Geraint Thomas is one of Great Britain's biggest stars in cycling and at age 38 years of age he continues to perform at the highest level, finishing at the podium of the Giro d'Italia podium this year. On the Watts Occuring podcast he was asked if he would prefer his own palmarès or to have
Remco Evenepoel's, and this was his response.
"George just sent us through Remco's palmarès. For a 24-year old I'll run through this real quick: Olympic Champion road race, Olympic time-trial champion, World champion, World time-trial champion, European time-trial champion, national champion, national time-trial champion, Vuelta [a España], two times Liège[-Bastogne-Liège], three times [Clásica] San Sebastian, eight times Grand Tour stages, Tour de France white jersey. It's not bad is it. Just having one of them..."
Without a single doubt Evenepoel is already one of the most successful riders in modern times, already achieving everything when it comes to time-trialing (Olympic Games; World, European and national titles; and stages in all Grand Tours) but has besides that already achieved several monument victories, a Grand Tour triumph and is promising to deliver even more in the coming years. Evenepoel is Belgium's new star who is delivering on the potential he seemed to have in his early years.
Thomas in the meantime, 14 years older, is not too far apart. Although he lacks the extreme diversity of the double Olympic Champion he holds GC wins at Paris-Nice, Criterium du Dauphiné, Tour de Suisse and Tour de Romandie for example but his most prized possession is the Tour de France win of 2018 - the next year he finished second to teammate Egan Bernal. That victory in France, for Thomas, changes everything as it is the single most important race to take into consideration.
Asked by Luke Rowe if 'G' would take his palmarès instead of what Thomas has achieved, the Welshman responded: "Mine mate. Tour de France, head and shoulders above everything little bastard," he jokes. "I think that palmarès, even at the end of your career, is phenomenal. At 24 he's still got I don't know... He could easily do another 8 years can't he, 8-10 years, it's just insane".