In an interview with The Guardian, Geraint Thomas has revealed his frustration at the Tour de France before the team time trial when he was informed that he would be left behind if he had a puncture of a crash and that only Froome would be protected.
“I was frustrated because I thought I was also a protected rider,” Thomas explained. “But it’s not a decision they took lightly. They would have thought about it and debated it. I said my bit, and they said: ‘No.’ So you have to accept it. The likelihood (of a puncture) is really slim but at the time I thought it’s a shit situation. Yeah, it dragged me down a bit, but you let it go.”
Thomas stated that his relationship with Froome didn’t suffer because of the race.
“The biggest thing with Froomey was that it was never awkward,” he explained. “He would have been gutted because he wanted to win a fifth Tour and three grand tours on the trot. But when he congratulated me he seemed genuine, and since the Tour, we’ve had a couple of nights out.”
“I’d love to win it again,” he said. “Each year’s different but I still feel I’m improving even though I’m 32. I still have the motivation and commitment where I think Brad Wiggins, once he’d won it [in 2012], didn’t have 100% motivation. I’ve still got the appetite. I enjoyed the whole race – not just the end.”
