TOUR CHAMP GERAINT BACK IN UK TO HERO’S WELCOME
AVERY special welcome greeted Wales’ newest sporting legend when he arrived back on UK shores yesterday.
Presumably still feeling a little sore (from both the bike and the party), Cardiff’s Geraint Thomas was give a proper welcome back by his cycling team.
After arriving he was taken on four wheels instead of two to the Sky HQ in Osterley, where the road leading up to it had been renamed Geraint Way with a large congratulatory banner.
The Cardiff cyclist, who became the first Welshman to win the coveted Tour de France title following 21 stages and 3,329km of gruelling racing, was serenaded by a male voice choir in honour of his achievement.
It wasn’t just the choir that added a sense of home to the occasion. Members of his first cycling club, the Cardiffbased Maindy Flyers, were also there.
There have been calls for Cardiff to do something fitting to honour their new hero.
Ideas for an open-top bus tour, a celebratory car-free day, a statue and a blue plaque have all been touted.
Authorities, however, are currently remaining tight-lipped.
Chief executive of Welsh Cycling Anne Adams-King said: “The support in Wales for Geraint has been overwhelming and there have been many celebrations in both Wales and Paris.
“We are now looking forward to working with Welsh Government, the Senedd and Cardiff council to arrange a homecoming event back in his home city, and details will follow once confirmed.”
However, Caro Wild, Cardiff council’s transport spokesperson, said to the BBC that the council is working on plans for “something really big”.
He said: “We’re in contact with Welsh Cycling and the Welsh Government, but also we’d just like to hear what he’d like. We’ve heard how humble he is and wants a bit of normality so let’s try and get that right.
“We’ve got a plan to be one of the best cycling cities in the UK. Normally at the end of your plan is when you get your Tour de France winner, we’re getting our Tour de France winner at the beginning of it.
“The biggest tribute we could pay is to put in place a transport structure and cycling infrastructure that people can get around on safely.”
First Minister Carwyn Jones has also gone on record as saying that Thomas’ tour win ranks above Joe Calzaghe and Tanni Grey-Thompson as the “greatest individual performance by a Welsh sports star”.
He told BBC Wales he wanted an official celebration.
He said: “I would certainly like to do it. I think it is one of the standout sporting achievements in Welsh history. I think it is important that we think about what we can do to say thanks to Geraint for what he has done for Wales.”
It has been a weekend that the cycling star is never going to forget, but for his namesake, it’s probably one he would like to.
The double Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion was the first ever Welsh winner of the event, and his success sparked wild celebrations across Wales, with buildings lit up in yellow to mark his ownership of the coveted yellow jersey of the first-placed rider and messages of congratulations being sent to him from across the world via social media.
But spare a thought for Geraint Thomas, the visual effects and motion graphics artist who shares the triumphant cyclist’s name.
The lecturer at the University of South Wales has the simple Twitter handle @geraintthomas, while the new champion of the Tour de France has the handle @GeraintThomas86.
Due to the similarity, the 30-year-old, who is also Cardiff-based like his namesake and plays in pub band Johnny Sandel and The Flip Flops, has had thousands and thousands of messages
mistakenly sent to him over the past few days.
It isn’t the first time he’s been mistaken – Team Sky even copied him into a tweet two years ago.
But it was on Saturday, when the cycling Thomas all but sealed his place in the sporting history books, that the other Mr Thomas’ account went into overdrive – despite his Twitter profile stating he is “not a cyclist, nor do I own a yellow cardigan”.
He said: “It has been great really, very light-hearted. There’s been nothing negative at all, all just fun and games.
“It absolutely exploded overnight. I’ve had more than 13,000 likes to some of my tweets, which make it clear I am not the cyclist Geraint Thomas.
“It’s happened before, and I even tweeted the other Geraint Thomas once to let him know, and he replied to me, but I’ve never met him before, even though we are both from the same area, and I think a colleague might be a friend of his wife. It would be hilarious to meet him in person.”
The two men lead quite different lives. “I’m not even a cyclist, although I used to cycle back and forth to work for a while,” said Geraint. “A lot of my family and friends cycle though, including my brother-in-law.
“I might have to start thinking about taking it up again, although my bike is probably in about 20 different pieces in the shed.”
Geraint, the lecturer, who hails from Rhondda and now lives in Penarth, has also received thousands of likes and retweets to his humourous response, which include “so this is what it’s like to be famous” and “for those who want a signed set of stabilisers just get in touch” with the repeated hashtag #imnotacyclist.
He even suggested the cycling hero should get a T-shirt with #imnotalecturer written on it.
However, he may now have to update his Twitter profile, after his sister Rhiannon, who lives in Swansea, contacted him to reveal she had bought her brother a yellow jersey.
GERAINT Thomas may well look back on his moment of victory in the Tour de France and think: “How do I top that?”
