LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Geraint Thomas

We've picked out eight of the 39-year-old Welshman's most striking achievements from his illustrious two-wheeled career to prove just how deserving he is of this accolade

- 

RIDING HIS WHOLE PROFESSIONAL CAREER WITHOUT ONE OF HIS ORGANS

The season before turning pro, aged just 18, the then-world junior scratch race champion ended up in intensive care in Sydney, Australia with a ruptured spleen. He'd come down heavily in a crash when a piece of metal mangled his fork, and after arriving in hospital, his condition deteriorated to the extent that they had to remove his spleen to save his life. This small organ just above the stomach helps protect your body from infection. Though you can live without it, you're more at risk of getting ill. Try telling that to a rider with one of the best sick records of the past two decades...

LONGEST TOUR DE FRANCE CAREER OF ANY PAST YELLOW JERSEY WINNER

Speaking of durability and longevity, we were trying to think of a stat to tell the story of Thomas's remarkably long career at the top. The still-active Chris Froome, 40, might argue, but few General Classification riders make it to the age that Thomas, 39, has in the pro peloton. And if you discount 2025's victory lap of a season, he was still competing at the sharp end of Grand Tours as recently as 2024 – unlike Froome, who never regained his top level after his 2019 crash. Thomas's 14 Tour de France appearances put him 15th on the overall list, with only Joop Zoetemelk and Lucian Van Impe as former winners ahead of him. Neither can match Thomas' longevity, however, with those 14 appearances spanning an incredible 18 years (2007-2025). "It's something I'm really proud of. All the wins are great but being able to be competitive and stay at the top for that long is special," he told The Guardian newspaper this year.

THIRD AT 2024 GIRO D'ITALIA