Will it be a farewell to the Tour de France for Geraint Thomas? Only time will tell but, in the immediate aftermath of an improbable podium finish, he wasn’t quite ready to say his goodbyes.
At 36 years of age, he is the second oldest podium finisher at the Tour over the past decade, a result which added to a win in 2018 and the runners-up spot a year later.
In some ways, this third place was all the more impressive. Ineos Grenadiers had dithered over offering him a new contract because of his age while team boss Rod Ellingworth cast doubts over Thomas even making the team for the Tour let alone leading it as transpired.
Thomas himself thought he might be used simply as a super domestique in the mountains but eclipsed an impressive roster of race contenders within his own team to take third some eight minutes behind winner Jonas Vingegaard and two-time victor Tadej Pogacar.
Of whether this was the Tour finale, Thomas said: “I don’t know. I’ve got a contract until the end of next year. I might stop, I might do one more. I’m still enjoying racing. I don’t just give up just because someone doesn’t believe I can do something. Never say never. We’ll see.”
Thomas is well known within the team and British Cycling circles for the magnitude of his celebrations. Where once he might have partied until the early hours in Paris last night, instead it was a more muted aftermath to what was his 12th Tour de France.
In part, he explained the diminished partying was because of his two-year-old daughter but also down to his inability to withstand hangovers quite as he once did.
But there is also the prospect of representing Wales in the Commonwealth Games and adding to a hugely impressive palmares, which includes a Tour win, two Olympic gold medals and victories in such races as Paris-Nice, the Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse this year, which marked him out as a last-minute Tour contender.
He readily admitted he had been driven to push himself in training because of those writing him off at the age of 36. “I say it doesn’t motivate me but deep down it does,” he said. “It’s nice to turn it around from last year and get on the podium.
“Deep down I knew I could still be good. I always believed I could. I was confident if I kept working hard I could be in the mix. I always believed that I could be there or thereabouts.”
Next year’s race looks likely to pit Vingegaard and his star-studded Jumbo-Visma team up against Pogacar once more.
Following that win – the first by a Dane since 1996 – Vingegaard said: “It’s just incredible. I’ve finally won the Tour. It’s the biggest cycling race of the year, the biggest one you can win and now I’ve won it. No one can take this away from me.”
