du Dauphiné's stage four time trial, as he set the fastest time through the intermediate check before losing half a minute over the final eight kilometres.
"My pacing was a bit too aggressive really for what I had today. I just felt like I was legless even going through the time check I was like 'ah crap, I've overdone this'. It was then just survival really, trying to hang on," Thomas said after the stage.
The Ineos rider was eighth heading into the race against the clock, and remains in that position on GC after finishing on the same time as race leader Lukas Pöstlberger, just scraping inside the top 10 on the stage, 23 seconds in arrears to stage winner Alexey Lutsenko (Astana).
"It's not the type of course where you want to be hanging on for the last seven or eight km. You need to be strong there, it needs to be in reverse."
>>> Is this Ineos Grenadiers' team for the Tour de France 2021?
Stage five is a lumpy day out before three increasingly difficult days in the mountains where the race will be decided.
"Richie's still up there..." Thomas continued, before catching himself. "Well, I'm there or thereabouts, still all to play for."
Porte was eight seconds faster than Thomas on the stage and leapfrogs his team-mate into seventh, 16 seconds down in the overall.
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"It was horrible, it's such a hard time trial," Porte told CyclingProNet. "All things considered it's not a bad ride. I'm happy with that. It's such a hard course to get into a rhythm but I guess the form is pretty good."
At a time before Thomas had finished his ride and Porte's was the fastest effort so far, Porte was asked whether he would assume leadership of the team this race if he found himself in yellow.
"I don't really know, I mean Geraint is the leader for the Tour, I think he's happy for me to be up there here but looking at the weekend it's going to be all hands on deck and Geraint is the one with the runs on the board. We'll see how it goes."
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Jonny was Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor until 2022.
I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.