Thomas, Contador, Gesink, Nibali fighting for top 5 finishes
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Romain Bardet wins in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Nibali checks behind as Quintana makes his way forward.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Geraint Thomas at the finish of stage 17.
Andrew Talansky rides toward his second-place finish during stage 17.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)
The battle for the yellow jersey is down to just two people at best with Chris Froome (Team Sky) seemingly in control with just two more days in the mountains remaining, while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) does his level best to knock him from the top spot. Behind the duelling pair Alejandro Valverde is sitting comfortably in the final podium spot, despite suffering on Thursday, but there is a battle heating up for the remaining positions within the top 10.
Just over two minutes separate fourth through to eighth, while those towards the bottom of the top 10 have a tough two days ahead if they want to keep it. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) leads the best of the rest, as it were. The Welshman has been enjoying his best Tour de France to date, currently sitting in fourth and 2:25 behind the final podium spot. Thomas showed his first signs of weakness in Wednesday’s ride to Pra Loup, getting dropped on the penultimate climb of the Col d’Allos but remains in fourth.
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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.
