Geraint Thomas

shipley

"Surprise of the month" for me this season.

With all the pre-Tour cack about Wiggins and Cavendish (about which I was sceptical bearing in mind the hype over Wiggins and Cav's crap start to the season) I never thought Thomas would do as well as he did because I never saw him coming.

I do hope he carries on with his steady progress and becomes a consistent challenger

afx237vi

I hope you're right, but I can't help feel people are getting a little carried away here. Yes, he had a good first week, he rode the cobbles well, he's a capable time trialist, but I can't see how that necessarily translates into him being a GT contender. The first time he was challenged in the mountains he went out the back almost immediately.

I know he's only 24, but so is Kreuziger. So is Gesink. Nibali and Schleck are only a year older. Why have they got so much on their palmares already, yet someone like Chris Boardman is tipping Geraint Thomas as a future Tour winner?

http://road.cc/content/news/20935-gerai ... s-boardman

On what basis he has he reached that conclusion? This paragraph made me smile tbh: "The only time Thomas couldn’t stay with the pace was when the favourites put the hammer down on the Alpine passes of the Alps and Pyrenees." Uhh... they're quite important bits of the race.

I like him as a rider, and as a fellow Welshman I hope he does well. But how about we wait for people to show some potential over an entire three weeks before we start piling the pressure on?

Kléber

I'm with you AFX. He seems a good rider and is intelligent on the road too. But he got dropped on the road up to Les Rousses. It's possible Boardman knows his numbers and is projecting a weight loss but I can't help wonder if Thomas is better suited to other efforts.

The Tour is such a prize that you can't help notice so many riders who come close and then spend years chasing successes when they'd probably be better in other races. I think Chavanel, for example, focussed so much energy on the Tour in the past before "discovering" he was actually better suited to the classics.

calvjones

How can anyone not think Thomas is better suited to flatter Classics than GTs is beyond me.

I suppose Boardman is bound to say dull things occasionally, given how much he's called on to talk about the Tour

Pross

I actually thought he may be a future Tour contender before the race and the first week gave me hope but his climbing wasn't even as strong as I hoped. Definately a future classic winner and maybe an outsider for a shorter stage race but I don't think he's going to be a GT contender.

squired

My view is that he wasn't getting the most out of himself when he was riding for Barloworld. Presumably they are working to help him get the most he possibly can out of his abilities at Team Sky. If he is going to turn into a top rider we will know one way or another in the next couple of years.

Greg Lemond said when Chris Boardman was a pro that he believed any decent time trialist can turn himself into a Grand Tour rider, so I can imagine that Boardman is applying the same logic here.

lloyd_bower

afx237vi wrote:

I
http://road.cc/content/news/20935-gerai ... s-boardman
On what basis he has he reached that conclusion? This paragraph made me smile tbh: "The only time Thomas couldn’t stay with the pace was when the favourites put the hammer down on the Alpine passes of the Alps and Pyrenees." Uhh... they're quite important bits of the race.

I like him as a rider, and as a fellow Welshman I hope he does well. But how about we wait for people to show some potential over an entire three weeks before we start piling the pressure on?

Probably not surprising as Boardman thought himself a future a Tour winner, but never trained for mountains as was not the right build. He never came close, though clearly not helped competing against others doped to the eyeballs.

eh

I've always thought that Geraint is more of a Bettini style rider, can get up and down decent hills, good sprint etc. His rides on cobbles as junior and again this year are top class and I'd like to see him have a crack at the likes of Flanders, P-R, LBL and Lombardy.

I don't however see him as a TDF or Giro contender, as he can't climb the big mountains fast enough. I guess Vuelta maybe possible as a complete outside.

Still super class rider and hopefully he can kick on and keep in improving.

mroli

lloyd bower wrote:

Probably not surprising as Boardman thought himself a future a Tour winner, but never trained for mountains as was not the right build. He never came close, though clearly not helped competing against others doped to the eyeballs.

Didn't I read somwhere that Boardman had some sort of medical condition too (slow metabolism? Something like that) that made the long tours very hard for him?

ballspondroad

Suffered from low testosterone apparently which hampered his recovery - was about to start treatment when that sort of thing became unfashionable.