‘I gambled a bit but it was under control’ - Geraint Thomas unclips at crucial moment but recovers well at Giro d’Italia

Thomas forced to unclip from pedals as Romain Bardet attacked, but the Welshman keeps his cool and Ineos Grenadiers take control of gravel stage

17:32, Thursday 9th May 2024

George Poole

Junior Writer

Ineos Grenadiers took charge on the gravel sectors of stage 6

With a little over 4km of stage 6 at the Giro d’Italia to ride, a rejuvenated Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) put his opening weekend sickness behind him and attacked from the peloton as the race entered Siena. The Frenchman’s attack was the only move to come from the GC group, but it certainly piled the pressure on those within, not least of which on the man in second place overall, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).

Some distance away from the hustle and bustle of central Siena, the Welshman reflected on the Giro’s gravel stage with GCN as he warmed down on a set of rollers.

For all the control that his team had seemed to exert throughout the course of the afternoon, the 37-year-old revealed that things had threatened to go up in smoke as Bardet made his jaunt off the front.

“I was overlapping some wheel and there was a bit of a touch and I had to unclip, luckily got my foot in pretty quickly and I was at the back of the group then. I saw Bardet go and I was thinking ‘oh crap,’” he told GCN, a slight grin on his face having recovered from the initial panic.

“I knew it was only short so I just gambled a bit and didn’t want to just sprint and be totally in the red. I gambled that most of the guys would be able to hold the wheel, it was ok, I went over the top in around tenth position and moved up slightly on the descent. It was all under control really.”

With the threat of losing more time to the likes of race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) extinguished, Thomas made sure to stay towards the front of the group after the short but steep climb. Only a few kilometres remained to the finish in Siena, where his teammate and stage 1 winner Jhonatan Narváez won the sprint of the riders in the peloton, but was left disappointed after the day’s breakaway had narrowly managed to hang on to contest the day’s honours.

Ineos Grenadiers’ work on the front of the bunch was not for nothing, though, with Thomas avoiding any of the pitfalls that surround a stage ridden over the Tuscan sterrata - a brief unclipping notwithstanding. Coming across the line with the situation on GC remaining unchanged, the Welshman was quick to praise his teammates for their day’s work.

“We just rode really well, made sure we got on the front, dictated what was happening and we were in control there. That’s the safest place to be and the boys rode incredible all day really,” he said, noting the anxiety that had captured the peloton on Thursday afternoon.

“Because of the gravel, everyone was obviously stressed about being in a good position, but the team were really good and it’s a shame that the breakaway was just in front at the end.”

Arensman back on form as team strength shines through

Often heading up the peloton on behalf of Thomas was the duo of Magnus Sheffield and Thymen Arensman, in particular. The hard work of the latter did not escape the attention of Thomas and his Ineos Grenadiers sports director Zak Dempster, both of whom had reiterated their faith in the Dutch climber after his poor performances in the race’s first two stages.

Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) looks to have recovered from his early time losses, leading maglia rosa Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on stage 6

“He’s feeling a lot more like himself and like I say, we as a team believe in Thymen, we believe in the process we have in place around him to prepare him for this. Obviously those first few days he wasn’t himself and it was just about getting our arms around him and steadying the ship. Cycling is ups and downs and you can never throw the toys out of the cot,” Dempster told GCN at the team bus, explaining the thought process behind his team swamping the front of the peloton as the race neared Siena.

“In that level of group, we saw [Juan Pedro] López had an incident, [Einer] Rubio had an incident and you see all the incidents happen in the back. A part of our plan was to definitely keep G in position but at the same time, we had Jonny there.”

The Ecuadorian was denied by the breakaway and an opportunistic move from Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost) in the finale, placing fifth on the line. It is another day “ticked off,” however, as Thomas put it to GCN, and his time deficit to Pogačar in the maglia rosa remains at 46 seconds.

There are lots of positives for the former Tour de France winner to take from the first week of racing, but for the time being at least, Thomas would not be drawn into revealing when he might start to think about turning defence into attack on the race lead of the Slovenian.

“It all depends on how the race unfolds to start with anyway. If he has teammates, how it’s looking etc. He’s an incredible guy so there’s no point in attacking if I don’t feel I can get to the line strongly as well,” he said. “We’ll just play it day by day.”

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