A breakdown of Geraint Thomas' head-to-head time trial record against Tom Dumoulin

Sport360 staff 00:27 28/07/2018
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  • Dumoulin (L) and Thomas (C) are separated by two minutes and five seconds.

    A time trial is now all that stands between Geraint Thomas and victory in the Tour de France.

    At the end of 31 kilometres of rolling terrain between Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle and Espelette, we will know who will wear yellow into Paris on Sunday.

    Thomas’ time-trialling has come a long way from the days when he used to ride on the back of a tandem with Luke Rowe’s dad in Wales, but he still has work to do to hold off the world champion against the clock, Tom Dumoulin.

    Here, we break down their head-to-head record as Thomas looks to defend a lead of two minutes and five seconds.

    ONE VICTORY

    In the 19 previous times Dumoulin and Thomas have competed in the same time trial, only once as Thomas fared better, finishing seven seconds up on the Dutchman on the 10.1km stage two of Tirreno-Adriatico early last season. Thomas finished eighth on the seafront course, with Dumoulin 13th on a day when the margins were minimal between the top riders.

    Both Thomas and Dumoulin were using the race to prepare for the Giro d’Italia, which Dumoulin went on to win while Thomas withdrew following a crash caused by a police motorbike.

    Dumoulin has come out on top on all but once occasion.

    Dumoulin has come out on top on all but one occasion.

    TWO MINUTES

    What would represent a safe margin for Thomas? Only three out of the 19 previous meetings has Dumoulin taken two minutes or more out of the Welshman, an interesting stat given than in the majority of them Thomas was not riding for his own general classification hopes and, as he put it, occasionally treating the time trials as ‘rest days’ when he could take a breather before resuming domestique duties. The last time the margin was at two minutes, on the 37.5km stage 13 of the 2016 Tour de France, the comparison was hardly fair given Dumoulin was purely hunting stage wins while Thomas raced in support of Chris Froome.

    Thomas would give up one minute 50 seconds to Dumoulin in the 54.6km Olympic time trial at the end of that season, but only found out a few days before he would be taking part at all having focused on the road race. With two minutes and five seconds in hand, Thomas will feel confident he needs only avoid incident to keep yellow and become the third British winner of the Tour.

    Thomas has a healthy cushion of more than two minutes.

    Thomas has a healthy cushion of more than two minutes.

    THOMAS’ IMPROVEMENT

    Though a one-to-18 ratio does not look great, Thomas can take confidence from a succession of big results in time trials over the past two years. His first taste of the yellow jersey came with victory on the opening time trial in last year’s Tour, winning the 14km stage around the streets of Dusseldorf by just five seconds from Stefan Kung. A couple of months earlier, Thomas had been second to Dumoulin, 49 seconds back, on the 39.8km individual time trial in the Giro d’Italia, just a couple of days after crashing heavily. He would withdraw from the race with his injuries after stage 13.

    And if Thomas was not wearing yellow on Saturday, he would be in the British national champion’s jersey after winning the 39.7km time trial at Kirkley Hall in June.

    Thomas has improved considerably in the time-trial format.

    Thomas has improved considerably in the time-trial format.

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