Thomas: 'Sometimes you're the nail. I was a cheapy little Ikea one today'

As expected, Team Sky came under fire from all angles in the penultimate Alpine stage of this year's Tour de France. As the rain poured down, the British outfit were put under pressure right from the start, with Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) attacking in the opening kilometres of the stage. The move on the Col du Chaussy was followed by attacks from Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Astana's Vincenzo Nibali, putting Sky immediately in trouble.

Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.