"I couldn't handle that stress" - Thomas De Gendt on why he didn't continue as GC rider after podium at the 2012 Giro d'Italia

With 2024 marking the final year of Thomas De Gendt's illustrious career, the loveable Belgian has taken a trip down memory lane, reflecting on some of his career highlights.

One of the 37-year-old's career highlights came at the 2012 Giro d'Italia. Proving his general classification capabilities, De Gendt finished third overall. "In the 2011 Tour I was very good in the last mountain stage and the last time trial. Then the team said: we are going to try it with you as a classification rider. It wasn't my own idea," he recalls. "The plan at the time was to try to stay with the top riders for three weeks in the Giro. I had to keep calm and lose as little time as possible."

With that plan of limiting losses going well, De Gendt entered the penultimate stage sitting 8th in the GC, 5:40 down on the Maglia Rosa. In typical De Gendt fashion, the Belgian took to the breakaway on stage 20, winning atop the Stelvio and rising to 4th overall. "'I have been going on an altitude training camp to the Stelvio ever since I was a first-year junior, with friends from the period," explains De Gendt.

"I had ticked that day. I had done the climb so many times, I knew where it was steep, where it was more manageable. How many kilometres that was before the end," he recalls. "I was eighth in the rankings and was happy with that position. On the other hand, I had no fear of losing a place. I decided to just test my legs during the flight, eat a lot and that's why my engine didn't stop that day."

In the final stage time-trial, De Gendt would rise even higher to third overall. Since then though, GC riding at Grand Tours has not been the method of choice. Instead, he has become famous for his breakaway exploits, winning five Grand Tour stages in total along with the King of the Mountains jersey from the 2018 Vuelta a Espana.

"After that Giro I was a classification rider for myself. But I couldn't handle that stress. You can't have a bad day, then everything is gone. In the 2013 Tour the idea was to ride a classification, but after three days I was already at 45 minutes. After that I didn't want to do that anymore," he concludes. "I wanted to race offensively. Then the stress disappears and it doesn't matter if you lose time. I want to win another stage in the Vuelta. Then I will have won two in every Grand Tour."