“We’ve got time” – Geraint Thomas remains upbeat despite INEOS Grenadiers difficult start to the Tour de France

Geraint Thomas might be 39 and riding his final Tour de France, but the Welshman isn’t here to make up numbers. On Stage 7 to the Mur de Bretagne, Thomas broke from the peloton in a move that showed he is still ready to fight for stage wins.

“It was a super fast start and there was a lot of teams active and wanting to be in the break,” Thomas said on the Watts Occurring podcast with teammate Luke Rowe. “At the start, we were like 50/50 whether the break kind of goes or not… but even if UAE and Alpecin wanted it to come back, you don’t just let them dictate the race.”

He made the move that stuck, joining a five-man breakaway. But that slim group never had much hope, and the peloton kept the leash short.

“If it had been another few—like 8, 10, 12—then suddenly you’ve got more of a chance really. But yeah, just five of us and they never really gave us any time. Basically just lambs to the slaughter, mate.”

Thomas was animated and honest, sharing the full picture of what turned out to be one of the fastest opening hours in recent Tour memory. “We were just flying along, you know. I had a 54 chainring and it felt small at times.”

Despite the odds, he wasn’t sorry to be out there.

“It was nice to be out of the peloton, to be honest. The first week’s been so intense, everyone trying to out-brake each other into every roundabout, nobody giving an inch. Just being able to roll through and off for a few hours was mentally refreshing.”

The heat and fatigue still caught up with him in the final hour. “It didn’t feel hard at the time, but the last 20k I could feel it coming on. Not cramping, but close.”

By the time they reached the Mur de Bretagne, Thomas knew the effort had run its course. “We knew we were going to get caught. So I was like, do I really want to go deep now and possibly for nothing? Nail myself to stay in front for another K?”

In the end, the GC men decided that they wanted to go for the stage win. Even Mathieu van der Poel was dropped, perhaps paying for his efforts throughout the first week. Tadej Pogacar outsprinted Jonas Vingegaard for his 101st win, his 19th in the Tour, and he is now back in yellow.

That yellow jersey belonged to Geraint Thomas seven years ago in 2018. And INEOS would love to have a rider up in the GC fight, but they simply do not have the firepower of the other teams anymore. In fact, Thomas’ third place at the Tour in 2022 remains the once dominant team’s last podium.

The day ended with chaos behind him. He described coming around a corner to find ambulances on the course and riders like Jack Haig and João Almeida bloodied from a crash.

“Almeida was holding his wrist and didn’t seem too confident that it was okay… I hope he’s alright. He was going straight for an X-ray afterwards.”

As for his own team, Thomas said Ineos Grenadiers were starting to settle into the race, even if results hadn’t quite landed yet. “Carlos [Rodríguez] and Thymen [Arensman], their race kind of starts after the rest day. We’ve got time.”

And that time is what Thomas will be making the most of in his final Tour, “You’ve just got to keep trying and keep positive,” he said. “It’s about being in the race a bit. We’ve still got two-thirds of the race to go.”