We saw gridlock at the start of stage 17 but by the time the GC contenders crossed the line atop the Col du Portet, after 65km of racing in the Pyrenees, the 2018 Tour de France was provided with the clearest snapshot yet as to how the race will end in Paris.
Nairo Quintana finally built upon the groundwork laid by his Movistar team in the early phases of the race to keep his hopes of finishing on the podium alive, but the true victor on Wednesday's summit was Geraint Thomas, who not only displaced Chris Froome as Team Sky's leader but did so without fuss or fracas.
That Froome could not hold the pace with 2.4km remaining finally ended the debate over leadership. Froome's hopes of a fifth Tour de France victory faded into the mist of the Pyrenean mountainside.
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Thomas now leads primary threat Tom Dumoulin, who also lost a handful of seconds to the Welshman, by 1:59, while Froome has slipped to third overall at 2:31. We may not have seen the seismic shift in GC that was predicted on the eve of the stage but perhaps those kind of days are long gone. Thomas has instead built his lead on two factors: a mistake free opening nine days, followed by a flawless second half in which he has been equal to, if not better than, his pure climber rivals.
Thomas is now the favourite to take the yellow jersey all the way to Paris, having backed up each performance in the Tour mountains with a series of measured and mature rides. That his only significant acceleration came when the line was in sight and helped gain him an extra few seconds will be all Team Sky need to assure themselves that the yellow jersey is on the shoulders of their strongest rider. Until this point their dominance - despite the expulsion of Gianni Moscon and the unsavoury comments from their manager about the home nation - has been absolute.
Froome's slip to third overall may not matter if Thomas remains in control but the deficit to Dumoulin will concern the number-crunching boffins at Team Sky HQ. The Dutchman is the superior time trialist, and the nightmare scenario for Team Sky would be for Thomas to crack towards the end of the final mountain stage and for the defending champion to have already run out of terrain on which to test his Giro d'Italia rival.
Thomas' race to lose
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via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/geraint-thomas-soars-to-tour-de-frances-highest-point-analysis
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