FRESH PERSPECTIVE FRESH LEGS

Geraint Thomas looks ahead to the Tour de France, and talks about the new focus that has come with fatherhood, and how lockdown has rekindled his love of racing

Taking stock, reassessing, gaining a new perspective. It’s been a common story this year and Geraint Thomas — the Welsh third of Team Ineos’s trio of Tour de France hitmen — is no different.

“This lockdown period has definitely made me realise that I still love just racing really, and that’s what I want to do,” he told Cycling Weekly from his Monaco home, as he was getting ready to put the finishing touches to his training ahead of the coming season. “Because I enjoy training — I enjoy riding my bike and you know, pushing yourself,” he underlines, “but there comes a point when you’re just like, Oh, I need that competition.”

While most of us would have contented ourselves with that level of personal insight, Thomas has experienced a whole new level of profundity since the end of the last season, having had a baby boy, Max, with his wife Sara in October.

The 34-year-old says becoming a father has freshened his perspective, enabling him to see the bigger picture. “You know, if you have a crap day on the bike or whatever, and then come back and come back to him... yeah, you realise there’s bigger things,” he says. And while you’d imagine it’s easy to lose sight of career goals when you have the responsibility of parenthood to think about, Thomas says if anything it’s strengthened his resolve to do things properly on the bike.

“It’s definitely a different dimension now with the boy but I think it does make you focus and commit a bit more — I guess be a bit more productive with everything you’re doing. And you know, when you go away — not that I’ve been away much now, but, you know, to the odd camp or whatever — well, for one you enjoy the sleep, but you’re just able to sort of commit to it more I think,” he says.