Nearly a year after losing the Giro d’Italia on the penultimate day, Geraint Thomas is gearing up for his return to the Italian Grand Tour at the Tour of the Alps after a more consistent preparation, without interruption from illness.
In 2023, Thomas’ early season was disrupted by a urinary tract infection (UTI) which prevented him from training regularly and the cause of which wasn’t worked out until spring.
“I’m feeling pretty good, slightly ahead of what I was last year. Well, I've certainly just had a more consistent preparation,” said Thomas at the pre-Tour of the Alps press conference in Neumarkt/Egna.
“Last year I had an issue with a urine infection from Christmas which kept me on and off the bike until we found out the real cause of it in March.
“This year has been a lot more consistent and obviously, I wouldn't say I’m a million miles better but I just feel like I’ve had a better run in, smoother.”
It’s been a slow build-up this time out for the Welshman with only 13 race days, but Thomas is raring to get stuck into competition after lots of time at altitude in the Sierra Nevada.
“I’m really looking forward to racing here, it’s ideal for the Giro,” Thomas said, “And I’m excited to race now because you can train all you want, but it’s good to race.”
Five tough days of racing around the hills and mountains in the South Tyrol region start today from Egna with Thomas seeing all the stages as possibilities for GC action alongside the tough queen stage 4 from Laives to Borgo Valsugana.
“I need to be ready to hit the ground running, I think it's always gonna be a super hard race and it seems quite punchy this year,” he said.
“I see the weather is supposed to get a bit worse but that’s all good prep for the Giro anyway. Just excited to get stuck in.”
Thomas isn’t the only strong GC hopeful preparing for the Giro d'Italia at the Tour of the Alps, with Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Hugh Carthy (EF Education EasyPost), Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla) and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) also here.
Last year’s winner Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) isn’t present, however, and Thomas sees it as a very open competition in the absence of one of the best climbing superstars Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).
“I just think it's open, a lot of good guys here, strong teams. It will be a super hard race to win and hopefully enjoyable,” he said.
“Without the so-called big - however many you want to put in that bracket, two, three, four, whatever - obviously it's a bit more open so we’ll see what happens.”
As he heard mid-press conference that teammate Tom Pidcock had won the Amstel Gold Race, Thomas echoed his feelings about doing the Giro-Tour de France double that it was “getting him out of bed every day” and keeping things exciting in his 18th year.
“To be honest, I just wanted to do something different as it's my 18th year as a professional and I need to keep mixing it up a bit to keep the enjoyment and just something to keep me on my toes, rather than just getting a bit monotonous,” Thomas said of the double attempt which will see him take on Pogačar at both.
“It's a really big goal and I think to be at my best in both is a tough challenge so we’ll see how it goes.
“At the start of the year, I thought I’d try to go a bit more steady in the build-up because I didn't want to be flying in March and have to try and hold onto that til July, and I think Tom Pidcok might have won Amstel - sound, that’s a good result.”
