GOODBYE BUT NOT FAREWELL

Fresh from his Tour of Britain retirement party, Geraint Thomas sits down with Chris Marshall-Bell to look back on his extraordinary two-decade-long career

- Chris Marshall-Bell

It was the week of racing Geraint Thomas had been anticipating for months: the Tour of Britain, with a finale meticulously planned to give him the homecoming sendoff his illustrious career deserved. Tens of thousands lined the streets, 11,000 of them wearing masks of his face. In the end, he couldn't hold back the tears. "A whirlwind," is how Thomas describes his final weekend of racing, which ended at Cardiff Castle. "Not many athletes get to retire on their own terms, let alone where they want to. It was unreal, amazing. It was strange, too, because at times I forgot I was at a race and not just at a farewell tour."

At the age of 39, Thomas has brought down the curtain on a racing career that spanned two decades, from 2005 to 2025. The high points in his palmarès are his 2018 Tour de France victory and two Olympic gold medals. There were also 10 GC titles, a major Classics win at E3 Harelbeke, and two Giro d'Italia podiums aged 37 and 38. As his list of achievements shows, Thomas has earned his place among British sporting greats. "I'll miss the buzz of racing, the crowd and, without being egotistical, the adulation. Finishing the race and feeling like a rockstar - I'm never going to feel that again," he tells Cycling Weekly, speaking via video call two days after the Tour of Britain. “But the main thing is the camaraderie on the bus, going out together to execute a plan. I'll miss that.” He'll miss the absurdity of it all, too. “If I think to Alpe d’Huez, they are always such special days up there: Dutch corner, and now Cymru corner and Irish corner. Guys in their pants, the Beefeater guys. It’s unreal to experience.”

Thomas isn’t disappearing off into the sunset, though. He is set to take on a newly created management role at Ineos Grenadiers, but before that, he is doing publicity rounds promoting his autobiography,