INTERVIEW: GERAINT THOMAS
The 2018 Tour winner tells us that he’d like to have won in 2019, and will try to win in 2020
“I’d earned my stripes racing for other people, I’d won the year before, I hoped to be sole leader but I wasn’t.That’s that”
YOU’RE IN MAJORCA FOR THE TEAM’S FIRST TRAINING CAMP. YOU’VE BEEN OUT FOR A BIG LONG RIDE, WE SAW…
GT: I had seven hours today which was nice, I’m getting in the miles when I can sleep and stuff, obviously being away from the baby. Make the most of it - I’ve got nothing else to do!
YOUR SON WAS BORN IN OCTOBER. HOW IS FATHERHOOD?
GT: Good, I think we’ve been really lucky actually - he’s been sleeping really well. That’s the main thing and we’re just waiting for it all to go downhill to be honest. But so far, he’s been a little dream.
IT MUST HAVE BEEN NICE TO HAVE HAD SOME TIME AT HOME AT THE END OF THE SEASON.
GT: Definitely, and I think compared to last year [2018] really it’s night and day with how busy I’ve been. Obviously it’s quite busy with the baby but it’s nothing like with all the travelling and stuff I did last year. I was in Cardiff for a little block and was down in Monaco for a solid five and a half weeks before coming here, so it was totally different. I haven’t had an off-season like that for as long as I can remember, really. That was nice just staying in one place. I managed to do some decent training at the same time so definitely feel a bit further ahead of what I was last year, so that’s a nice feeling.
PHYSICALLY, HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
GT: I’m raring to go now. After a good four weeks off the bike it always does the trick to get you motivated and training again and after the Tour I still tried to keep training hard but by the time it got to the start of September I was just kind of running on empty a bit, more mentally as much as anything, and it was just so hard to get into top, top shape for the end of the season. But I think that break did me the world of good and now I’m just really looking forward to starting racing again and getting stuck into another season.
IT SEEMS THAT 2019 WAS A FRUSTRATING SEASON. HOW DO YOU VIEW HOW THE YEAR WENT?
GT: I think the whole build up to the Tour was certainly up and down and didn’t feel like I got into a rhythm with racing and things - no real consistency. I didn’t finish Tirreno, I had a bit of a stomach bug, and then obviously crashed out of Suisse. That was definitely frustrating because I definitely could have continued, but because I had a bit of a knock to my head and it was bleeding above my eye the doctors stopped me through precaution. It was one of those things. Then I came back from Tenerife because of the bad weather there. It was just like a completely different build up to the year before at the Tour. And obviously the off-season was completely different too, it was a lot longer after winning the Tour.
When I look back… to still come second in the Tour after all that, I’m certainly proud of that and almost as proud of that as winning it the year before with everything that happened.
YOU SAID AT THE END OF THE TOUR YOU WERE DISAPPOINTED TO FINISH SECOND. HOW DO YOU VIEW YOUR RESULT NOW?
GT: For sure, when you look back at it and you break it down and you see some parts of the race that you think, maybe that could have been different. But I wouldn’t say I go to sleep thinking about that being disappointing, but I certainly learned a lot. The way not just the race but the whole season was going, it was still a success really at the end. I think that as an athlete you always want to achieve your goals, and you always want to do your very best, and when you don’t quite do that there’s always that tinge of disappointment and that competitiveness.
PHYSICALLY, HOW DID YOU FEEL? IN YOUR BBC DOCUMENTARY THEROAD
WILLDECIDE, FILMED DURING THE RACE, YOU SAID YOU FELT STRONG.
GT: I was feeling good, it was just one of those things really. The way the race ended with the cancelled stage and the shortened stage, it didn’t feel like it had the big climax and ending that everyone was anticipating. But that’s how it was. Egan for sure definitely deserved it - with me being disappointed it’s not like I’m saying I should have won or anything like that. It’s just every athlete wants to win.
YOU SAID YOU HOPED YOU’D BE THE OUTRIGHT LEADER AT THE TOUR. HOW WAS THAT MENTALLY GOING IN AS DEFENDING CHAMPION BUT STILL SHARING THAT LEADER ROLE?
GT: It didn’t play on my mind. It’s one of those things; you’ve just got to accept it and crack on and do it. There was no point in me sitting on the bus and demanding to be the sole leader and carrying that frustration through the whole race - that was the call the team made, and that’s that. It’s like I’d earned my stripes riding for other people, I’d won the year before, I hoped to be the sole leader but at the end of the day I wasn’t and that’s that. The build up for me was totally different than the one I won. It’s just the way it was - and as it turns out, it was a decent call by the team anyway, wasn’t it? Seeing as Egan won and I was second.
HOW IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP?
