'It's remarkable no one has figured out how to challenge Team Sky'
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Team Sky surround their overall winner Geraint Thomas through the last stage at the 2018 Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Nairo Quintana (Movistar) on his way to winning stage 17 at the Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) (Image credit: Getty Images)
Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) wins stage 19 at the Tour de France(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team Sky line up in front of Geraint Thomas at the Tour de France(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Geraint Thomas in yellow and Peter Sagan in green at the start line of stage 21 at the Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates)(Image credit: Getty Images)
It's all over, and Geraint Thomas has won the 2018 Tour de France for Team Sky, claiming their sixth victory in seven years. That the Welshman was never really put in difficulty was, of course, as much to do with his team's strength as it was his own impressive form and exemplary seizing of every opportunity to distance his rivals.
Whether or not Chris Froome was one of those rivals, I'll leave to others to discuss to death.
Disappointments
On to the disappointments, starting with the podium hopefuls.
Richie Porte has an excuse that he was taken out by a crash when there was everything still to play for, so his woes are entirely defendable and BMC are compensated by the TTT stage win and Greg Van Avermaet's subsequent stint in yellow. For Porte, it's another year of 'what if'.
Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) gets the same benefit of the doubt, that he might have come good in the final week if he hadn't been taken down on Alpe d'Huez, but he had already shipped time and been found lacking at La Rosière.
Neither was it for AG2R La Mondiale, with Romain Bardet never really looking strong enough to shake things up. This certainly wasn't the Bardet of previous Tours when he was robust enough to survive the Sky-led tempo. This time there were moments you thought he might sustain his attack but, ultimately, he couldn't. Pierre Latour's white jersey is some consolation but the team - and the French fans - hoped for more.
It wasn't all doom and gloom, though, as Bora-Hansgrohe could rely on Sagan, while the Astana team were saved by two individual efforts from Omar Fraile and Maguns Cort Nielsen, but that just highlighted that trying to do the GC and have a sprint train isn't really a viable option with an eight-man team.
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Philippa York is a long-standing Cyclingnews contributor, providing expert racing analysis. As one of the early British racers to take the plunge and relocate to France with the famed ACBB club in the 1980's, she was the inspiration for a generation of racing cyclists – and cycling fans – from the UK.
The Glaswegian gained a contract with Peugeot in 1980, making her Tour de France debut in 1983 and taking a solo win in Bagnères-de-Luchon in the Pyrenees, the mountain range which would prove a happy hunting ground throughout her Tour career.
The following year's race would prove to be one of her finest seasons, becoming the first rider from the UK to win the polka dot jersey at the Tour, whilst also becoming Britain's highest-ever placed GC finisher with 4th spot.
She finished runner-up at the Vuelta a España in 1985 and 1986, to Pedro Delgado and Álvaro Pino respectively, and at the Giro d'Italia in 1987. Stage race victories include the Volta a Catalunya (1985), Tour of Britain (1989) and Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (1990). York retired from professional cycling as reigning British champion following the collapse of Le Groupement in 1995.
