Romain Grégoire held out. Attacked in the last kilometers, the runner of the Groupama-FDJ training resisted the final banners placed by Remco Evenepoel, his runner-up in the general classification, to finally win the final victory at the Tour de Great Britain. He finished in front of his Belgian rival and the French Julian Alaphilippe, the last French to have won the British event in 2018.
At 22, the tricolor puncher, who had put on the green leader’s green jersey in favor of his victory in the 4th stage, signed his 10th success among professionals. Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful with a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country last year and the four days of Dunkirk in 2023.
It is his third victory over a stage race, after those of 2023 by the Limousin-Périgord-Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the 4 days of Dunkirk.
“I was nervous at the start of the stage, I only had two seconds of margin on Remco and four on Julian (Alaphilippe). But I had good legs in the final to accompany the sprinters and avoid my (direct) competitors from taking bonifications, “said the native of Besançon.
Geraint Thomas’ last dance
This final step was also an opportunity for multiple tributes in favor of Geraint Thomas. Traced through her native win country, she marked the last race of the one who retired after 19 years of a dense and joyful career crowned by her victory at the Tour de France 2018.
Departing from Newport, the veteran of Ineos, 39, was entitled to an honor hedge of the runners, a bike vertically in front of them, and offered himself a brief escape at the start of the stage, opening the road for a few hectometers.
On arrival too, that he crossed four minutes after the first, Thomas was entitled to the applause of the twenty runners who accompanied him and the crowd massaged in his native cardiff.
“G” wore a jersey specially made for the occasion on Sunday, adorned with a dragon and retracing the main dates and meetings of his long career, including his victory in yellow at the top of the Alpe d’Huez during his victorious turn.
“This year will have been a succession of last times but there it becomes very concrete,” he said Tuesday at the start of the Tour de Great Britain. “It’s like Christmas when you are a child. It looks so far away and suddenly it’s there. I feel like it’s the right time to stop. But it’s still weird. »»
