Tom Dumoulin believes that Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome could turn on each other in the coming mountain stages of the Tour de France.
“It’s difficult but they also are riding for their win,” Dumoulin said when asked if he was facing a two against one fight with Team Sky’s duo.
“We tried to attack each other a bit but we were all equally strong,” Dumoulin said. “We were pretty evenly matched, just like when we were in the Alps. I attacked first then Thomas was on my wheel, then Froome closed the gap and attacked. Then Thomas closed the gap to Froome. I stayed on the wheel. We’ll see where that goes in the next week.”
Thomas is unproven as a Grand Tour contender over three weeks, and notably had a bad day at the 2015 Tour de France, where he sat fourth overall after 18 stages before losing 22 minutes on Stage 19 to La Toussuire.
“This is the first time I’ve raced for three weeks, so it’s a bit of an unknown,” Thomas said after the finish in Mende. “It’s also an unknown for Froomey and Dumoulin, they’ve both done the Giro. It’s a weird position we’re all in.
“The main thing is that we win and that we don’t start racing against each other and Dumoulin wins, you know?” Thomas said. “Then we would look really stupid.”
