Geraint Thomas

Geraint Thomas
	Geraint Thomas (2018)
To person
Full name	Geraint Howell Thomas
Nickname	G
Date of birth	25th May 1986 (age 34)
nation	United Kingdom
discipline	Road , rail
Driver type	Tour driver, pursuer
height	183 cm
Racing weight	71 kg
To the team
Current team	Ineos
function	driver
Team (s)
2007–2009 ; 2010–	Barloworld ; Team Sky / Team Ineos
Most important successes
	UCI WorldTour Overall ranking Tour de France 2018 Overall ranking Critérium du Dauphiné 2018 Overall ranking Paris – Nice 2016 E3 Harelbeke 2015 Olympic games Olympic Champion - Team Pursuit 2008, 2012 UCI track world championships World Champion - Team Pursuit 2007, 2008, 2012
	Last updated: July 29, 2018

Geraint Howell Thomas , OBE (born May 25, 1986 in Cardiff ), nickname "G", is a British cyclist from Wales . He became a two-time Olympic champion and three-time world champion in team pursuit and winner of the 2018 Tour de France .

Athletic career

In 2005, Geraint Thomas was on the track together with Steve Cummings , Mark Cavendish and Ed Clancy British champions in the team pursuit on the track. On the recommendation of Heiko Salzwedel , Geraint was accepted into the T-Mobile Development Program in 2005 and was given the chance to start as a trainee with the Wiesenhof team .

At the UCI Track World Championships 2006 in Bordeaux, Thomas was runner-up in the team pursuit with Steve Cummings, Rob Hayles and Paul Manning . In March, the Welshman won the bronze medal for Wales in the points race at the Commonwealth Games . Shortly afterwards he won the Luxembourg stage race Flèche du Sud on the road . In the 2007 season Thomas drove for the British Professional Continental Team Barloworld . With that team he took part in the Tour de France in the same year and was the youngest participant at the age of 21.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the British quartet with Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins , Paul Manning and Ed Clancy won gold in the team pursuit ahead of Denmark and New Zealand. In 2011 Thomas became the European team pursuit champion (with Clancy, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh). At the UCI Track World Championships in Melbourne in 2012 , he was world champion in team pursuit with the British team. He was also able to repeat the Olympic victory in the team pursuit at the 2012 Olympic Games in London with Steven Burke, Ed Clancy and Peter Kennaugh.

In 2014 Geraint Thomas won the road race at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow for the Wales team. 139 drivers had started in this race, of which only twelve made it to the finish line due to heavy rain. Thomas, in turn, won the race by a minute and 21 seconds, even though he had a flat tire on the last few kilometers.

Thomas finished in 2007 when he first took part in the Tour de France, the race as 140th In the Tour de France 2013 , 2015 and 2016 he participated as an assistant to the respective overall winner Chris Froome and took 15th place in 2015 and 2016, where he In 2015 up to the 18th stage he finished fourth in the overall standings, which he lost after a slump on the 19th stage .

In 2015 he won his first race of the UCI WorldTour with the E3 Harelbeke after an attack in the last four kilometers from a three-man leading group . He won his second WorldTour race at Paris – Nice in 2016 , where he defended his overall lead on the last stage after an attack by Alberto Contador by four seconds.

Thomas was to take on the Giro d'Italia as captain in the 2017 season and then support Froome in the Tour de France . However, he had to give up the Tour of Italy after the 12th stage due to knee pain, the result of a mass fall in the ninth stage. At the Tour of France he won the opening time trial and defended the yellow jersey of the overall leader up to the 4th stage , but had to give up the race after a fall on a descent of the ninth stage in which he broke his collarbone. In 2018 he won the overall ranking of the Dauphiné Tour , in which Thomas initially fell in the opening time trial and won the team time trial on the third stage. Less than three weeks later, he became the British time trial champion.

Thomas in the yellow jersey on the 18th stage of the Tour de France 2018

Thomas in the time trial on the penultimate stage of the Tour de France 2018

In July 2018, Geraint Thomas started the Tour de France for the ninth time , initially as a helper to four-time Tour winner Chris Froome. After a victory in the eleventh stage, he took over the yellow jersey . The next day he also won the mountain stage to Alpe d'Huez and was thus able to extend the lead in the tour. He was the first to wear the yellow jersey to win this mountain stage and also the first Briton to win this stage. He kept his lead in the overall standings, which he was able to defend with a third place in the final time trial on the 20th stage on the penultimate day of the tour. He is the first Welshman to win the Tour de France.

Honors

Geraint Thomas was honored with the induction into the Hall of Fame of the European cycling association Union Européenne de Cyclisme . In 2015 he was voted Wales Cyclist of the Year and in 2018 BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year . as well as Great Britain's Sportsman of the Year .

Trivia

For his victory in the Tour de France 2018, Thomas received a trophy, which was then displayed at a bike show in Birmingham with the trophies of the Giro d'Italia 2018 and the Vuelta a España 2017 won by Chris Froome . There the cup was stolen.