‘I am still on a high after the Tour de France but this is going to be crazy’

Geraint Thomas celebrated his victory in the greatest bike race as befits the feat, although he tells Tom Cary not to expect a repeat on home soil

‘I have got to mentally prepare because if you treat it like any other race you are going to be worn out’

Geraint Thomas had his first, brief taste of the downside to being Tour de France champion last weekend. A throwaway line given to The

Sunday Times magazine in the immediate aftermath of his historic win in July, in which he said that helmets should be made “compulsory” for cyclists in the UK, suddenly appeared on the front page of that newspaper. Naturally – everything Thomas says now being prefaced with the words ‘Tour de France champion…’ – it went viral.

Cycling campaigners, who have spent years grappling with UK government on the fraught issue of cycle safety and infrastructure, and who point to evidence that cycling use drops where helmets are required by law, were up in arms. “Oh God,” the Welshman groans when the subject is raised. “Please don’t.”

The good news is that Thomas is able to laugh about it. He says he feels “a bit stitched up” as it was “only one response in an hour-long interview”; a topic for which he was unprepared and to which he had “never given much thought”.

In hindsight, though, he accepts he was guilty of not knowing enough about the subject – or at least of not making his relative ignorance on the subject clear to his interviewer. “I shouldn’t have used the word ‘compulsory’,” he says. “That was my mistake really. But I hadn’t really given it much thought before. He [the journalist] asked me whether I would make helmets compulsory and I said I would in London. I always wear one and I tell kids to wear one. And that was it really.

“I mean, I wasn’t trying to say that we shouldn’t improve cycling infrastructure first and foremost. I was asked a specific question about helmets. Of course you want a better culture of cycling in the UK. Better roads. More respect. But it was a one-off question.”

Given the fallout – and there was some fairly unpleasant stuff aimed at Thomas on social media – the Team Sky rider could be forgiven for feeling a little bit bitter. But the great thing about Wales’s first winner of the Tour is that he is so level-headed.

When eulogies for the Welshman were flying like a wet descent off the Aubisque, Thomas remained admirably grounded, both amazed and amused that the likes of Thierry Henry and Arsene Wenger had taken the time to congratulate him.

When he arrived in Cardiff for his homecoming event, when thousands of fans gathered at the Senedd and beneath the walls of Cardiff Castle to acclaim him, he joked that he thought it might just be “the wife and the dog” who bothered to turn up.

Of course, he knew it was going to be a massive event. Just as he knows that many of the thousands of fans who line the route of this week’s OVO Energy Tour of Britain will be there solely to catch a glimpse of him. But the selfdeprecation is not forced. It is a natural defence mechanism, guarding against any possible semblance of arrogance.

There is no suggestion that he is being self-deprecating when he assesses his chances this week, sadly. After “a few late nights and early mornings”, involving a fair bit of alcohol no doubt, he says he has “put on a kilo or two” and is in no shape to challenge for the overall win. Instead, he says he will work hard for his team-mate Wout Poels, Sky’s designated leader, and try to soak up the experience of riding in front of thousands, possibly millions, of home fans over the next eight days.

Could there be an element of him playing down expectations? Perhaps in the hope that he might go better than he thinks he will? He did ride in the four-day Tour of Germany last week, after all. So he is not coming in completely cold. And it was not so long ago he was leaving the world’s best riders standing at the top of Alpe d’huez.

“Yeah, I really don’t think that’s possible,” he replies. “It’s just the way I’m feeling. One day you’re good then the next day you’re on your knees. I’ll do my bit for Wout and just try to enjoy it really.

“Obviously I will enjoy it the better I go. So I want to have some sort of condition – that was the reason I went to Germany. But no, I can’t see myself being able to win. It’s a tough route and there are a lot of good riders. [Julian] Alaphilippe, [Primoz] Roglic… the team time trial will play a big part I think, finishing up that climb [Whinlatter Pass in Cumbria]. And the day after as well, finishing on top of the same climb.”

Thomas is well aware that expectations from the British public will be sky high regardless of what he says. Not just for him but for Chris Froome, who is racing at this event for the first time since 2009.

Between them they have five

maillots jaunes. Casual or noncycling fans will assume they can knock off a Tour of Britain between them. “Yeah I think Froomey is a bit worried by that,” Thomas laughs. “Like me he’s certainly put on a bit of weight since the Tour. He hasn’t trained. And his wife has just given birth to their second child so he’s been lacking sleep too.

“But it’s just the way it is. The Tour of Britain is obviously a big race for Brits but at the end of the day it’s not a World Tour race. Froomey has ridden the Giro and the Tour. I was focused for so long on the Tour. Obviously I’m looking forward to this week. I’m motivated for it. But mentally and physically. I’m just a bit nailed really.”

What about this month’s UCI Road World Championships then? A few weeks ago, Thomas said he was hoping to target the hilly time trial in Innsbruck. “Yeah, I’m not so sure now,” he admits. “I haven’t ridden my bike anywhere near enough. I can’t see myself doing the TT or the road race at the moment. But I’ll leave that door open. We’ll see how [the Tour of ] Britain goes and if I come out of that OK and feel I could do a job for someone [in the road race], then it could be an option.”

It is a typically phlegmatic response. Never mind an off-thecuff remark about cycling helmets, the real tragedy would be if Thomas ever shut himself off and became bitter now that his fame has grown. “I don’t think I will,” he says. “But I guess [the controversy] has made me a bit more cautious. I’m still on a high, though. Still buzzing. And I can’t wait to get started in Wales on Sunday. That’s going to be incredibly special.

“I think it’s going to be crazy. I know all the roads, the run-in. I trained on these roads growing up. It’s crazy to think I’m coming back now as Tour winner. I’ve got to mentally prepare for it because if you treat it like any other race and you think ‘Oh I’ll just be signing one or two things on my way to sign-on’ you are going to be exhausted. It’s a shame I’m not at my best but I’ll enjoy myself.”