Interesting words from Geraint Thomas on how he lost weight and it ruined his form; an important lesson.
Already with a palmares that most riders would be delighted with, Geraint Thomas put in a fantastic ride in the Tour de France last year and was then tipped to be an overall contender in this year’s edition.
The Welsh Team Sky rider responded by doubling up on his preparation and losing weight in a bid to climb better and push himself in that group of riders at the top of the Tour leader board.
It was a tactic that worked well for Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, both of whom won the Tour having lost a huge amount of weight.
However, Thomas’s experience underlines the dangers with thinning down too much and how it can ruin a rider’s form.
Advertisement
He won Paris-Nice in the spring but when the Tour of Romandie and Tour de Suisse came around he had sabotaged his form by trying to lose too much weight.
Related News
He said his 17th place overall in Switzerland had dented his confidence.
On stage 6 of the race Thomas was in a great position to take the race leader when the leader Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) was dropped from the lead group on a climb.
However, struggling in the cold and finding himself without his usual power on the climb – which he now puts down to losing too much weight – Thomas was also dropped and dropped down the classification.
“Looking back I could see the mistakes that I made with losing too much weight, too quickly, while doing a load of training,” he said.
“That just took me a while to regroup mentally as well as physically. My weight had been up and down and it wasn’t what I was used to.
“When I’ve gone to the Tour before I’ve been confident but this year it was totally different. I just pushed it too far with the weight loss, losing the last bit too quickly.
“There was more travelling and I was training hard. It caught up with me, and then at Suisse, well I’m Welsh so I’m used to the rain, but it was tough after seven days of that.
“I was drained and it really knocked my confidence, especially after being second in that race the year before. I was too eager and just pushed it too much,” he told Cycling News.
Topics
