Despite just having finished a hard Tour de France, Geraint Thomas scored important WorldTour points for Team Sky when he finished sixth overall in the Eneco Tour. However, the Welshman now deserves a rest.

Geraint Thomas ended the Eneco Tour in sixth place overall after finishing a tough final stage in a vastly reduced peloton.

Thomas was well marshalled during the 183.4km trek from Riemst to Sittard-Geleen, and stayed alongside his general classification rivals as they battled their way over 22 unrelenting climbs.

The Welshman then followed an attack from Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing) in the last 3km, but both were quickly brought back into the fold and crossed the line on the same time as the newly crowned race winner Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol).

Wellens was made to work hard for his victory, with Belkin driving a hard pace for most of the stage, but the Belgian responded to everything they could throw at him and defended his seven-second lead over Lars Boom (Belkin) at the top of the standings.

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), meanwhile, took third place in the general classification, with Thomas three places behind and 38 seconds down on the triumphant Wellens.

After the stage, Sports Director Nicolas Portal was pleased to see Thomas claim a top-10 finish after a busy block of racing, but admitted the final stage had not played into Team Sky’s hands.

He told TeamSky.com: “The two final laps today weren’t hard enough to make any difference on the GC and Lotto Belisol were happy to defend their position. Belkin and BMC both had a go but nothing changed in the end.

“Geraint should be happy with his ride this week. He’s had a busy summer, and although he tried to follow the wheels at the end, he was feeling low on gas. It’s been a full summer for him and to finish less 38 second down is not bad at all. That gets us some WorldTour points in the bag and he deserves a few days off now.”