Thomas eyes Ineos management role after final race

As he prepares to end his racing career, Geraint Thomas claims to have discussions about staying on at Team Ineos.

The 2018 Tour de France champion would collaborate closely with Sir Dave Brailsford to resurrect their previous Grand Tour victories.

When the Tour of Britain concludes in his hometown of Cardiff on Sunday, September 7, the 39-year-old Welsh rider will cross the finish line.

Thomas made his debut for Team Sky in 2010, as it was known then, in 2010, and over the course of the following decade, the British outfit won seven Tours de France and triumphed in the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d’Italia. They haven’t won one of cycling’s biggest tours in four years, though.

Like Team Ineos, Brailsford has recently reduced his involvement with Manchester United, which is owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

“Dave Brailsford is obviously back in the fold with the team,” Thomas said.

He resisted leaving for a while, but he’s back now, and he’s been a key player in the team’s development.

Thomas is being considered for the top management structure of Team Ineos rather than taking on a more hands-on role with riders as a sporting director. He also won two Olympic gold medals on the track and two more top-three finishes in the Tour and one in the Giro.

I’ve obviously learned a lot about the actual physical performance and the preparation for the training, but on the other hand, I want to try to learn as much as I can about that subject, he said.

Nothing is certain at this time, but it’s the point, so we can hopefully figure it out soon.

The Cardiff-born cyclist wants to combine grassroots development with a part-time job in professional cycling.

Thomas said in his breakfast program on BBC Radio Wales, “I feel like it ticks both boxes.”

It gives me that focus, drive, and competitiveness, which will be present in a different division of the team at the time, but I believe it will still pique my interest and spur me on to help the boys out.

However, Thomas, who has spent most of his racing career in Monaco, will be moving back to Cardiff and looking forward to making his way back to the Maindy Velodrome, where he first gained racing experience.

You get the real grassroots stuff, he continued, as well as promoting active riding for kids and encouraging them to do it.

“I might never have had the career I had, the life I’ve had, the enjoyment I’ve had, and met all the great people I have, if I hadn’t lived so close to Maindy or if I hadn’t lived in Cardiff.”

Thomas will then put on his lycra and pedal for a final race before going on.

The six-day Lloyds Tour of Britain wraps up in Wales on Tuesday, September 2 with stages in Suffolk.

The Newport to Cardiff finale on Sunday is the ideal setting for Wales’s most successful cyclist’s nearly two-decade career.

Thomas expressed his excitement over it, “absolutely.”

It’s all I’ve done for 19 years, so coming home on Monday morning after the finish in Cardiff with no goals or targets racing-wise, is strange.

He will eventually pull off a race number for the final time after ten stage victories, three world championship victories, three Olympic victories, a Commonwealth gold medal, and numerous other successes.

You know when I’m finished and even more lucky to choose where as well, he continued, “I just feel so lucky to be able to call time on my career on my own terms.”

“It’s just unreal really is that the Tour of Britain is in September at the end of the season and that Cardiff will be the last stage.”

It’s going to be nice to say thanks to the fans as well because I believe there will be an event in Cardiff Castle afterwards.

The Welsh capital’s rich history has not been the first to honor the man who won both the BBC Wales award and the national BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 2018.

The streets of the city that year were lined with people to welcome home their yellow-clad Tour-winning hero.

That homecoming in Cardiff, according to Thomas, is probably the highlight of everything I’ve done off the bike, really.

You don’t really get appreciation for the support you receive because I live abroad and have been a pro for a while.

“Obviously, I know it’s a lot, and I get a lot on the road,” he said, “but then to go back to Cardiff and have that amount just insane.”

Next week, similar scenes are anticipated, but Thomas is already planning more time with his wife Sara and son Macs once the heat has subsided and before he begins playing his new roles.

A skiing vacation for the first time ever, which was a possibility during his racing career, has been scheduled.

Just 886 kilometers (553 miles) to complete the race, six more days of sweating, and perhaps one or two more tears.

Thomas responded, “I believe so.”

“I was always winding up Sara because she’s quite emotional, and she’s much more emotional than I am, and I was the one who cried the entire time!”

It was obviously similar in the 2018 Tour de France victory. It was always about the day, but it always came to mind when I finally won the time trial, and it hit me.