"This was a bit of a late call-up" - Geraint Thomas' retirement tour continues with first Liege-Bastogne-Liege start in three years

For the third and final time in his career, Geraint Thomas will compete at Liege-Bastogne-Liege this Sunday. The former Tour de France winner, in the final year of his career, has previously competed at the Belgian Monument in 2018 and 2022, but this time it's going to be an extra special appearance in Liege for the 38-year-old Welshman.

Predominantly a stage race rider in the latter half of his career, Thomas' return to Liege continues a retirement tour that has already included a first Monument appearance in three years earlier this season at Milano-Sanremo. Following a near-month long break from action since finishing the Volta a Catalunya, the INEOS Grenadiers stalwart is refreshed and ready to return to racing.

"I've just been doing a bit of training back home in Monaco basically," 'G' explains when asked by Cycling Pro Net in a pre-Liege-Bastogne-Liege interview about his short break from the action. "The team didn't want me to race too much before hopefully doing the Tour de France. This was a bit of a late call-up, but yeah, I'm super looking forward to it. At least we've got some good weather as well, so everyone it motivated to get stuck into it and see what we can do."

In terms of his and the INEOS Grenadiers goals for the race, Thomas says: "I think a lot of the guys have done this race a number of times, so we've got the experience there. It's tough with the way UAE are taking on races these days, but I think we'll try to aggressive in the right moments and race well as a team. Just see what we can do and try to have some guys there in the final really."

"So much can happen. So much can go right or wrong, but we'll just start with the right mentality and go from there," Thomas concludes with optimism.