Geraint Thomas disappointed on his performance: "I don't think I've ever done such a bad first part of a time trial"

Tour de France kicked off on Friday in Copenhagen. The first stage was a time trial and Yves Lampaert secured the victory. Geraint Thomas finished in 18th position, under the expectations of the Briton.

He was not satisfied with the time trial he delivered on the opening day of the Tour de France. "I don't think I've ever done such a bad first part of a time trial, I wanted to start carefully in terms of power, Everyone says to you do it carefully in the corners, it's three weeks. And obviously, there were a lot of crashes," he justified. After his performances at the Tour de Suisse the expectations were high, but he shed 18 seconds to Tadej Pogacar.

The weather was not ideal for the riders since it was damp and slippery, resulting in a few mishaps. Although Thomas is not satisfied with his first stage performance he is optimistic about the tour. "I know I could have ridden better, that's frustrating. But you have to keep it positive. And I was warm, which means I don't get cold easily," he said.

"...When I got to the first waypoint, I was eighteen seconds or so behind. After that I really thought, GO! The legs were actually good, that's the main thing, but as I said, the corners... it was really terrible," Thomas stressed. However with the amount of crashes through the day Thomas stayed upright in a decision that may have been worthy.

"I overthought it too much, it didn't flow. When it's raining, it's best to flow through everything. You have to maintain your speed. But I was just... just not flowing," he concluded.