{"id":126238,"date":"2025-09-07T20:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126238\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T20:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:21:08","slug":"geraint-thomas-bows-out-of-professional-cycling-at-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126238\/","title":{"rendered":"Geraint Thomas Bows Out Of Professional Cycling At 39"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geraint Thomas<\/a> brought down the curtain on his storied career as his last race, the Tour of Britain, finished Sunday in his hometown. He then celebrated with a party at Cardiff Castle.<\/p>\n

The affable 39-year-old Welshman, who etched his name in cycling history with his 2018 Tour de France victory, was due to mingle with 4,000 lucky guests for his farewell shindig.<\/p>\n

“It is emotional,” Thomas told Welsh broadcaster S4C as he fought back tears at the finish line after Sunday’s final stage, with son Macs and wife Sara. “I am struggling to even speak. I knew I would be emotional, but this is special.”<\/p>\n

For a man who likes nothing better than watching rugby with a pint, the castle party was expected to be a boozy affair after a final race where thousands lined streets across Wales to catch one final glimpse of their cycling star.<\/p>\n

“This support now has just been incredible,” said Thomas at the finish. “I was just choking up on the bike. It was an incredible atmosphere.”<\/p>\n

After 19 years riding his bike professionally, “G” is expected to move into management with British team Ineos Grenadiers and offer his experience to the next generations of hopefuls.<\/p>\n

“He’s like the guy next door — nobody has a bad word to say about him,” his Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford said about Thomas after his Tour triumph. “When he’s on the bike, he makes the sacrifices but when he’s not, he’s the life and soul of the party.”<\/p>\n

For his final day of racing, the Tour of Britain peloton gave him a guard of honor with their bikes.<\/p>\n

On the bike, few have had a more successful career.<\/p>\n

He won two Olympic track gold medals, but his crowning moment was winning a Tour stage atop the legendary Alpe d’Huez climb while wearing the fabled yellow jersey, before going on to secure overall victory in cycling’s most prestigious race.<\/p>\n

When asked this week by Sky in Britain what his greatest achievement was in the sport, Thomas said: “Obviously Olympic medals were insane,” but “I think the Tour was something else. My life definitely changed after that, and for the better.”<\/p>\n

‘Crazy Career Finish For Geraint Thomas<\/p>\n

Thomas’ road cycling palmares may not compare to the sport’s greatest, such as Eddy Merckx or current star Tadej Pogacar, but Thomas enjoyed success — and near misses.<\/p>\n

After winning the 2018 Tour de France at the relatively old age of 32 (Merckx’s last major victories came at 29), Thomas went on to achieve impressive results in the twilight of his career.<\/p>\n

He stood twice more on the Tour podium and twice in the Giro d’Italia top 3. He won prestigious stage races, including the Tour de Suisse and Tour de Romandie since 2018.<\/p>\n

His first major stage-race victory came only two months before he turned 30, at the 2016 Paris-Nice. He won the Criterium du Dauphine the month before his Tour success.<\/p>\n

Before that, he had briefly excelled as a one-day racer, winning the cobbled E3 in 2015, a year after securing top-10 finishes in the two cobbled Monuments: Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.<\/p>\n

That followed a highly successful track cycling career in which he won Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012 in the team pursuit. He also won three world titles in the discipline.<\/p>\n

Apart from his talent, his personality set him apart.<\/p>\n

He launched a podcast with best friend, former cyclist and fellow Welshman Luke Rowe, in 2021.<\/p>\n

On the YouTube version of the podcast, Thomas often is seen stretched out on a bed holding the microphone on his chest — a testament to his laid-back personality.<\/p>\n

Wales’ greatest cyclist was born into a working-class Cardiff family in 1986. He joined the Maindy Flyers cycling club at age 9.<\/p>\n

The final stage of the Tour of Britain went past the club’s outdoor velodrome.<\/p>\n

He attended Whitchurch High School, alongside two other Welsh sporting greats: Sam Warburton from rugby union and footballer Gareth Bale.<\/p>\n

Now, like the other two, he can enjoy his retirement as one of Wales’s sporting greats.<\/p>\n

Catch All The Best Races, Highlights, Insight, News And More On FloBikes<\/p>\n

FloBikes is the streaming home to some of the best cycling from across the globe. Check out the broadcast schedule to watch more of your favorites in action.<\/a><\/p>\n

FloBikes Archived Footage<\/p>\n

Video footage from each event will be archived and stored in a video library for FloBikes<\/a> subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscriptions.<\/p>\n

Join The Conversation On FloBikes Social<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geraint Thomas brought down the curtain on his storied career as his last race, the Tour of Britain,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-126238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}