Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tour blimey, sir
Bike win is PE teacher Steve’s hat-trick of ex-pupil heroes
CYCLING star Geraint Thomas is not only set to win the Tour de France today – he’s also scored an incredible hat-trick at his old school.
Because he’s joining two other ex-pupils on his alma mater’s wall of fame who have also won their way to the top of the their game.
And it’s a feat that surely must make his old PE teacher one of the best – and proudest – ever in the world.
Steve Williams taught sport to Geraint, 32, as well as Champions League winning Real Madrid ace Gareth Bale, 29, and British Lions captain Sam Warburton, the Grand Slam-winning Wales captain who has just retired from rugby at 29.
The former deputy head at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff said: “There’s no secret.
“We don’t have something special in the water. But the school provides a tremendous sporting environment.
“We back up talented children as best we can.
“We have had lots of sporting excellence over the years, but to have three like Sam, Gareth and Geraint is just incredible. What can you say, other than, wow!”
He remembers the Tour de France leader – who only has to stay on his bike today in a final stage that is largely a procession into Paris – as “a bright kid with a very dry sense of humour”.
Steve added: “Like Bale and Warburton, he was an all-rounder and his abilities in other sports contributed to his success as a cyclist, I’m sure.
“He was never one to opt out of anything, but cycling began to take over at about the age of 14.”
Like the rest of the staff, Steve will be glued to his TV set this afternoon to watch Team Sky rider Geraint pedal to glory down the Champs-Elysees and hopes he will return to the school with a spare yellow jersey for the wall.
Whitchurch’s Wall of Fame doesn’t end with Thomas, Bale and Warburton.
MONEY
Elliot Kear, a rugby league international with Wales, was at the school at the same time and six of the Wales Commonwealth Games team this year were former pupils.
They’re all there, on the wall, with dozens of others. And every picture is the same size.
Super-rich Bale and Thomas, who lives in Monte Carlo and can expect his earnings to now move into the £3million-a-year bracket, may have the most money. But they don’t get more frame space than anyone else.
After all at this school its very much a level playing field…
AFTER pepper spray in the land of riled farmers, cycling’s coming home – to the Land Of My Fathers.
And as Geraint Thomas became the Tour de France champion here – ahead of today’s ceremonial stage to Paris – Wales celebrated one of its greatest sporting moments.
From John Charles to Gareth Edwards, from Lyn ‘The Leap’ Davies in Tokyo to Ian Woosnam trying on his Green Jacket at the Masters, a proud nation’s hall of fame is already well-stocked.
But when Thomas, 32, rolls up the Champs Elysees towards sunset this evening his triumph will arguably be the most momentous of them all. Nobody saw this coming. Not even the celebrated Welsh clairvoyant Maesteg Meg.
Most people thought Chris Froome would churn out a record-equalling fifth title and Thomas the flank engine would dutifully take his place in the supporting cast.
But when Froome crashed on the Grand Depart, yielding a minute to Thomas after picking himself out of a shallow ditch, the dynamic of Team Sky’s leadership was changed.
While Froome braved the punches, spittle and assorted abuses of the Alpe d’Huez pond life who regard him as a paroled ‘cheat’, Thomas became the first man in 25 years to win mountain stages backto-back – and graduated to be Team Sky’s main man.
They said dual leadership would end in tears, but the only weeping eyes over the last 2,000 miles have been after gendarmes used pepper spray to remove a picket of angry farmers. Here, in the Basque village of Espelette, an assured ride of 41min 06sec over 19.2 miles in his time-trial clingfilm suit was enough to see cycling’s Prince of Wales home safe.
Thomas reflected on his first ever Tour de France 11 years ago, when he was 140th out of 141 finishers.
Thomas recalled: “That Tour was the most I’ve ever suffered, day in and day out.
“To now be compared with other Welsh legends is crazy – I will try to stay as I am.
“But by the sound of it, it’s gone pretty crazy back home and I’m looking forward to going back and celebrating with everyone.
“At one point, my front wheel slipped on a corner today and it was like, ‘Woah, steady on’ – and by the end every corner seemed like 180 degrees.
“I won’t go too crazy tonight. The Champs Elysees is harder than it looks. I will probably have a couple of beers.”
Va Va Froome sacrificed his dreams of that fifth Yellow Jersey to help Thomas, and he conceded: “The strongest rider in the field has won the Tour de France.”