Thomas takes over yellow jersey on Tour

Geraint Thomas powered to victory in the 11th stage of the Tour de France yesterday and take the leader’s yellow jersey, with UAE Team Emirates rider Dan Martin finishing sixth in the mountains.

In what turned out to be an evenful day, Mark Cavendish was eliminated for the first time from the competition.

Thomas, of Team Sky, completed an impressive ride on the 108.5-kilometre stage from Albertville to the summit of La Rosiere by overtaking Spaniard Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton) in the closing metres. Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) finished second at 20 seconds, just ahead of Sky leader and four-time champion Chris Froome. Welshman Thomas, who wore the yellow jersey for four days in 2017 after winning the opening time trial, now leads four-time champion and teammate Froome by 1min 25sec in the overall standings.

Dumoulin is third at 1:44, while the Spanish Movistar team’s best-placed rider is Mikel Landa at 2:56, in seventh.

“It’s unreal I didn’t expect it at all,” Thomas said. “I knew there was a good chance [of going into yellow] but I didn’t know how everyone else was going to ride.

“Wearing the yellow jersey is a massive honour. I managed to do it last year and to do it two years in a row is really nice.” Team Emirates’ Martin rode into 10th position in the General Classification after demonstrating impressive strength and fighting his way up each of the climbs, gradually making up some of the time he lost during his unfortunate crash in Stage 8.

Then, with 4km to go the Irishman accelerated away from his group, dropping some of his rivals and closing the gap on the yellow jersey.

Dimension Data team rider Cavendish, who has been unable to add to his 30 stage wins in this year’s race, is out after failing to make the time cut.

The German rider Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) and Cavendish’s lead-out man Mark Renshaw also failed to make it as yesterday’s tough mountain stage took its toll on some of the race’s big names.