Geraint Thomas starts the 2023 Vuelta a España in Barcelona on Saturday as a rock to cling to in choppy waters. Beset by rumours and uncertainty, his Ineos Grenadiers team are once again relying on the 37-year-old Welshman to lead from the front, as he did when finishing a very close second to Primoz Roglic in this year’s Giro d’Italia.
The British team are in upheaval after the loss of star riders, including the 2020 Giro d’Italia winner, Tao Geoghegan Hart, one of several to move to rival teams in recent weeks. Swirling around the team, whose transfer spending currently appears frozen, are rumours of mergers, acquisitions and personnel changes, focusing on the current Vuelta champion, Remco Evenepoel, also a friend of Thomas’s.
