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PORTRAIT – At 32, Geraint Thomas is getting ready to win his very first Tour de France. The designated Sky leader, victorious in two stages, waited a long time and patiently waited for his time before resonating his name. And yet, road cycling was not his first love …
– Melinda DAVAN-SOULAS
Unless accident, Geraint Thomas will win this Sunday his first Tour of France at the end of the 21st and last stage. As usual, it serves as a "parade" and no battle for the general will take place.
Although the sound of his name and surname sounds a bit Germanic, Geraint Thomas is a subject of his Gracious Majesty, and even more precisely, a citizen of Wales. He was born on May 25, 1986 in Cardiff. This rider had the honor to be, in 2007, the first Welsh since 1967 to commit to the Tour de France whose Grand Départ was then organized in … London. That year, he was even the youngest rider in the race, finishing in penultimate place (140th). Proud of his origins, he wanted to learn Welsh as an adult.
He has a lot of track records
Like many British cyclists, it is on track that Geraint Thomas makes himself known after having started cycling at ten years old. Alongside Bradley Wiggins, his future leader at the Sky, he is one of the members of the formidable British Olympic champion team in 2008 and 2012, world champion in 2007, 2008 and 2012, but also holder of several world records. At the World Championships in Melbourne in 2012, he will also leave with an "American" silver medal.
In 2007, after being a trainee at Saunier-Duval, he decided to leave the track for the road for a while and became a professional on the Barloworld team. But it's the future Team Sky winning machine, now under construction, that will show him his best moments in 2010.
If he's going to have the greatest success of his career this Sunday, Thomas does not always been at the party. Hitherto confined mainly to the roles of lieutenants of Wiggins then Froome, he had been named captain of the Sky at the Giro 2017, a first for him. Unfortunately, his luck runs out when a misplaced bike makes him fall heavily. If he gets back on the spot, he will have to give up a few days later. The bad luck catches it that same year on the Tour de France. He has been robbed of the yellow jersey for five days and is caught in a collective crash during the 9th stage and fractured his clavicle. He must give up pursuing.
This bad luck has in fact often been pursued. In 2015, already on the Tour de France, he had finished in the ravine. In 2005 in Australia, before a round of World Cup on track, he is cycling on the road. And without paying attention, he rolls on pieces of metal that were there and fall. He is touched at the spleen. He stays in the hospital nine days and misses the World Championships thereafter.
Ullrich and Armstrong, his idols
Geraint Thomas won his first ever young rider race at the age of 11 in 1997. That year, the German Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France. "I always admired him," he told the BBC. The Welsh also found his vocation by watching cycling for the first time on television in 1997. "I dreamed of doing like these riders, but it was not until I was a junior that I really believed that I could become pro and reach the heights. " The other runner he idolized was Lance Armstrong, despite the doping affair that rocked his end of career.
He built his success little by little
Shadow Man at Sky, he successively accompanied his leaders, Bradley Wiggins then Christopher Froome and intermittently Richie Porte, without flinching, waiting patiently for his turn. He thus builds his list as he goes, taking advantage of the opportunities left by his bosses. In his honor, there are races such as Paris-Nice 2016 or the last edition of Critérium du Dauphiné.
If he proved so far in the time trial thanks to his track record, and while his team was betting on him for the races on the pavement (he won Paris-Roubaix juniors), he loses weight and sharpens in the mountains to improve his climbing skills in order to shine on the big towers. "Like any good Welsh, I liked to empty pints, I made a lot of effort to lose weight," he says in the newspaper L'Equipe . On the Tour de France, since 2014 – with the exception of his forced abandonment in 2017 – he has continued to progress without playing his personal card. 22nd in 2014, 15th in 2015 and 2016. This Sunday, l is preparing to win the event in front of his former leader Chris Froome (3rd), with two steps in the key in the bag.
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