Yellow peril
Reigning champion Thomas will have to do it the hard way
PRIOR to that chilling moment when he sat at the roadside and saw blood dripping from his face, it was Geraint Thomas’s intention to win in Switzerland earlier this month and set himself up for what he still hopes will be a successful defence of his Tour de France title.
But as Thomas sat there motionless, still dazed after a heavy crash with 30km of the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse remaining, he knew the impact went way beyond what amounted to a nasty bang to the head.
The doctor quickly informed the 33-year-old Welshman that his race was over, forcing him to return home to Monaco while his young Colombian team-mate Egan Bernal rode on to victory.
And the consequence of that was confirmed on Friday when Team INEOS announced that Thomas and 22-year-old Bernal would be joint leaders despite the South American’s limited Grand Tour experience.
Life is rarely straightforward for Thomas. Last year he was leading the Tour but still had to concede the one portable air conditioning unit to Chris Froome on a particularly sweaty night in a hotel because the four-times Tour winner was the team leader.
And even with Froome now denied a chance to make it five after the accident that left him nursing multiple fractures, Thomas has to contend with the fact that the immensely gifted Bernal has been invited to pursue his own ambitions rather than simply serve his senior colleague as a super-domestique with a particular talent for climbing.
Speaking on Friday, Thomas did seem fairly relaxed about the situation.
In a statement on the team’s website, Thomas said because his own preparation had been disrupted by the crash it made ‘sense to go into the race with joint leaders’. ‘It gives us more options,’ said Thomas. ‘Egan and I will work hard for each other and the team over the three weeks of the race.’
While Thomas is being coy about his form, those close to him suggest he was ‘flying’ prior to the crash and earlier this week he insisted being forced to abandon the Tour de Suisse had not proved too problematic. ‘When I saw blood dripping from my face I knew the doc wasn’t going to let me start,’ he said.
‘It was more from just the anger and the disappointment really. I’ve had some decent rides since but it’s not ideal. Mainly because I would have liked to have done it just to have a really good test against everyone else. Purely from a physical point of view I don’t think it’s too much of an issue though. We’ll soon find out what form I’m in.’
A crash in May denied Bernal a tilt at the Giro d’Italia but many now consider him the biggest threat to Thomas. The announcement by INEOS that he will be given joint billing says as much.
‘Geraint and Egan are both in great form,’ said team boss Sir Dave Brailsford. ‘They trust each other and we believe that this approach will give us the greatest flexibility on the road and the best possible chance of success.’
With last year’s runner-up, Tom Dumoulin, sidelined by a knee injury, the dominance of the team formerly known as Sky could well continue.
A victory for Bernal would mean Brailsford and his staff had guided a fourth different rider to victory across a staggering seven victories in eight years. And when the main threats come from Vincenzo Nibali, Jakob Fuglsang, Adam Yates and Richie Porte — with Nibali the only previous Tour winner besides Thomas on the start-line —– it would be foolish to dismiss INEOS’s chances of extending that dominance.