The second stage of the Tour de France may have been run under heavy rain for much of its duration, but that did little to dampen the enjoyment of Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), riding from Düsseldorf to Liège with the yellow jersey on his back
Leading the race by five seconds after winning the opening time trial, Thomas enjoyed a relatively easy day in yellow, bouncing up quickly from a crash with 30km to go which took down team leader Chris Froome.
“It was a really special day to walk off the bus in yellow,” Thomas said after crossing the line in Liège.
“It was a massive buzz all day. It was raining but I didn’t really mind too much. The adrenaline and the pride of just wearing the jersey just meant my day was awesome. I just really enjoyed it.”
>>> Five talking points from stage two of the Tour de France
Marcel Kittel‘s 10 second time bonus for winning the stage meant that the German sprinter moved up to third, six seconds behind Thomas, meaning that he could take yellow off the Welshman if he could stay in touch on Monday’s uphill finish into Longwy, and then pick up more bonus seconds on the two flat stages tomorrow.
However Thomas says that he hasn’t put too much thought into how long he could stay in the race lead.
Watch: Tour de France 2017 stage two highlights
“I don’t know how long I can keep it,” he continued. “I’m treating every day as a bonus.
“Tomorrow will be different guys up there sprinting for the win which will be good for me, but we have to be right up there in a good position. Who knows? Maybe to stage five will be nice then I can hand it over to Froomey.”
>>> Team Sky rule out change of tactics after Geraint Thomas takes yellow at Tour de France
Both Thomas and Froome came down in a crash with around 30km remaining when a Katusha-Alpecin rider slipped on the exit of a roundabout. Although Thomas was quickly back on his bike, Froome spent around 10 minutes chasing back on to the peloton.
“I’m not sure who was first down but myself and Froomey must have been top ten. Some guys went down in front of us and we just had nowhere to go. We just slid because it was slippery so there was no real damage at all. I just lost a little bit of skin, but it’s all good.”
