"It was just a stupid little mistake" - Geraint Thomas brushes off late crash to keep podium hopes alive at 2024 Giro d'Italia

Whilst for the most part, stage 19 of the 2024 Giro d'Italia was a relatively calm and relaxed day for the general classification riders, INEOS Grenadiers leader Geraint Thomas had a late scare as the Welshman was brought down after a clip of wheel on the final climb.

A quite innocuous incident, the INEOS Grenadiers leader was busy looking around at the rest of the group and didn't notice his front wheel about to clip the back wheel of the White Jersey, Antonio Tiberi. As the 37-year-old slipped down to the ground, both Daniel Martinez and Tadej Pogacar were forced into evasive action. Thankfully, Thomas seems without any real injuries and was quickly able to get back to his feet. Despite needing a bike change, he then calmly worked his way back to the group of his rivals.

"It was just a stupid little mistake," Thomas reflects ruefully in his post-stage interview. "I was just looking over my shoulder and they moved a bit, overlapped the wheel and touched down. Luckily got the spare bike straight away and the BORA - hansgrohe car was good, gave me a bit of draft to get back up to the group again."

On his physical state after the crash, Thomas isn't too concerned. "It's just cuts from old crashes. After 18 years as a pro you have a few of them so yeah, it's all good just a stupid mistake," he assesses. "The stage kind of went how we thought really. We hoped the weather would hold off but obviously it didn't. Big, big day tomorrow now."

With stage 20 being the last day for riders to move up or down in the general classification, Thomas still has former teammate, Daniel Martinez in his sights, just 22 seconds behind in the battle for best of the rest behind Tadej Pogacar.