"I felt like a bit of a knob" - Geraint Thomas admits tension in Tour of the Alps breakaway on stage 1
Cycling
In a warm-up for the Giro d'Italia, Geraint Thomas has elected to race the Tour of the Alps. On the opening stage, the Welshman looked bright too, getting himself in a late move and helping teammate, Tobias Foss to the stage win.
During the stage however, Thomas and Foss came under fire from their breakaway companions due to the lack of work they were doing. "They wanted us to wait for Filippo Ganna," Thomas explained post-race on his Watts Occurring podcast. "They were telling us, 'Oh he's 20 seconds, 18 seconds, 15 seconds. He's coming back, wait for Pippo."
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As mentioned however, this tactic didn't go down well with the rest of the breakaway. A number of rather frustrated exchanges between Thomas and other riders were actually caught by TV cameras too. "I felt like a bit of a knob," the former Tour de France winner admits. "You're just like sitting on and kind of missing turns."
"Most of the guys were asking and I'd have to say 'Sorry mate, genuinely the DS is telling me not to come through,'" Thomas continues. "And I see myself as quite and honest guy, I'd never just sort of make that up to try and sit on, I just had to do it... Then it got to around 4km to go and they finally were like 'he's not coming back, you boys get to race it' and we did really well! We covered moves, he won the sprint and jobs a good 'un."
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- Just do it, and put up with the consequencesJumpyjohn08-11-2026
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