Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) has taken the victory on the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, a 31-kilometre time trial from Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle to Espelette. The Dutchman narrowly beat Chris Froome (Team Sky) to keep his second place overall on GC. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) finished third on the stage to maintain his grip on yellow ahead of tomorrow’s final stage to Paris.

UCI World Time-Trial champion Dumoulin finished the test in 40 minutes and 52 seconds, beating Froome by just one second with Thomas a further 13″ down. Thomas now leads overall from Dumoulin by 1’51” and Froome has moved into third overall, 2’24” behind his team-mate, with Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) slipping to fourth.

Dumoulin said: “That was crazy! I can’t believe it. I still thought Froome was one second ahead when I crossed line. It has been an amazing last day, I was so nervous. I had such a hard time yesterday, but today it has just been great to take the stage win.”

Team Sunweb coach Luke Roberts added: “Going into the time trial all the podium places were up for grabs. Chris Froome still had a chance, Roglic showed he was very strong yesterday and of course Tom was in second. Places were likely to shuffle today it just depended who had the legs. The gap to Thomas proved too big. We kept the focus on Tom’s race. We prepared it as we always do with a recon in the morning and from that moment full focus on his 31km effort. He did a really good well paced ride today and it’s great to cap of this Tour de France with a stage win and secure second in the GC overall.”

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