Geraint Thomas keeps his spirits up despite losing today's ITT by just one second: "It's nice to see that I'm getting better"

Only one second kept Geraint Thomas from a very surprising victory in the time trial on the ninth day of the Giro d'Italia. Remco Evenepoel was one second faster than the leader of INEOS Grenadiers in Cesena, but Thomas moves up to second place in the general classification as a result of his great performance.

"It's nice to see that I'm getting better," he says on the team's social media. “But it hurts when you are so close to victory,” said Thomas about finishing in second place, coming so close to defeating the new Maglia Rosa wearer. “I think it's my fourth second place in a time trial in Giro d'Italia. After twice in 2012 and once in 2017, and now here again. And it's always by just a few seconds.”

Yet the Welshman has reasons to smile too. “It's good to compete so well in the GC together with Tao. That is good for the next part of the race," Thomas already looks ahead. He himself is now second at 45 seconds from Evenepoel and Tao Geoghegan Hart is fourth at 50 seconds from the Belgian. And that's not all, because Pavel Sivakov is tenth, Thymen Arensman thirteenth and Laurens De Plus fourteenth.

“We all feel good and all five of us are riding well. Hopefully we can now play out that strength and do something with it,” said Thomas, who shares his plans for the first rest day. "I'm going to make a short circle on the bike, rest a bit and prepare for the next block." Thomas may unexpectedly show up at stage 10 with the pink jersey however, as the night brought bad news for the race in that Remco Evenepoel was forced to abandon with Covid-19.