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news
“It’s just overwhelming” – Geraint Thomas on winning the Tour de France (+ video highlights)
Geraint Thomas has said that winning the Tour de France is “just overwhelming” after assuring himself of victory in Paris tomorrow by maintain an overall lead of 1 minute 51 seconds over Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin after today’s individual time trial.
There were emotional scenes after Thomas, in the yellow skinsuit of race leader, crossed the line in Espelette to be greeted by his wife Sara, who had travelled to France this morning without telling him, so as not to break his concentration.
The 32-year-old could also be seen on TV in a lengthy embrace with Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford – who was also his performance director at British Cycling, with whom Thomas won two Olympic gold medals in the team pursuit – ahead of the podium presentations following today’s stage.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Thomas. “It’s just overwhelming. I didn’t think about winning the Tour de France for the whole race and suddenly … I’ve won the Tour, man! I can’t speak.
“It’s just incredible,” he continued. “The last time I cried is when I got married. I don’t know what’s happening to me.”
Regarding today’s stage, which he finished in third place, 14 seconds behind Dumoulin, he said: “I felt good today. I felt strong in the time trial. I felt really good actually.
“I heard I was up and I pushing a bit hard in the corners sometimes. [Sports director] Nico [Portal] told me to take it easy and be a bit more relaxed, just to make sure I win the Tour. That’s what I did.
“It was stressful,” he added. “I believed I could beat the guys here. It was the biggest stage of all over three weeks. It’s wonderful!”
Brailsford, who has now guided a third British rider to Tour de France victory with Team Sky, told Eurosport how he and Thomas had approached today’s stage: “We talked about how he’s ridden in big Olympic finals, and it’s a similar type of day.
“You have to keep focused on the process and don’t let your mind wander [thinking] ‘what happens if I win, what happens if I lose, what happens if I crash, what happens if it rains, what happens if it doesn’t? What are my competitors going to do?
"And all you can do is focus on the process and he’s done that over years and years and years and I think those years of experience is what he had to bring to the table today.
"I think he was nervous. There’s always going to be a performance anxiety at these events at this level – everyone has it, it’s just human – and it’s how you manage it [which is key]. He’s managed it superbly.
"He's shown he was the strongest rider in the race and it was highly improbable he wasn't going to be as strong as them today, so as long as he stayed on his bike he was pretty safe."
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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61 comments
I'm still not sure whether bike.owner was just a regular poster having a laugh. It's just not possible to genuinely be that big an arse. When reading his latest ding-dong, I was always reminded of Alan Partridge's interview with a farmer, who said, "You seem to alienate everyone you come across, including, I gather, your wife, which is why you ended up living like some bloody tramp in a lay-by."
- IT'S A TRAVEL TAVERN
Coincidentally, that's what I have written on my business cards.
Be honest, though, there's a little bit of you that misses him, right?
I'm glad he's been barred. He's done nothing since joining but be arrogant, arsey, over-opinionated and combative with everyone. Maybe he'll calm down a bit if he's allowed back in?
"Also, if we fed Boatsie's posts into an AI, we'd probably end up with some kind of Terminator based apocalypse." That actually made me burst out laughing - I fear you may well be right
!
I fear that bike.owner had more serious problems than just being an arrogant arse, I doubt a ban will change any of that.
Neither sinbins nor bans work, it isn't difficult to get other log ins. Fortunately bike.owner and valbrona have particular styles which will have them outed in a very short period of time if they were to return under other names, and more importantly continue with the same messages.
So, are you suggesting an AI based approach to build a database of users and their posting style signatures? Maybe a Markov Chain based approach would work as well.
On the other hand, I think bans/sin bins would work well enough for the small number of "problem" posters. Also, if we fed Boatsie's posts into an AI, we'd probably end up with some kind of Terminator based apocalypse.
A sinbin does sound like a fair idea, or maybe a time expiring yellow card thing, yes I know, football but we all know what it means.
If only that superpython bloke had toned it down just a little bit, then maybe his interesting and insightful views would still be being read.
Bring back Superpython!
Always thought that BTBS was SuperPython re-incarnted. Either literally or just spiritually.
Thanks for the explanation, Tony.
Personally, I think you'd have been justified for banning him for your spat - it's one thing to criticise an article, but another to start arguing with the editor/writers. I thought at the time that he was going to get banned as you clearly told him to go to other bike sites if he didn't like this one.
Have you thought about implementing some kind of sin bin - maybe no commenting for a week if someone oversteps the line? That would moderate some of the exuberance shown in this thread but without being overly harsh on the perps.
Yes some sort of a sin bin would be really useful. In fact it was a form of that that I was trying to implement when bike.owner got deleted. That needs working on then!
A sin bin or something similar would definitely be our preferred option - we just need to find the right module to plug in to the forum software.
Two contributors?
Cheers Tony.
Has bike.owner been ban-hammered? All his squirrels have gone.
Now my pictures look even more out-of-place than they usually do.
I bet it was his spat with Tony Farrelly on the Campy bike article.
Looks like it - the threads i've looked at have the touch of Thanos about them...
Yes he has but not intentionally, and not for his spat with me – that would be too easy and feel a bit wrong.
I'm sure he won't believe that. And if it's any comfort to bike.owner he actually got a few extra days on the site – we were going to boot him last week for his comments to another commenter on the legal blog which topped off all the abuse and general snarkiness he's dished out in his relatively short career as a commenter on road.cc. As we've said before, we'll tolerate some swearing and even the odd bit of verbal roughstuff, but we won't tolerate it from the same people all the time and especially from those that feel the need to pick a fight on every comment thread.
The number of people we've banned in 10 years is still barely if at all in to double figures - we don't like banning people, but if you come on to the site and consistently share your opinions in ways that make it a less inviting place for other people to share theirs you can expect to be ban-hammered – and without warning. This applies to an infintessimaly small number of the people who post on this site - though two of the contributors to this thread should maybe consider watching their Ps and Qs for a while. I'm sure we all know who they are.
Really sorry if any replies to him you were particularly fond of got rinsed along with bike.owner.
In related news bike.owner.ghost is currently in the account approvals queue - he's not getting in tonight (bike.owner and his ghost are surely male) but we might let him in in the morning. We do have a new poll widget we've been trying out so there has been some discussion of putting bike.owner.ghost in or out? to a vote, but it does rather feel like putting someone in the virtual stocks… which we don't want to do. On the other hand voting is generally a good thing.
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
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I'm enjoying these squirrels. Don't let BTBS see that disc brake one as he'll be off on a rant.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
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This thread is like Thunderdome: two men enter; everyone leaves a bit dumber.
"bust a deal, lose my wheel"
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"Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on a forum busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?".
Morning all. Think I should’ve worn a helmet for this thread.
I did. It didn't protect me.
You need disc brakes for this thread too. Not required in normal conditions, but when it gets a bit stormy they prove their worth.
The multi day races are just as much about the team as the individuals who make up the team. Team Sky has the greatest depth of team members to support their leader, so have a high level of performance.
I suppose when a Sky ex joins another team, the last thing a coach would want to hear is that ex Sky member telling his new coach, you're doing it wrong.
Thomas was humble in victory and Froome was magnanimous in defeat. Neither are actors, so one would assume that the emotions they displayed yesterday were genuine. It has been a thrilling three weeks and Thomas' story seems to strike a bit more of a chord with Joe Public than Froome's, and will definitely recruit a few more young 'uns to the sport, whose parents might then be a bit nicer to cyclists when they encounter them on the road. What's not to like?
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