Geraint Thomas: Ineos Grenadiers remind me of the early Team Sky years

Geraint Thomas will turn 38 on the penultimate day of this year’s Giro d’Italia but the veteran Grand Tour winner isn’t diluting his ambitions anytime soon with the Giro-Tour de France double on his schedule for 2024.

Speaking exclusively to GCN from his current base in Tenerife a day after his calendar reveal, Thomas pointed to the fact that the younger riders on Ineos Grenadiers are fueling his undiminishing competitiveness and that he sees parallels between Ineos Grenadiers’ current standing in the sport and the first incarnation of Team Sky from early 2010.

Back then Thomas was a track specialist aiming at the team pursuit at the London Olympic Games and Dave Brailsford’s utopian idea of winning the Tour with a British rider within five years drew mockery from the established pillars of the sport. A decade later and the team had won seven Tours and a clutch of other major honours, and while the team have slipped from their pedestal as the all-conquering force they once were, Thomas sees similarities between Sky back in those basal days and Ineos now.

The British team has certainly gone through a phase of transition in the last 18 months, with several high-profile management figures departing and a raft of new faces taking over. Moreover, the rider recruitment over the last three years has centred on young talent with the likes of Magnus Sheffield, Andrew ‘AJ’ August, Josh Tarling and Theodor Storm joining the squad.

Read more: Josh Tarling: Ineos Grenadiers will be a really strong team in the coming years

The two colossuses of stage racing, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), remain head and shoulders above the pack but Thomas is confident that he and Ineos’ young conscripts can close the gap.

“With the whole change, it’s only natural that you’re going to be knocked off the top at some point. The challenging bit is getting back to the top but Jonas Vingegaard and Pogačar are pretty strong. It’s not just about the team and the structure, because at the end of the day, it comes down to the riders and they’re pretty talented. But there’s no reason why we can’t compete with them, and racing as I’ve said, it’s like a test in a lab.

It’s good having our young guys and in a way, it reminds me of the start of Sky, when we had a core group of young guys who can develop,” Thomas told GCN.

“In this day and age, a lot of people don’t want to wait around but in a couple of years, this group can really develop into a really strong team. It just takes time but at the moment we can still be competitive and it’s only going to get better.”

Ineos Grenadiers' Giro d'Italia squad takes shape

Thomas will likely be surrounded by a number of the Ineos youngsters when it comes to the Giro d’Italia in May. Elia Viviani, Salvatore Puccio and Filippo Ganna will form the core of the team alongside the Welshman but several spots will be filled by the likes of Thymen Arensman and Magnus Sheffield, with the latter on the longlist to make his Grand Tour debut in Italy.

“Thymen would like to go again and he’s someone who is always improving and getting more and more consistent. He’ll be a great guy to be racing alongside as well. For the rest of the team, I’m not too sure. It’ll be slightly compromised because they’ll send the best team to the Tour, but we’ve got a strong squad of bike riders. Maybe it’s more compromised on experience, rather than ability,” Thomas added.

Read more: Geraint Thomas to ride both Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in 2024

“Magnus is on the long list and he’s someone who is also a massive talent. He’s down in Nice and training with [Michał] Kwiatkowski, and Magnus and Carlos [Rodríguez] are so wise, definitely older than beyond their years. When I think about what I was like at 21 or 22, I wasn’t as switched on as they are. When it comes to racing they’re raw and young, but they go into it as massive talents.”

Thomas also admitted that the young riders are an inspiration in many ways. The former Tour de France winner signed a two-year contract extension in the off-season and did so under the proviso that he would remain competitive through the last phase of his career. He has no ambitions of slipping back through the pack during his latter years as a pro rider. That partly comes down to pride but also a sense that time is running out and that he only needs to make huge sacrifices for another 18 months or so before he can contemplate the idea of immersing himself in the real world of beach holidays with the family and time away from the bike.

“The training camps have got quicker and better. Everyone is leaner and we’re in Tenerife in January. The cycling world is changing. It keeps me young, I guess, and pushing forward. My ego comes into play and I don’t want to be overtaken by a flux of new guys. I want to keep ahead of the game, in a healthy way. That’s what gets the best out of me,” he added.

“With the Giro and Tour this year, I’ve got to be on it for a long time but by September next year, I’ll be done. More than likely anyway, and then I can eat whatever I want for the next sixty years or so. I might as well commit to a few months, right?’”