‘I’m jealous of everything in his career’ – Michal Kwiatkowski pays tribute to teammate Geraint Thomas as Welshman rides last race

“He’s finishing his career on his terms, and I think a lot of riders would be jealous of what he’s achieved and the way he’s finishing. He should be proud of himself.”

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“Being his teammate was hugely motivating for me and many others. I was always looking at how he was performing, how he was trying to achieve his bigger goals.”

In terms of his own racing, Kwiatkowski had to abandon his home race, the Tour de Pologne, prior to coming to the Vuelta. But he said it had nothing to do with the knee injury from Strade Bianche that plagued the first part of his season.

“I was sick, a lot of guys are this time of year, you see flu and COVID-19 going around, so the best decision was just to stop and quickly recover for the Vuelta,” Kwiatkowski explained.

“If I had kept pushing for those last few days in Poland, that would probably have ruled me out of the Vuelta” – a race he led twice, back in 2016 and again in 2018 – “and I really wanted to race here. So here I am.

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“It’s a shame I was injured earlier this year, though,” the 35-year-old continued, “Because otherwise I would have done the Tour and then probably the Tour of Britain” – with Thomas.

“I’m here in the Vuelta and have nothing to complain about that. But it would have been nice to be in Cardiff for the last stage on Sunday with Geraint.”

While Kwiatkowski says he is feeling good, despite the lack of race days, it has been something of a hard fight to get back on terms after his injury in the first half of the season.

Helping him stay positive was how he felt – prior to falling sick – during the Tour de Pologne, where he was visibly in the thick of the action, both on the steep Stage 2 ascent to Karpacz and helping lead out stage winner Ben Turner.

As for the Vuelta, one encouraging moment came with being in the breakaway on stage 9, and another major highlight was when he guided Turner through the pack on stage 4 for the victory. Then on stage 12, Kwiatkowski was back in the break again, getting ruled in some five kilometres from the line.

“There’s been a great feeling in the team all round in the Vuelta, my day may come or it may not, but either way there’ll be no regrets,” he says, “because I’ve been giving it 100% every day.”

After the Vuelta, Kwiatkowski says he is weighing up a number of options, with everything possible in a bid to get in as many race days as possible after his difficult first part of the season.

“I’ll try to get as many race days as possible….if there are any stage races, I’ll probably do it: there’s Croatia, Guangxi, there is an Italian block of racing, too, which is massive before Lombardia.

“But first things first, I’ll go through the Vuelta and then try to look for as many options as I can.”

All but off the table, though, is taking part in the World Championships, with neither Kwiatkowski nor fellow top Polish pro Rafal Majka set to take part, he says.

“I’d achieve many more things if I do other things than the Worlds,” Kwiatkowski said. “Participation [purely to take part] is not my thing. If I am part of the race, I want to be there at 100%.”

Next week in the Vuelta, though, he will be back on familiar World Championships terrain when stage 17 goes through the city of Ponferrada. That was where Kwiatkowski won the rainbow jersey back in 2014 on a very wet Sunday in September, just a few months before joining Ineos Grenadiers and Geraint Thomas in the team’s previous iteration, Team Sky.

“It’ll be nice to go through there before we go onto the final climb of the day” – the Alto del Morredero – Kwiatkowski recalled with a smile, “though hopefully it won’t be raining this time round!”