As his Sky teammate Sergio Henao was fighting for victory at Pais-Nice, Geraint Thomas was locked in his own battle at Tirreno-Adriatico, fighting for stage victory on the steep climbs in the Le Marche region of central Italy and trying to move up in the overall classification before Tuesday's final 10km time trial.
The 2016 Paris-Nice winner was again able to respond and mark Nairo Quintana when he attacked on the steep 1km climb on the outskirts of Fermo. However, like the rest of the select front group of nine riders that fought for victory in the centre of the historic city, he could not match Peter Sagan's late surge and so win the stage.
Thomas finished fourth behind Sagan, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) after Team Sky had ridden an aggressive race, sending Michal Kwiatkowski, Mikel Landa, Diego Rosa and Vasil Kiryienka on the attack in search of the elusive winning move.
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Team Sky tried every move they could but ultimately had little to show for their display of aggression.
"I felt pretty good, the team was good," Thomas pointed out. "I didn't expect the finish to be like that. I knew it was two corners (before the finish) and I wanted to lead into the penultimate one. Then I just saw the road go up and I was just caught out of position a bit. I am just racing for the win and let the GC boys race here, I was just trying to win the stage. But on a finish like that, there's only ever going to be one winner."
Thomas' consistently strong riding, his stage victory on stage 2 in Pomerance and his excellent climbing on stage 4 to Terminillo as he pursued Nairo Quintana have all lifted him to sixth overall in the general classification, 1:23 down on Quintana.
Change of goals means an easy weekend instead of the Tour of Flanders
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