In July 2019, high in the French Alps, a subdued Geraint Thomas sat unnoticed among the wheelie bins outside the media centre in Val Thorens. A few yards away his teammate Egan Bernal celebrated his first Tour de France victory. The Colombian, then cycling’s fastest rising young talent, had started the Tour as a support rider to the Welshman as defending champion.
A winter spent celebrating his own Tour win the previous year had done just enough to blunt Thomas’s powers. Undercooked, he finished second overall to Bernal in Paris and was left to rue what might have been in a Tour that looked as if it might be his last opportunity, with Bernal set to dominate for years to come.
