WELSH hero Geraint Thomas crossed the line in Paris on Sunday night to seal victory by one minute and 51 seconds from Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin.
Thomas became the third Briton to win the Tour following Sir Bradley Wiggins and Froome, with the trio having won six of the last seven editions between them, all in Sky colours.
The 32-year-old said winning cycling’s biggest road race was a better feeling than his two Olympic gold medals in the team pursuit – and now he wants more.
He has come a long way from training for the Olympics with the Great Britain Cycling Team at the Wales National Velodrome in Newport during 2012 and 2016.
2012 Olympic training camp in Newport, nervously watching Bradley about to seal Britain’s first ever Tour de France victory. Little did we know someone in that group would be winning that race 6 years later.. @GeraintThomas86 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/cShOJoSWnl
— Chris Hoy (@chrishoy) July 28, 2018
Newport Phoenix Cycling Club's chairman Chris Davies ran meets at the velodrome when it first opened and remembers seeing Thomas at the track on a number of occasions.
He said: "Geraint has been coming to the velodrome since it opened.
“He was one of the ones who stood out, but he kept going while many dropped out. It was a good training ground for them at the Velodrome and benefitted his career having it in south Wales."
The team used the Newport velodrome for their final training camp before the London 2012 Olympics.
Thomas added the yellow jersey to his many accolades, including two Olympic gold medals and a Commonwealth road race title.
To celebrate the success Welsh monuments were lit up yellow on Saturday, including Caerphilly castle in support of the Welsh cyclist.
Following his win at the Tour de France, Thomas said: “It’s unbelievable. I think it’s going to take a while to sink in. Normally that stage is really hard but today I just seemed to float around. There was goosebumps going around there.
“The support, the Welsh and the British flags it’s unreal, it’s the Tour de France. To be riding around wearing this (the yellow jersey), it’s the stuff of dreams.”
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