{"id":126594,"date":"2025-09-07T12:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T12:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126594\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T12:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T12:59:07","slug":"thomas-retires-from-cycling-in-spectacular-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126594\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas retires from cycling in spectacular fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

One more day as a professional cyclist: Geraint Thomas<\/a> ends his career in his hometown of Cardiff. At the Tour of Britain<\/a>, the 39-year-old veteran says goodbye to the peloton, and his very last professional race has been turned into a grand celebration. With masks, banners, jerseys, and praise from fellow riders, it\u2019s a very special send-off for G.Thomas is racing the Tour of Britain with his teammates in a special INEOS jersey. But it\u2019s not just his team that has done something special. Geraint Thomas masks have been handed out, something that even other riders, including Julian Alaphilippe<\/a>, joined in on. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit surreal,\u201d Thomas laughs in an interview with Sporza<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit weird because I see my face everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, jokes aside, it\u2019s a truly special week for Thomas. After 19 seasons as a pro, the journey has come to an end. But the ecstatic British fans are making this final race incredibly special. \u201cThe support is fantastic. It\u2019s really a privilege to finish here. Now it\u2019s all about enjoying the moment and taking it all in. I\u2019m never going to do this again. I feel a bit like a kid waiting for Christmas. Suddenly, the moment is here.\u201d<\/p>\n

What’s next for Thomas? “There are a few opportunities lurking around the corner”<\/p>\n

With two Olympic gold medals on the track under his belt \u2014 and perhaps best of all, his 2018 Tour de France victory \u2014 the Brit has cemented his name in cycling history. \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky to experience some great moments. Those three weeks were incredible. Now I\u2019m going to enjoy some time off and stay away from racing for a few weeks. After that, I\u2019m sure the itch will come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still unclear what lies ahead for Thomas after his cycling career. There are persistent rumors that he\u2019ll take on a role as sports director at INEOS Grenadiers<\/a>, but Thomas himself isn\u2019t revealing much. \u201cThere are a few opportunities lurking around the corner. I\u2019m definitely looking forward to what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read on below the video!<\/p>\n

Evenepoel praises Thomas: “A really great guy”Remco Evenepoel<\/a> is also racing the Tour of Britain. The winner of stage five had nothing but praise for Thomas. When the Belgian was around 18 years old, Thomas won the Tour de France. \u201cI was at the Tour he won, at Vive le V\u00e9lo. And that\u2019s when I got to visit their team bus for the first time. Every Tour winner is an inspiration,\u201d said Evenepoel.<\/p>\n

G will be missed in the peloton. Not just by his younger teammates, who benefited from his experience, but also because of who he is as a person. \u201cI get along with him really well. He\u2019s a super cool guy, a really great guy. And the respect is mutual. It\u2019s kind of an unwritten rule that champions respect each other. That\u2019s certainly the case with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also both good friends with Laurens De Plus. We click well. I\u2019ve never had any issues with G.\u201d Thomas may be a late bloomer, quite the opposite of young prodigy Evenepoel, but the Belgian draws inspiration from the 14-years-older Brit, who won the Tour at the age of 32. \u201cThat\u2019s a great example of never giving up. You have to always keep believing. One day, patience pays off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One more day as a professional cyclist: Geraint Thomas ends his career in his hometown of Cardiff. At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-126594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}