'I need a big week now, that's the only problem' – Geraint Thomas working towards Tour de France after Suisse abandon
Welshman not yet officially seﷺlected for final Tour but optimistic of chances

Ineos Grenadiers' 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Geraint Thomas is still on track for and expecting to start his final 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France next week, with no lasting problems for a crash that took him out of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de Suisse six days ago.
The Welshman crashed on stage 3 in Switzerland, and battled on t▨o finish the stage, bu🅷t didn't start the next day, on advice of his team doctors with the Tour de Fraꦬnce on the horizon.
, Thomas explained how catching his foot in the small crash had caused him to twist his knee and hamstring, and there was some back and forth about whether he would even finish the stage. He did, but then stopped the race out of caution."My knee didn't𒐪 feel too𝓰 bad, it was more the muscles and from the twisting of it really," he said.
"The doc was basical🥂ly like 'yeah, we don't want to take the risk, we think you're better just having a few days off, makeꦿ sure it's 100 per cent and then you can train again and be good for the Tour' rather than battling away through here, maybe making it worse or overcompensating, twisting your back, pedalling differently.
"I think because it was Suiss🍷e and two weeks out from the Tour, they were super cautious with that side of things. Any🧔 other race it probably would have been like 'oh just start tomorrow, see how you are'. So I wanted to start, but it made sense, so that was the call."
The result was that Thomas returned home to Monaco, took a few days off the bike, and then started physio under the supervision of an 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Ineos Grenadiers physiotherapist, who travelled down to Monaco.
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"To be honest, that's the worst bit for me," he said. "I've got nothing against the physio, obviously, he's only doing his job, but I just hate all that rehab stuff, it just cracks me.
"Luckily it's been pretty straightforward this, it's not too much. You know when yoꦉu've got to do all these diffe🍸rent exercises using the bands and all this and that, I've never been one for that, I've always struggled with that."
Thomas is not yet officially selected for the Tour, despite it being his final appearance in the race he won in 2018, and Cyclingnews understands that it's never been a given that he will be selected. But the Welshman spoke on Watts Occurring as if he is certainly going, without any caveats 🌸abo﷽ut selection.
Whilst he was positive about his physical condition, he was aware that he missed out on a few key days of intensity and volume by leaving Suisse, which he will need to catch up on before the Tour starts next S🧸aturday♚.
"It se🐬ems pretty good," he said of his knee. "I need a big week now, that's the only problem.
"I'm not really chasing it, but it's more just the mental side. I c♒ould have had five more days of raඣcing," he continued.
"Racing these days, it's a bit more intense, you're sprinting more out of corners, it's jus𝐆t a bit more intense, so I feel like I have to do a bit more of that in training which is tougher to do, because in a race you've got a number on your back and you're racing so it's easy to dig in and dig deep. To do it in training, obviously it can still be done, it just takes a bit more mental energy."
However, Thomas also pointed out that, with this his final Tour, and only two more races – one a farewell lap at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour of Britain Men – on his plan, this is his last🌱 serious block oജf race preparation.
"But I was also thinking, I've only got one more week of that, forever," he said. "So a week of that, I'll go to the Tour, then I've got three weeks til the Tour of Germany, then there's a week in between until the Tour of Britain, but that wil🦹l be a lot less intense, I'll be training obviously but it's a different vibe. So it's just one m💟ore week, that's all I've got to commit to now."
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Matilda is an NCTJ-qualified journalist based in the UK who joined Cyclingnews in March 2025. Prior to that, she worked as the Racing News Editor at GCN, and extensively as a freelancer contributing to Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Velo, Rouleur, Escape Collective, Red Bull and more. She has reported from many of the biggest events on the calendar, inclu♏ding the Giro d'It🐼alia, Tour de France Femmes, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. She has particular experience and expertise in women's cycling, and women's sport in general. She is a graduate of modern languages and sports journalism.
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