Geraint Thomas didn’t expect anything from Roglic: ‘I think he’s happy that I have the jersey for a few more days’

Afterwards, the wearer of the pink jersey talked about the thirteenth stage, which was hardly a spectacle among the classification riders. Only in the last half kilometer did the biggest favorites accelerate. “I wasn’t expecting any big attacks in the final, but I think Primoz is happy to keep me in the jersey for a few more days so we can control the race. He is waiting for his moment.”

In the early stages of the shortened stage, Hugh Carthy tried to attack, but the EF Education-EasyPost leader’s attack was canceled out by Thomas’ INEOS Grenadiers. “That was a strong move that we wanted to nip in the bud. When the group went Pinot, we kept control. Swift and Sivakov were not far behind, they did a great job staying close.”

They eventually kept the leading group at about four minutes, because Thomas and his team did not want to give Pinot too much time. After all, the Frenchman is also reasonably in the general classification. “They had everything under control. Pinot is obviously a great rider and we didn’t want him to take too much time back. The boys did very well.” Thomas has a lead of two seconds on Roglic and 22 seconds on João Almeida.