‘Cornel Cymru’ appears on Tour de France in honour of Geraint Thomas
A ‘Cornel Cymru’ has appeared on the Tour de France in honour of previous winner Geraint Thomas.
Meirion Llywelyn of Clwb Beicio Egni said that Welsh fans had set up camp on one of the hairpins of the Alpe d’Huez phase of the tour, which cyclists will traverse on Thursday.
Every hairpin of the route up the mountain has been named after the previous winner of the phase on the mountain, with one now named after Geraint Thomas.
“As the Tour de France race makes its way to the Alps, many fans of the race have already arrived,” Meirion Llywelyn said.
“Although the Alpe d’Huez stage is not until Thursday they have already been preparing their hairpin.
“As well as Welsh Flags on the wall on the corner and club shirts (Clwb Egni) the words ‘Cornel Cymru’ have appeared.
“As the pop group Anweledig said “Os da chi isio ‘neud graffiti, gwnewch graffiti Cymraeg” (If you’re going to do graffiti, make it Welsh graffiti).
“Geraint Thomas’ supporters will be hoping that he can maintain his 3rd place and perhaps move up to challenge for second or first.”
Safer
Yesterday, Tadej Pogacar fought to hang on to the yellow jersey as the Tour de France returned from a rest day to be hit by Covid-19 withdrawals and environmental protests on the road.
After a photo finish confirmed Magnus Cort Nielsen as the stage 10 winner ahead of Nick Schultz on the airstrip in Megeve, the question was whether the breakaway’s advantage was enough to put Lennard Kamna into the race lead.
The German, who started the day eight minutes and 43 seconds down, was in a group that started the final climb with a lead of more than nine minutes, but he had to watch on as Pogacar sprinted for the line and hung on by 11 seconds.
Many had speculated a UAE Team Emirates squad hobbled by illness might have been happy to hand over yellow and the responsibilities that come with it going into the next two brutal days, highlighted by Wednesday’s summit finish on the col du Granon, but Pogacar’s late dash seemed to deliver the answer.
The Slovenian’s team were a man down after George Bennett was one of two riders to leave the race due to a positive test for Covid-19 prior to the start, while another team-mate, Rafal Majka, also tested positive but was allowed to continue as he was deemed to not be contagious.
Even with that, it was notable that Pogacar did not ride with his team-mates until the final climb, perhaps deciding it was safer to socially distance himself.
Geraint Thomas, now down to fourth behind Jonas Vingegaard after Kamna’s elevation, later laughed as he said the Ineos Grenadiers avoided following Majka’s wheel, but downplayed any danger the Pole may pose.
The ever-cool Pogacar described the stage as “no stress at all” as he said other teams had done the work to keep him in yellow – perhaps wanting to keep the pressure on in the days ahead.
“On the last climb, many teams began pushing in order to get a good position, the peloton accelerated as a result, and I think that made the difference for me to keep the leadership on the GC,” he said.
“It is not nice to lose team-mates, and I was sad to see George heading home. I hope to survive the next few days. Our motivation is still quite strong and we will keep fighting for the victory.”
Sprint
It had taken 70 of the day’s 148 kilometres for 25 riders to get clear, and they were quickly allowed a lead big enough to ensure the stage win.
With the break’s buffer over the peloton north of seven minutes Cort Nielsen’s team-mate Alberto Bettiol had been on the attack when protestors from the Derniere Renovation group – who also disrupted Roland-Garros – blocked the road with flares.
After they were dragged to the sides, commissaires restarted the groups according to their time gaps, but the breakaway’s advantage quickly went up to put Kamna in touching distance of yellow.
Bettiol was reeled in amid a series of attacks on the long but hardly steep climb to Megeve, and a group of 10 came down the runway together. Luis Leon Sanchez was the first to open up a sprint but first Schultz and then Cort Nielsen came around to cross the line almost together.
Many of the riders fell to the floor in exhaustion after another hot day in the Alps, with more to come.
The Dane’s victory capped a strange day for EF Education-EasyPost, who had seen their bus get itself stuck at the stage start, blocking access for several other teams before it was freed by a tractor.
“It’s unbelievable,” Cort Nielsen said. “I can’t believe what just happened. I was on the limit for so long on this climb but luckily I had Bettiol who was really strong in the front and that meant I could sit on and save some energy.
“I was losing the group a couple of times in the last kilometres but suddenly it all came back together and I was able to take it in the sprint. It’s huge. For my type of rider it can’t be any bigger than this.”
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Well done on establishing Cornel Cymru. Geraint Thomas deserves all the support and accolades he gets. I do have a visual recollection of a Welsh person a few years ago enthusiastically waving ‘Y Ddraig Goch’ on a hairpin and Geraint coming off the bike at the next bend. She(?) was not deterred and again waved ‘Y Ddraig Goch’ when the peloton came around. Half of them fell off their bikes at the next corner.