Geraint Thomas – “I'll keep plugging away...”

“In the first crash, I just slipped. Both wheels slid and I ended up crashing. The second one happened because there was a bit of mud on the tires and I just lost the plot a bit. I skidded and just went straight on. I changed my bike and it was a bit better after that.
“As for keeping the break alive to the end... nah, it wasn’t realistic. We only had about two and a half minutes at the bottom of the final climb so I didn’t really fancy my chances to be honest but I’ll keep plugging away, keep on trying. I thought that being caught with seven kilometers to go wasn’t too bad but it seems as though I finished about half an hour behind. It was quite a long way to ride.
“Obviously, we miss Bradley. I think he would have gone really well today but we’ll keep on attacking and keep on trying. Rigoberto rode well today and hopefully we can help him get a decent GC position and the rest of us, in the meantime, can try and go for stage victories.
“There’s nothing we can do about Bradley now. Everyone is going really well; morale and confidence is good in the team. We’re all having a laugh and I’m still ahead of Edvald on GC and I remind him of that every night.”