Geraint Thomas needs 'big week' ahead of final Tour de France

Geraint Thomas is optimistic that he will be fit to line up for his final Tour de France on July 5 despite the crash that forced him to abandon the Tour de Suisse last week. 

The Welshman suffered injuries to his knee and hamstring in a low-speed fall during stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse, and his Ineos Grenadiers squad later withdrew him from the race as a precaution.

In the latest episode of his Watts Occurring podcast, Thomas explained that he had returned home to Monaco for physiotherapy. He is now looking to compensate for the lack of racing miles in Switzerland with what he described as “a big week” of training.

“I’m not 100% sure how it happened, really,” Thomas said of the crash. “I banged my knee, which was kind of ok, but my foot got caught behind me and I twisted my knee and hamstring and that. I had a massive dead leg for a minute or so, and I couldn’t straighten it. 

“I think because I stayed down for a minute or so, the doctors were trying to get me to go in the ambulance, and I was like, ‘No, I just need to ride it out,’ so there was a bit of back and forth with that really.”

Thomas finished more than a quarter of an hour down on the day, but he downplayed his injuries at the finish line, suggesting that he would continue in the race. That evening, however, it was decided that he would abandon the Tour de Suisse.

“The doctor basically said, ‘We don’t want to take the risk, I think you would be better just having a few days off, make sure it’s 100% and then you can train again and be good for the Tour,’” Thomas said.

“Because it was Suisse and two weeks out from the Tour, they were super cautious with it. I wanted to start, but it kind of made sense.”

Thomas won the Tour de Suisse in 2022 before placing third overall at the Tour de France, and he acknowledged that losing out on five days of racing in June was a blow.

“I need a big week now, that’s the only problem,” Thomas said. “I’m not really chasing it [form], but it’s more the mental side. I could have had five more days of racing, and racing these days is a bit more intense – you’re sprinting a bit more out of corners.

“I feel like I have to do a bit of that in training and in a race that’s easier to do, because it’s easier to dig in and dig deep. It can be done in training, obviously, but it takes a bit more mental energy.”

Thomas has drawn motivation, however, from the idea that this is the final big training block of his career. After the Tour, the only racing on his schedule is the Deutschland Tour and the Tour of Britain.

“I was thinking I’ve only got one more week of that forever, so a week of that, go to the Tour,” Thomas said. “After that, I’ll still be training, but it’s a different vibe. So it’s just one more week – that’s what I’ve got to commit to now. It’s kind of strange.”

Ineos Grenadiers have yet to make a formal announcement of their Tour line-up, but it’s expected that Thomas - if fully fit - will be part of a team led by Carlos Rodríguez, who placed ninth overall at the recent Critérium du Dauphiné.

Thomas, who won the Tour in 2018, has finished on the podium in Grand Tours in each of the past three seasons – he placed third at the 2022 Tour before taking second at the 2023 Giro d’Italia and third at last year’s corsa rosa.

The 39-year-old has yet to confirm his plans for 2026, but he has been linked with a potential role on the management staff at Ineos Grenadiers.