If he has a moment to glance at the news amid his celebrations he might notice that cricket icon’s Imran Khan’s answer to the same question was to try and become Prime Minister of Pakistan. After years of building a personal following in this country of nearly 213 million people, Mr Khan’s party has triumphed at the elections.
This would seem all the more remarkable if a reality TV host with no experience of electoral office hadn’t won the US election in 2016. There is evidence that voters are by no means appalled by the idea of someone who has had an exciting life far away from the political arena getting their name on a ballot.
In fact, at a time when the “political establishment” is a target of suspicion and derision, a life of sporting excellence could prove a major plus.
Mr Thomas has already demonstrated qualities many people would want in a future First Minister. He is extraordinarily self-disciplined, a respected team-player, a fantastic ambassador for Wales and cycling, and he is absolutely tenacious in the pursuit of epic ambitions.
The idea that a Welshman might win the Tour de France once seemed as likely as this nation topping the OECD figures for reading, maths and science (Wales’ children repeatedly lag behind not just the other UK nations but a host of international counterparts). There’s an extraordinary mountain to climb to get Wales up from its position at the bottom of the earnings league table but Mr Thomas knows how to pedal up the most daunting inclines.
Especially at a time when the political groups in the Assembly are in the throes of leadership contests, is there a party that wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to add the race-winner to its ranks?
He is by no means the only Welsh sporting great who could have something powerful to offer the Senedd.
Wales will never forget the excitement that touched every aspect of national life as manager Chris Coleman led his team to the semi-finals of Euro 2016. The play on the pitch was magnificent, but Mr Coleman’s message that it was time to “dare to dream” resonated far beyond the stadia.
There is a sense in Wales that, yes, it really is time to dare to dream, to pursue ambitions that go well beyond inching GDP a fraction of a percent up and instead secure change that will transform the life chances of those in our poorest communities while giving our most talented children every reason to think they can pursue brilliant aspirations in this nation.
Paralympian legend Tanni GreyThompson already has impeccable parliamentary experience, having been a committed member for the House of Lords since 2010. If she could be tempted to pursue a new career in the devolved legislature she would bring deep policy expertise and a reputation as a powerful communicator.
Of course, impressive athletes do not always set legislatures ablaze with excitement.
Ming (now Lord) Campbell was an acclaimed sprinter who represented Great Britain in the 1964 Olympics but his brief time at the helm of the Liberal Democrats was not a golden age for the party. Gold medal-winning Olympian Seb Coe became a Conservative MP in 1992 but the voters of Falmouth and Camborne let him go in 1997; happier times would await as a peer and as the head of the London 2012 organising committee.
Nevertheless, great athletes do not expect to enjoy success without putting in immense effort and learning from the best. They are not afraid of failure, and it could only enrich politics if those with truly transferable skills sought to contribute to our young democracy; after all, we have never had an Assembly election in which even half of the electorate took part.
Footballer George Weah – a veteran of clubs as celebrated as Manchester United, Chelsea, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain – took on the greatest challenge of his life when he ran for the presidency of Liberia, a West African nation that suffered catastrophic civil wars. He was elected in December with more than 60% of the vote, and the country’s citizens will hope that just as he rose from a childhood in the slums to footballing glory he will be able to lead Liberia into a new chapter of stability and prosperity.
It is not just sportsmen and women who feel emboldened to stand for some of the top jobs in politics. Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger each cashed in their Hollywood fame to win election as Republicans as Governor of California, and Donald Trump’s victory may have encouraged people from non-traditional backgrounds with an interest in shaping a country’s storyline to run for office.
Cynthia Nixon, famed for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in Sex and the City, has shaken up the race for the governorship of New York by challenging the incumbent, Andrew Cuomo, from the left.
In Wales, it is not hard to imagine actor Michael Sheen entering politics – and not just because of his awardwinning portrayals of Tony Blair.
He won UK-wide attention for his scorching 2015 St David’s Day speech in support of the NHS in which he argued it was “no surprise that people feel disengaged with politics” when politicians are “too scared to say what they really mean, when they’re too careful to speak from their hearts, when integrity is too much of a risk”.
Mr Sheen does more than dispense memorable rhetoric. This year he launched the End High Cost Credit Alliance in a personal bid to protect the vulnerable from exploitation.
Day to day politics is an endurance test and even the most committed individuals can be worn down by the cycle of committee meetings, debates, surgeries and canvassing. Mr Sheen is already using his share of the limelight to bring important issues out of the shadows, but one day he may decide he is ready to audition for a new role on the front line of Welsh politics.
Right now, aspiring party leaders are on their own tours of Wales as they seek the votes of the party faithful and try to articulate a winning vision. They could do much worse than take inspiration from our finest actors and athletes who are exemplary citizens blessed with the power to make hearts soar.