Geraint Thomas ‘legless’ on first Vuelta a España summit finish

After finishing on the podium of his past two Grand Tours, Geraint Thomas came into the Vuelta a España full of confidence but his morale took a hit on the opening summit finish of the race.

The Welshman started to struggle a few kilometres from the top of the climb to Arinsal in Andorra and, after struggling to cling to the back of a thinning lead group, was dropped over 3km from the line.

He reached the finish in 23rd place on stage 3, conceding just over three-quarters of a minute to his key general classification rivals.

“Today I was just legless, really. There’s not much more to say,” Thomas said after wrapping up and collecting himself at a chilly finish line at 1900 metres. “I felt ok in the day, then the last climb I didn’t feel I had anything in there to really push.”

Thomas, who crashed the previous day and cut his knee, started to drift towards the pack as Jay Vine ramped up his pacing efforts on behalf of UAE Team Emirates. With around 4km to go, Thomas was in last position of a group that was down to around 25. The trigger for him to be dropped appeared to be Juan Ayuso’s attack with 2.5km to go, which burst the race open.

Things did slow down as they became tactical, allowing Thomas to limit the damage, but he was unable to latch onto the small chase group that was just behind the group of big names.

“I was trying to back-foot at the back, just kind of yo-yo-ing off it, and that’s not the best place to be.

“It was expected - all the usual suspects up there and strong. When that break went with [Damiano] Caruso there, we knew they’d ride to keep it close, then do a hard pace on the last climb. For me, I just didn’t have it today. A day to forget about.”

Thomas crossed the line alongside his teammate Egan Bernal, with Ineos’ best finisher being Thymen Arensman, himself unable to keep pace with the favourites and finishing just over 20 seconds back.

Such an early blow may not bode well for the rest of the race, but then again such a rude awakening so early in the race may not tell the story of a rider’s form over three weeks.

“Obviously it’s early on, and we’ve still got about 16 hard days to come,” Thomas said. “I won’t get too despondent just yet, and just keep fighting.”