Ten races that defined career of Thomas

Geraint Thomas has taken off a race number for the final time.

One of Great Britain’s most celebrated cyclists, his career spanned three separate decades and saw him win some of the sport’s most iconic races.

Unlike so many of his peers, Thomas was not drenched in cycling heritage.

His parents didn’t race and he only discovered the sport by accident – spotting a group of riders at the Maindy Velodrome after a swimming lesson in the adjacent pool.

However, his talents were instantly apparent.

He finished second in the Junior Tour of Wales in 2004 and in 2005 he announced his arrival at a global level winning the junior version of the famous one-day race, Paris-Roubaix.

Cycling is a sport of suffering and Thomas suffered more than his fair share.

He rode almost his whole career without a spleen having had it removed after a 2005 accident.

In 2013 he rode all the way to Paris despite breaking his pelvis on the opening stage.

In years gone by riders would deliberately lose time to claim the honour of finishing in last position of the Tour de France. Such dubious practices had been outlawed by the time Thomas rolled to the start line of his first tour in 2007.

At only 21 he was the youngest rider at the race and he battled all the way to Paris, finishing 140th of 141 riders who made it to the Champs Elysees.

This was the year cycling hit the mainstream.

It’s easy to forget that there was a time when, only 12 years earlier, Team GB had won a grand total of just two bronze medals at the Atlanta Olympics.

At Beijing in 2008 they won a colossal 14, including eight golds.

There was a point in Thomas’ career when many thought he would forever be seen as a lieutenant rather than a general.

He was instrumental in supporting Chris Froome to multiple Tour de France victories, able to assist on all terrain from the big mountains to the cobbled roads of northern France.

In 2011 he showed his remarkable versatility, acting as a sprinter and leading-out Mark Cavendish to a world title on the streets of Copenhagen.

There’s a case to be made that London 2012 stunted Thomas’ development.

He put his road bike to one side, sacrificing another three-week trip around France, committing purely to the track.

When his team pursuit foursome shattered the world record on the way to gold the decision seemed fully justified.

By this point in his career, Thomas had won two Olympic gold medals, three World Championships, the British Road Race title and was generally seen by his peers as one of the best domestiques in the sport.

The cycling heartlands of Belgium and Italy would barely have noticed Thomas winning Commonwealth gold, yet it remains one of Welsh sports’ most dramatic and iconic moments.

Thomas was cruising to victory on the sodden, hilly streets of Glasgow when a puncture forced him off his bike and a nation held its breath.

Much like tennis, the very best competitors in cycling can do it on more than one surface.

It’s one thing to wear yellow in Paris, it’s another to win on the brutal cobbled roads of Belgium.

Only two modern day cyclists have won a Tour de France and Spring Classic – the phenomenon that is this year’s Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar and Thomas.

The race in question was E3 Harelbeke, where Thomas rode away from the likes of Peter Sagan to win in highly impressive fashion.

A week later he would find himself heavily marked at one of the biggest races, the prestigious Tour of Flanders. The cycling world was now fully aware of the Welshman’s talent.

By 2017 Thomas had decided to go all in on Grand Tours.

The 2016 Paris Nice title had been added to his growing collection of week-long stage races and yet he arrived at the following year’s Tour de France under the radar and relatively unfancied.

He flew out of the blocks winning his first Tour stage on the opening time trial and was sitting pretty in second when he was forced to abandon after a crash on stage nine.

Accidents and mishaps were always just around the corner when it came to Thomas’ career. On the 2016 Tour he flew into a telegraph pole after being pushed off the road.

A year later he was forced to abandon the Giro d’Italia after he was knocked down by a motorbike.

Vive Le Tour!

For one glorious summer the Welsh nation became cycling fans.

It’s easy to forget that Thomas began the 2018 Tour de France as a Plan B to four-time winner Froome.

However, a combination of the one-day racing skills he’d honed on the cobbles of Belgium and remarkably strong legs, led to questions about Team Sky leadership going into the big alpine stages.

Thomas answered them by winning stage 11 to La Rosiere and then the following day perhaps his most stunning victory of all, at the summit of the iconic Alpe d’Huez.

The seven years that followed Thomas’ tour success were littered with ‘what ifs’.

What if the penultimate stage of the 2019 Tour de France hadn’t been curtailed by bad weather handing the yellow jersey to his teammate Egan Bernal?

What if he’d been selected rather than omitted from the 2020 Ineos Tour de France line-up? What if that water bottle hadn’t struck his spokes at the Giro in that same year?

Then there is the final three podiums of his career.

The 2022 Tour de France and 2024 Giro d’Italia should be quite easy to rationalise, after all he was beaten by Pogacar, arguably the greatest rider of all time.

And one extra race to add to those 10 highlights.

Thomas’ final day in the saddle was not a race but an occasion.

He was never going to win the final stage of the Tour of Britain into his hometown of Cardiff.

He knew it, the Welsh public knew it – and it made no difference.

As he approached the final 10km of his career he slipped down a gear and rode at a pace where he could take it all in.

Caerphilly Mountain – the Alpe d’Huez of his formative years.

Maindy Track – where he fell in love with the sport.