‘I forgot I had it on!’ – Geraint Thomas accidentally wears gilet over expensive skinsuit at Tour de France

Geraint Thomas confessed he forgot to take off his gilet for the opening stage time trial at the 2022 Tour de France. The Welshman, bidding for a second Tour title after his 2018 heroics, put himself at a big disadvantage after rolling down the starting ramp still wrapped up in his the aero-sapping jacket. Ad/> The 36-year-old was left frustrated at the finish after revealing to Eurosport he had also struggled for rhythm on the 13.2km run around the wet roads of Copenhagen.

Tour de FranceContador rates Tour chances for Thomas, Yates, not ruling out Cav return29/06/2022 AT 16:20 Asked if he was happy with his ride, Thomas replied: “No, not really. The first half of that I think was the worst cornering I’ve ever done in a TT. “When everyone’s talking to you – ‘take it easy, don’t take risks’ – I just didn’t flow at all.

The main thing for me is just flow. You don’t have to go fast but you have a nice smooth line, you’re flowing with it, carrying your speed and it’s all nice and smooth. “I just felt so bitty and stop-start.

Then when I heard the time check, I was like 18” down on Van der Poel, that’s when I was like ‘oh sod it, forget about what everyone’s saying about taking it easy and just race’. And then I went better.” Thomas can at least take solace from the fact he still came home firmly in the GC picture, albeit behind pre-race favourites Tadej Pogacar (18” ahead) and Primoz Roglic (9”). He admitted he was rattled after noticing he was riding in his «blinking gilet», which was covering his specially-crafted Ineos skinsuit.

“The legs were good anyway. It’s just a shame about the start of it. And then that blinking gilet!" he continued.