Tour de France: Geraint Thomas becomes first Welshman to win
- Published
- comments
Geraint Thomas' win is the sixth British and Team Sky Tour de France victory in just seven years.
Britain's Geraint Thomas has won the Tour de France - making him the first ever Welsh rider to take the title.
He's the third Briton to win the famous cycling race, after Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2012, and four-time champion Chris Froome.
It's a massive deal for him to win, because up until now 15th place had been his best position in the Tour de France.
That's partly because he's been used as a 'domestique' - a rider who gives up his own chances in the service of a team leader - and so in previous races he's been there to give Froome support.
He's also had some pretty dramatic crashes in previous Tours too.
Geraint Thomas follows in Bradley Wiggins (left) and Chris Froome's (right) footsteps.
In 2013 he broke his pelvis after crashing on the opening stage, in 2015 he ended up in a ditch after crashing head first into a telegraph pole, and last year he broke his collar bone.
But this year it's Geraint's turn to celebrate - and celebrations have also been going on in his home city of Cardiff, where lots of official buildings turned yellow in honour of his victory.
Cardiff pays its tribute to Thomas as City Hall turns yellow
The Tour de France is the world's biggest annual sporting event.
It's a huge bike race that takes place every summer all around France.
Nearly 200 cyclists race over 2,000 miles in just 23 days.
If you finish the gruelling Tour, you could burn off up to 118,000 calories. That's the equivalent of 26 Mars bars per day!
You can find out all about the Tour de France in Newsround's special guide.
Geraint Thomas had a yellow jersey when he was nine-years-old: but this one's a big more special!
Who is Geraint Thomas?
• He is the British time trial champion - a title he won last month.
• He's already won three world championships and two Olympic gold medals.
• Last year Thomas won the first stage of the Tour de France, to become the first Welshman, and only the eighth cyclist from the United Kingdom, to wear the yellow jersey.
• But sadly he crashed out of the race in Stage 9 after coming off his bike on a fast and wet hill descent, which left him with a broken collarbone.
• Thomas was aged 14 when his coaches realised he had something special, and people started to ask "how can he go so fast?"
• Fun Fact: He also went to the same school as footballer Gareth Bale and rugby international Sam Warburton.
Last year's winner was Great Britain's Chris Froome who has won the race four times: in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
But his hopes of winning a record-equalling fifth Tour title were ended in the Pyrenees mountains on stages 17 and 19, when his team-mate Thomas proved he was the man to beat.
Froome ended this year's Tour de France in third place instead.
Geraint Thomas on the podium alongside teammate Chris Froome, who came third.
Before the final time trial we asked you guys if you thought Thomas could do it. Here's how you voted -
- Published1 July 2023
- Published27 July 2015
- Published4 July 2014
- Published19 June 2017
