Mark Cavendish full of praise for Geraint Thomas after decade and a half racing together - "That's the stuff that makes someone special"

Geraint Thomas is a rider most known for his Tour de France victory and results in the Grand Tours. But this was not always his specialty. Early in his career he was a track rider and mostly rouleur on the road, who has taken care of sprinters like Mark Cavendish. The 'Manx Missile' was on the Welshman's podcast and shared a story from 2011 that was never forgotten.

Cavendish was at the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club and shared a story from the 2011 World Championships in Copenhagen where the sprinter won the title and rainbow jersey - that he then wore in 2012, the one year they raced together at Team Sky. But despite only racing that one year together, they've shared a lot through racing in national teams.

"He's a ledge, you know who you are with G, you know what I mean he's led me out for wins, he's led me out for some of my biggest wins [like] the World Championships," Cavendish started.

That year, Cavendish has won two stages at the Giro d'Italia and five at the Tour de France, and arrived at the Worlds as a key favourite in a race that suited the pure sprinters. The leadouts at the time were not as chaotic as nowadays, but still several riders including Cavendish found themselves in trouble in the hard battle for positioning.

"This actually sums it up better than actually if you're in a train going full gas. World Championships Copenhagen 2011 you plan it for years, we get in we ride exactly as we want to ride as a team. We come in the final G (Thomas, ed.) and [Ian] Stannard will lead me out. In the final corner I lost their wheel, we came round the corner, G is top 10..."

He explains that in a World Championships, most leadout men would've decided to chase their own result if that had happened, but this was not the case with Thomas. "Pretty much anybody else they're supposed to be on leadout duty, their sprinter loses their wheel [and] they can see their finish line and Top10 in the last few hundred meters, they're going for a result".

"G swings out and looks out for me, still it's that goal of getting me there you know, that's what you want from a leadout man from a teammate, rather than someone who can just go full gas," Cavendish added. "You can go full gast we've seen that last year but that's the stuff that makes someone special".