"The riders rode like absolute idiots" - Geraint Thomas critical after crash marred finale to stage 4 at the Vuelta a Espana

Stage 4 of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana was a seemingly quiet day for the most part. In the final few kilometres however, there were numerous crashes, something Geraint Thomas feels could have been easily avoided.

"It was a really easy ride, but the final was really awful," the Welsh leader of the INEOS Grenadiers revealed on his podcast, Watts Occurring alongside compatriot and teammate, Luke Rowe. “After the top of the last climb we came to the line on fine and wide roads, but the riders rode like absolute idiots. Some teams just forget that they also have brakes."

Thomas didn't hit the deck himself, but numerous riders around him did with plenty of abandons coming in the immediate aftermath and pre-stage 5. "You don't always have to follow your teammate's wheel 100 percent, even if a small gap appears somewhere. You can also wait five seconds until there is room again to drive back to the wheel,” Thomas explains.

Although he doesn't go so far as to name any individual rider, Thomas alludes to an unnamed Movistar Team rider. "Kaden Groves made a move toward that guy from Movistar. Yes, it was not the smartest move, but something like that happens in the last ten kilometres. However, the Movistar rider then simply decided to grab Groves by the collar and push him," he recalls. "I was really right behind it, saw it happen and thought to myself: that guy is crazy. He must have a little too much caffeine in his blood. I decided to position myself somewhere else, because that could only end with a crash."