Geraint Thomas insists he is not thinking about winning the Tour de France despite another emphatic performance on the final summit finish of the race. The Cardiff-born rider took a massive step towards producing one of – if not the finest achievement by a Welsh athlete.

Geraint Thomas has admitted Stage 17 could make or break his bid to become the first Welshman to win the Tour De France. The Team Sky rider will wear the yellow jersey on a brutal 65km route that includes four long ascents over three mountain passes and will require two hours of solid climbing. If Thomas is to crack – as he has at times before on previous tours, although always in the service of team leaders – then this is the stage where his rivals will bid to make it happen again.

The odds may be shortening on Geraint Thomas managing, arguably, the greatest Welsh sporting achievement of all time, but the man himself in not getting carried away. Sticking to the script – and despite a healthy lead with two-thirds of the race gone – Thomas still insists team orders will prevail when it comes to stopping rivals upsetting Team Sky’s Tour de France victory plans. With a 1min 39sec lead on four-time champion Chris Froome, Cardiff born-and-bred Thomas is in prime position to add a maiden Tour de France victory to a growing collection of titles from the road and the track.

Geraint Thomas gave telling evidence he could yet out-last Chris Froome and win the Tour de France after claiming Stage 12 for back-to-back victories. The Welshman who won Stage 11 yesterday followed that up with an even more impressive triumph in the mountains as he increased his lead in the yellow jersey. Thomas admitted he didn’t really believe he could win at the legendary Alpe d’Huez and again insisted that defending champion Froome was still team leader.

Geraint Thomas will play a waiting game with team-mate Chris Froome as the pair resume the Tour de France with a potentially epic ride up Alpe d’Huez laying ahead. Welshman Thomas stormed to a magnificent stage victory on Wednesday and grabbed the yellow jersey in a thrilling Stage 11. On the day Thomas’s old Whitchurch High School pal Sam Warburton announced his retirement from rugby – leading to a message of congratulations from another school buddy, Gareth Bale – the Cardiff rider took the first summit finish of the race.

Geraint Thomas admitted luck as well as know-how is playing a part as he maintained second place overall in the Tour de France. The Welsh rider managed to stay out of trouble on Sunday and will enjoy Monday’s first rest day in good spirits as he prepares for the race to enter the Alps. Richie Porte sat on the pavement grasping his right shoulder and grimacing in pain. A fan helped Chris Froome get going after he tumbled onto grass lining the road. And Romain Bardet recovered from three punctured tires.

Geraint Thomas admits his Tour de France rivals will be keeping a closer eye on him after he moved into second place overall on stage six. The Team Sky rider picked up a couple of bonus seconds for the second time on the Tour at the final intermediate sprint in Saint-Mayeux,

Geraint Thomas emerged unscathed from a ‘bonkers’ opening stage of the Tour de France. The Cardiff-born rider finished in the same time as the stage winner as Team Sky team-mate Chris Froome made a nightmare start.

The Tour de France will be tracked over the next three weeks by millions of cycling fans around the globe, but nobody will be taking a keener interest on the epic race than the pupils of Whitchurch High School in Cardiff. They will be pinning their hopes on Geraint Thomas, one of their many top-flight sporting alumni, adding to his collection of Yellow Jerseys and maybe, just maybe, challenging his Team Sky teammate Chris Froome for the overall prize. The tension and excitement has been rising at the school, although for one member of staff it will be a question of just sitting back and taking it all in his stride.

Luke Rowe will complete his incredible comeback from a career-threatening injury when he lines up at the Tour de France start on Saturday. The Cardiff-born rider was warned he could be out for at least a year when he shattered his right leg in 20 places in a freak accident last August.

Geraint Thomas ought to be on the podium at the end of this year’s Tour de France, but it will be Team Sky who decide on which step he will be standing. That is the view of Welsh professional cyclist Gruff Lewis, who will be part of the Seiclo commentary team bringing live coverage and highlights from every day of this year’s Tour on S4C, starting on Saturday 7 July.

There was a Welsh one-two in the National Women’s Road Race Championships as Jess Roberts just edged out her Gold Coast Team Wales colleague Dani Rowe in a thrilling finish in Stamfordham, Northumberland. Roberts attacked late on to finish just 1.5 seconds ahead of Olympic track gold medallist Rowe to follow in the illustrious footsteps of Nicole Cooke (1999 and 2001-09) and Megan Hughes (1998) as Welsh winners of the race.