Geraint Thomas admits he 'lacked punch' at Tour of Flanders

Geraint Thomas admitted he lacked the “punch” he needed to follow the race leaders after his bid to win the Tour of Flanders one-day cobbled classic fell short on Sunday.

The Team Sky rider went into the race as many people’s favourite for victory but missed the decisive attack with 28km to go and ended up finishing 49 seconds down in 14th place.

Thomas had looked in irresistible form when winning E3 Harelbeke on many of the same roads last weekend but was unable to reproduce his best this time around as Alexander Kristoff sprinted to victory ahead of Niki Terpstra.

"It's Flanders and it's obviously a hard race,” Thomas told teamsky.com. “I just lacked that punch which I had last week.

"I had to have a go as the boys rode so well all day for me. I just didn't quite have the legs at the end. When you are feeling a bit average it feels like everyone is following you. Once I was in that [chasing] group behind, nobody would work together. Everyone was a leader in there and it was just attack after attack. 

"Everyone in the team committed. It's just a shame I couldn't get a result for them but that is the way bike racing goes I guess."

Thomas was brilliantly supported throughout the race by team-mate and fellow Welshman Luke Rowe, who came to the fore after Sir Bradley Wiggins crashed earlier in the day and never fully recovered his form.

Rowe added: "Whenever you speak about the classics it's always about unpredictability. Chatting to G [Thomas] on the bus, he openly admitted he didn't have the best day.

“Physically sometimes your legs aren't there and today was one of those days. But I think we can hold our heads high. We went out there, we had a plan, we executed it but it didn't quite come off. That is life.”

Thomas, Rowe and Wiggins will now re-group for Paris-Roubaix, the last of the season’s cobbled classics, next Sunday.