GT: I think it’s good. We’re both open and honest with each other, and that’s like the main thing really. I obviously don’t know him like I know a lot of the British boys. Even though he speaks good English there’s still a bit of that culture and language barrier. I don’t know him half as well as a Spanish guy would get to know him I guess, but at the same time on a professional level it’s really good. We’re just honest and open the whole time and I think that’s key to the whole thing.
IN THE DOCUMENTARY WE SAW TEAM SOIGNEUR MARKO DZALKO SAY YOU WORRY ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT A LOT. HOW DO YOU COPE WITH THAT?
GT: That’s tough because I’m not a natural GC rider really, and if you compare me to Quintana and Egan and those sort of guys, and Froomey even, they’re naturally smaller and lighter. I just have to work on my weight a lot more, it doesn’t just come. I have to really focus on it, I have to eat the right things at the right time. It just takes a lot of effort to get down to that… it’s not easy, but you can get down to 70-odd kilos easy enough, but it’s the final one or two that are always the hardest and you have to focus in on it.
It just becomes... obsessive is probably a bit strong, but you’re just constantly aware of what you’re doing. That’s by far the hardest thing for me when I’m trying to perform in GC races.
IS THE TOUR THE MAIN GOAL IN 2020?
GT: Yeah, I didn’t know whether to go for the Giro, but in a way it would have been doing it as not an easier option… I thought I’d put all my eggs in the Tour basket again and do everything I can to be in the best shape there and go for that.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE ROUTE?
GT: To be honest I haven’t looked at it in a great amount of detail. It looks solid, but every Tour de France is hard. It’s a bit different in that it doesn’t have the traditional start with the flatter roads, and then you have the Alps or the Pyrenees and then transition stages, and then the Pyrenees or the Alps, whichever way round it
“Once you’ve won the Tour, it would be easy to sit back. You look at the Giro, but I don’t think I’d be as motivated”
is, and then to Paris. It is different in that regard, so that’ll make a bit of a difference maybe. Every other day or every three days is a solid day, so it’s definitely going to be a hard race. I like the look of it; obviously I would have preferred a few more TTs because the first time I rode it there were two 50k plus TTs, that’s the big change recently. Even the TT this year finishes up La Planche des Belles Filles, which isn’t a typical TT.
YOU’LL BE 34 BY THE TOUR NEXT YEAR. WHAT DO YOU STILL WANT TO ACHIEVE AT THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER?
GT: I think I just love racing my bike. I love training and the Tour is the biggest race you can do and just going there in the best shape I can, obviously try to win it, but I wouldn’t say if I don’t win it it’s not a success. I think it’s more going there in the best shape I can and seeing how that goes. It’s hard, once you’ve won the Tour it would be easy to sit back a bit and you look at the Giro, but I just don’t think I’d be as motivated, really. I think just by putting all your eggs in that basket, you put a bit of pressure on yourself as well and you want to do as best you can and not be scared of failing as well. The fact that I feel that I’m still at that level where I can perform, and be right up there in a race like that, I obviously want to keep committing to that.
A LOT OF YOUR RIVALS ARE YOUNGER THAN YOU. ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE THREAT THEY POSE?
GT: I don’t really even consider them to be honest. I just worry about myself. Just get there in the best shape I can be and that’s that. Age doesn’t really come into it when you’re going full gas up a mountain, it’s the condition you’re in… It’s easy to get sidetracked and do stuff you don’t need to do, and it’s the same when it comes to the Tour really. Physically, there’s a lot of contenders and strong guys and as soon as you start to get fixated on them and what they’re doing and how old they are and what race results they’ve got, you’re taking the eye off your own game plan.
INEOS PLAN TO FIELD YOU, BERNAL AND POTENTIALLY CHRIS FROOME. THAT’S THREE WINNERS IN ONE TEAM. HOW WILL THAT WORK?
GT: Movistar had that but it didn’t work well for them, so you could say it’s not the best. But I think we’re all honest guys and we all know each other really well. The main thing is that honesty and being straight up with each other. As long as we don’t end up racing against each other I think it can be a positive. It’ll certainly be a strength, especially having the calibre of riders we have.
BUT THREE LEADERS WILL MEAN FEWER DOMESTIQUES. COULD THAT GO AGAINST YOU?
GT: It’s one of those where you’ll just have to see where we all are when we get to the start. Who knows what will happen from now until then? It’s an unknown how good Froomey’s going to get, and sickness and injury, it depends with myself and Egan… Once the race starts I think the team will have to make the call earlier on. I think in the last two Tours it’s been a bit more open until the final weekend almost, but if there were three you’d expect there to be some sort of pecking order to start. That will either be confirmed or changed as the race started.