Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) took his second consecutive victory at the Tour de France and also made history by winning atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez while wearing the race leader's yellow jersey. The Welshman reached the finish of the legendary 13.8km climb with a select group of four others, and opened his sprint with 300 metres to go after the decisive left turn, crossing the line ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), while his Team Sky teammate Chris Froome was fourth and Mikel Landa (Movistar) fifth. Thanks a two-second gap and a ten-second time bonus, Thomas increased his lead in the overall classification to 1:39 ahead of four-time overall champion Froome and 1:50 ahead of Dumoulin.ADVERTISEMENT It was an all-out battle through the 21 hairpins of Alpe d'Huez, and in the end it came down to five remaining contenders as Thomas and Froome each responded to the inevitable and searing attacks that came from both Bardet and Dumoulin, while Landa spent much of that time just trying to hang on, yo-yoing off the back of his rivals' high speeds. A chasing Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), who was accidentally taken down by a police motorbike squeeze with around four kilometres to go, managed to climb back on his bike and continue to pursue the five leaders with Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) on his wheel. They were not able to make contact before the finish line, and Roglic crossed the line in sixth and Nibali seventh, both 13 seconds after Thomas. "Honestly, I'm speechless," Thomas said while shaking his head in disbelief in the post-race interview. "I don't know what to say. There is not a chance in hell that I thought I was going to win today. A fight to the finish How it unfolded The battle on the Croix-de-Fer
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