The last time Geraint Thomas visited this road, the yellow jersey was on his back, and his Sky teammates were making their way to the Tour de France through the unruly forest of flares, flags, and rampaging limbs that constantly grow along the 21 hairpins of the Alpe d'Huez The men were.

Four years later, the mountain's unique ecosystem remained more or less intact -- "I got hit in the arm a couple of times, but luckily no flares.

As in 2018, Thomas again reduced the number of people in the maillot jaune as he approached the top of the mountain, but this time he absorbed rather than punished them. But even if he enters this Tour as a challenger rather than a conqueror, the Welshman has every reason to be pleased with his run on Thursday afternoon.

Jumbo Visma, who showed an ONCE-like all-out attack that turned Jonas Vingegaard yellow on stage 11, was joined 24 hours later in the Alpe d'Huez by Wout van Aert, Steven Kruijswijk, Primosz Roglic, and Sepp Kuss, performed more than enough imitations of the former Skye.

Thomas withstood the tempo better than some of those who pulled away with about 6km to go, including podium contenders such as Romain Bardet (DSM) and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic). More notably, when Tadei Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) made a sustained acceleration on Vingegaard in the last 4.5 km, Vingegaard was able to limit the damage.

On both occasions, Toma had the strength to keep them both in sight and the wisdom not to close the gap too quickly. Thomas caught up evenly with Pogachar and Vingegaard both times and stayed with them until the finish.

"I'm in good shape. I just tried not to get carried away when they were jumping. I was just trying to keep up the pace." Obviously I was accelerating, but not that much. But maybe I should have put a little more elbow out there."

With the win, Thomas moved ahead of Bardet and into third place overall. Meanwhile, teammate Adam Yates finished 5th, 3:44 behind. Thomas, who started the season as a support rider in the Tour, is slowly becoming the lone leader of the Ineos in this race.

"I always feel strong, and I think it's the old diesel engine, but that said, the two guys in front are riding incredibly well," said Tomas. Then again, given the intensity of the race so far, maybe that diesel engine is still holding its value after three weeks.

"We still want to win, but it's obviously a tough ask," Thomas said.

"Today Vingegaard was covering Pogachar for fun. But nobody expected Pogachar to be in bad shape. We'll keep fighting

Thomas and Ineos were unable to replicate their victory in the previous Alp, but Tom Pidcock won the stage after an early breakaway. Tom Pidcock showed dexterity on the descent of the Galibier, and then broke away alone on the Alpe d'Huez. After struggling in the Col du Granon, he showed considerable resilience.

"It's great to see him do so well. He's the second Englishman to win here," Thomas said. 'He's a great talent. Yesterday he wasn't good, but today he had a chance to go into the break and everyone was confident he could do something."

Pidcock is the future of the team, but 36-year-old Thomas, contrary to most early season expectations, is resolutely the present of the team. It has been exactly a century since a rider of Thomas' age won the Tour, even if he knows the odds are slim that he will end up like Firmin Lambot. It's super hard," Thomas said. But I'm definitely up for the challenge."

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