"The final pre Tour chop” - Geraint Thomas seemingly uses haircut to confirm Tour de France selection

With just three days remaining until the 2025 Tour de France begins, INEOS Grenadiers remain the only team yet to officially announce their lineup. However, Geraint Thomas appears to have quietly confirmed his selection via social media. In an Instagram post showing his wife Sara preparing to cut his hair, Thomas wrote, “The final pre-Tour chop,” a caption that all but confirms his presence in Lille on Saturday.

This year’s Tour will be the last for Thomas, who is set to retire at the end of the season. The 2018 Tour de France champion will also become the oldest rider in the race, having first lined up at the event all the way back in 2007, an incredible 18 years ago now. His presence adds a nostalgic note to this year’s start, with fans eager to see the Welshman take on the Grand Boucle one final time.

INEOS has struggled to replicate its past dominance at the Tour in recent years. Since Thomas’ 2018 win and Egan Bernal’s victory in 2019, the team has yet to return to the top step of the podium. Thomas was the last INEOS rider to finish on the Tour podium, placing third in 2022. In 2024, the team failed to win a single stage. Thomas’ participation this year may mark both a farewell and a symbolic moment for a team searching for a new chapter.

Thomas gave his supporters a scare last month when he crashed during stage three of the Tour de Suisse. The incident, which saw him twist his knee and hamstring, briefly raised concerns that he might miss his final Tour.

“I just hit a lip on the side of the road, really,” he told reporters after the stage. “It was my fault, but then I just kind of got my foot caught behind me and I just twisted all my knee and my hamstring – it was just a dead leg.”

Fortunately, he avoided serious injury and was advised to take a few days off. Speaking on his Watts Occurring podcast, Thomas explained the medical decision: “The doc was basically like: ‘we don't want to take the risk, we think you're better just having a few days off, make sure it's 100 per cent and then you can train again and be good for the Tour.’”

Given the proximity to the Tour, the team opted for caution. “Any other race it probably would have been like 'oh just start tomorrow, see how you are'. So I wanted to start, but it made sense, so that was the call.”