Geraint Thomas refocuses Vuelta a España goals after podium slips away

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) has hinted that stage wins are now his main focus at the Vuelta a España after the Welshman consistently lost time in the GC battle during week one.

Thomas went into the first rest-day at the Vuelta in 22nd place overall, and over 12 minutes down on current red jersey, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma).

The 2018 Tour de France winner arrived at the Vuelta with aspirations of winning the race, having finished on the podium in his last two Grand Tours, but he has been dropped on each mountain stage, while two crashes have had an effect on the veteran’s health.

“It’s been up and down, mainly down on the floor as much as anything else. It’s been a tough week for the team, and obviously for me personally,” Thomas said on the rest day.

Read more: Vuelta a España: Geraint Thomas loses time after crash on stage 7

Ineos have endured a disappointing Vuelta by their standards with Laurens De Plus crashing out in the opening team time trial on stage 1 and Thymen Arensman leaving the race on stage 7 - again due to a crash.

“Losing two of our climbers as well, it’s not ideal with the terrain that we have and still have to come, but we just try to put this one behind us now, and try to be positive. We’ll try and look for opportunities for the rest of the race. There are still a lot of chances and we’ve still got a good team. We can still potentially do something good, it’s just about keeping morale up and seeing what we can do."

Filippo Ganna has taken second on a stage, while Ineos do have a strong core of domestiques and climbers who could win from breaks now that their GC duties have been lifted.

Thomas believes that with two weeks to go there’s still plenty of road left in this Vuelta, and that the British team will turn their attention to rescuing their race.

“We’re going to have to take every day as it comes. You can never say it’s over because with one breakaway you can be back in the mix but I’d say the podium is a hell of a long way off now and it’s about refocusing and looking at each stage. With the sprints you never know with Filippo. He’s got a massive engine, so we just need to be aggressive and be on it,” he said.

In terms of the overall classification, Thomas pointed to Jumbo-Visma as the obvious team to beat. The Dutch squad lead the race and still have three potential cards to play in terms of the overall standings with Kuss, Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard at the top of their game.

“Obviously Jumbo are the standout team at the moment with the way that they’ve been riding all year,” Thomas said.

“They’re just on the crest of a wave. Everything is going right for them and they’re in a commanding position but UAE are looking strong, so we’ll see how it goes but it will take a big effort to take over from Jumbo. Remco is in the mix and I wouldn't write him off but Jumbo are in a commanding position.”

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