You’ve got to be Kid-ding!
THOMAS IN BIG LEAGUES NOW
PRINCE of wheels Geraint Thomas discovered the mystical power of the fabled Yellow Jersey when Lionel Messi presented him with a signed shirt.
When another of his sporting heroes, Arsene Wenger, rang to congratulate him on his Tour de France triumph, at first Thomas thought it was former team-mate Sir Bradley Wiggins mimicking the ex-Arsenal manager.
And one of the favourites for tonight’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year gong never thought he would be sharing a sofa with Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman on Graham Norton’s chat show.
Only four Welsh athletes have won SPOTY – Dai Rees, David Broome, Joe Calzaghe and Ryan Giggs.
And only four cyclists have lifted the famous tripod camera trophy – Wiggins, fellow knight rider Sir Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish and Tom Simpson.
“I’m not going to lie, I’d love to make it five cyclists and five Welshmen,” said Thomas.
“Like the Tour, it’s one of those events you remember watching in the front room as a kid. It’s such an iconic trophy and the fact it’s awarded as a public vote makes it very special.
“Just to be in the frame is humbling. To win it would be the perfect end to an amazing year.”
For years the rider known throughout the peloton as ‘G’ was Chris Froome’s faithful sidekick.
But 2018 was when Thomas the flank engine became Team Sky’s chief locomotive.
Winning the most gruelling endurance test since Brexit has introduced Thomas, 32, to trappings of celebrity he never imagined.
He said: “The Yellow Jersey has changed my life in ways you can’t manufacture.
“I bumped into Lionel Messi in an underground car park at the Camp Nou after he scored a Champions League hat-trick for Barcelona against PSV. For a bloke who rides a bike for a living to get a signed shirt off the greatest footballer on the planet is nuts and I haven’t comes to terms with some of the recognition yet.
“I grew up watching the Tour and dreaming just of being a part of it. But to win it you had to be someone like Jan Ullrich or Miguel Indurain – Brits had no history of winning it so it feels a bit crazy to be part of the race’s history now.”
For Thomas, glory on the Champs Elysees was his reward for restraint in the face of spiteful behaviour on the roads, where spectators spat at, punched or grabbed him and Froome.
He said: “I don’t like to use the word ‘enemy’ but in the eyes of some people by the road that’s what we represent.
“It’s not nice, and you don’t want to be cast as villains every day of a three-week race but I’d rather be booed on the podium than a popular also-ran sat at the back with nothing.”
And what about 2019? Will it be Thomas or Froome who is handed
Sky’s golden ticket to Paris?
“I’d love to defend the Yellow
Jersey,” said the reigning champ.
“I think it would be a shame not to go back to the Tour and give it my best shot because nobody has won it for the first time and defended it successfully the following year since Indurain.
“I’ve reached the pinnacle once.
To climb the mountain again would be amazing.”