Cobblestones "was a case of just surviving really" - Geraint Thomas saves the day despite late crash

Geraint Thomas' ambitions to fight for a strong place at the Tour de France remain alive after a tough day out, where he hit the deck but managed to arrive with the main peloton at the finish in Arenberg.

"To be honest I felt a bit sluggish to start with but then got into it. As soon as I got the the cobbles I felt good. As the sectors were going on and on I was starting to feel better. After sector six or seven I was surprised as there actually weren't many of us left," the 2018 winner described.

"Then literally two minutes later a few of the Bahrain guys came down right in front of me," he added. One of them being Jack Haig who abandoned the race. The crash also involved Primoz Roglic and Caleb Ewan, but Thomas quickly got up and joined the group including Jonas Vingegaard - where Tom Pidcock did a great deal of work to return to the peloton.

"I almost missed it but I got taken out. Tom stayed with me and we were chasing back. I had no idea who was where and my rear mech was [damaged]. It was a case of just surviving really. Tom did a great job but there was 30km to go so there wasn't much we could really do. Vingegaard came up to us with two of his guys riding, so it was a case of handing on to them really," Thomas had to say. He now sits in tenth place, two spots higher than how he started the day.

"But as I say the legs were good - it's just a shame about the crash," he concluded. Nevertheless the damage didn't seem to be meaningful, and INEOS can consider it to be a very good day having saved all of it's three riders from loosing time, whilst the likes of Primoz Roglic and Ben O'Connor shed meaningful time.