ON HIS BIKE FOR NHS

TOUR KING GERAINT DOING 12-HOUR SHIFTS FROM HIS GARAGE!

He has conquered alpe d’Huez and climbed Mont ventoux, but Geraint Thomas is today embarking on the toughest test of his cycling career — without even leaving his garage. To raise money for the NHS, the 2018 Tour de France champion has set himself the challenge of riding his turbo-trainer indoor bike for 12 consecutive hours on each of the next three days. ‘The idea is to mirror an NHS worker’s 12-hour shifts but now it’s here I’m a bit worried,’ admits Thomas, 33, over a Zoom video call, on the day this summer’s Tour was officially postponed. ‘I think it’s going to be a lot harder than a Tour stage. For a start, you’re not racing, I’m just on my own pedalling away in my garage in cardiff. ‘Timewise, it’s also a lot more — three days, 36 hours. That’s close to eight or nine stages of the Tour but it’s a lot more condensed. ‘The longest I’ve done on the bike before is eight hours, 35 minutes in Majorca in December when we did a lap of the island. on the turbo, it’s three and a half hours so this is more or less four times what I’ve ever done. ‘Physically it will be tough. My legs, heart and lungs should be OK but it’s more the contact points — your hands, your backside. Mentally it will be even harder because I haven’t got that massive competitive edge to keep me going, to keep me racing.’ Thomas will be riding on Zwift, a virtual training platform which allows others to join him. Welsh rugby legend Shane Williams has already signed up and Thomas is trying to get George north and Gareth Thomas on board. The Team INEOS rider aims to raise £100,000 for NHS charities Together, inspired by his mum Hilary, who has come out of retirement to work as a nurse due to the coronavirus outbreak. ‘My mum worked at the velindre cancer centre in cardiff for 30 years,’ he says. ‘She has retired three times but when this pandemic came along, she rang them up and said, “Do you want me to come back?”, so she is doing two days a week now. ‘We all know someone who works for them and everyone understands how much commitment they are making.’ although Thomas has a clear plan for the next three days, he remains in limbo about the rest of the summer following yesterday’s confirmation that the Tour de France will be moved from its original start date of June 27. organisers have said they are trying to find new dates, with the end of august the most likely. The last time the Tour was cancelled altogether was in 1946, when France was emerging from the Second World War. ‘I’m hoping and praying that it will happen,’ adds Thomas. ‘It is the pinnacle of cycling, it represents the sport. It’s hard when you don’t know when it’s going to be but you’ve just got to have that target down the line.’