Tour de France 2013: Geraint Thomas rides on despite fracture

Geraint Thomas is vowing to battle on in the Tour de France after riding through a second consecutive stage with a fractured pelvis.

The double Olympic gold medallist suffered the injury in a crash in the opening stage on Saturday.

The Team Sky rider is lying in 194th place after Monday's third stage, nearly 27 minutes behind leader Jan Bakelants.

"I've been better," Thomas admitted after completing the stage in Calvi.

The fracture was revealed by an MRI scan on Sunday after initial X-rays had shown no injury.

"It explains a lot, because yesterday was one of the worst days I've had on bikes," said Thomas.

"But I've done so much to lose weight and get fit for this and I'm not just going to give up straight away.

"The experts said it's not going to get any worse, so we'll give it a few days to see if the pain goes down, then we'll see.

"I'm definitely going to give it a good go.

"My mum doesn't want me to, but it's the Tour, it's not your average race, and I'm definitely going to keep fighting."

Thomas started stage three in last place and finished nine minutes 15 seconds behind stage winner Simon Gerrans - a result that lifted the Welshman two places in the general classification.

However, he is unlikely to be of help to Team Sky in the team time trial in Nice on Tuesday.

But team principal David Brailsford was full of praise for Thomas's efforts.

"We all have different tolerances to pain but the determination and level of suffering required to ride on a course like this, with its twists and turns where you can never get into any kind of rhythm, was really considerable," he said.

"He suffered an awful, awful lot - he deserves every bit of recognition and support for his suffering."

Thomas himself summed up his day in a matter of fact manner: "It felt a lot better today than yesterday and it felt a lot better than it did at the start," he said.

"I can feel it slowly getting better, but I've got a crack in the bone [so] I guess it's always going to hurt a bit isn't it?"