Latest news with #Froome
Daily Mirror
01-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Simon Yates atones for past heartbreak as he claims Giro d'Italia glory in Rome
Simon Yates previously endured a near miss in the Giro d'Italia but seven years on from that disappointment he claimed glory as he rode into Rome to claim another Grand Tour success His tears fell like melting Alpine snow on the forbidding slopes where imminent triumph had evaporated seven years ago. It was on the Colle delle Finestre, with the Giro d'Italia's fabled maglia rosa (pink jersey) at his mercy, that Simon Yates cracked in 2018 and fellow Brit Chris Froome disappeared over the horizon on a stunning 50-mile solo breakaway. But as Yates rode into Rome as Britain's 12th Grand Tour winner since 2012, this time he was pretty in pink. If the Finestre had broken his resolve when Va Va Froome's ambush left him 38 minutes down the road, this time it was a 7,146ft monument to Yates's spirit. When historians compile their dossiers on a golden age for British cycling, the pages will show that only all-time great Froome has won more Grand Tours than the Boy from Bury. And unsung or not, Yates will take his place in the pantheon of our blazing saddles on the road. Sir Bradley Wiggins has been a troubled soul lately after he set the bar on the Tour de France 13 years ago and he knocking out five gold medals across four Olympic Games. Froome's indefatigable stamina brought him four Yellow Jerseys between 2013-17, two Vuelta titles in Spain and that Giro heist when he overhauled Yates. Geraint Thomas, for so long Froome's loyal sidekick on Le Tour, finally scaled the top step of the podium on the Champs Elysees in 2018 - and Thomas the flank engine was runner-up the following year. And if Tao Geoghegan Hart's maglia rosa in the 2020 Giro is largely forgotten more than amnesia itself, he has since managed only one top 20 finish on a Grand Tour to back it up. But Yates, 32, now belongs in the top bracket with Froome. Four months after he cracked on the Finestre, winning a maiden Grand Tour at the Vuelta in Spain was a glittering consolation, but he never abandoned his mission to come back to the Giro and be tickled pink. Climbing the beast of Piedmont in 59min 22sec, the first man to reach the summit in less than an hour, he dissolved into tears when the enormity of his achievement sunk in. And even the stoniest, coldest heart would deny his right to turn on the taps after leaving Mexico's overnight leader Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz in his slipstream. "I'm still a bit speechless that I was able to do it. I'm not really an emotional person but I couldn't hold back the tears,' said Yates, whose sensational ride denied his twin brother Adam, Del Toro's UAE Team Emirates lieutenant, the laurels. Rising above the emotional whiplash, Adam Yates shrugged: "If it had to be anyone, it would be my brother. I'm happy for him, I can still congratulate him and celebrate a little. If one person rides so crazy, whether it's Pogacar or my brother, and someone has better legs than you on the day, you have to take the blow on the jaw and accept it. We can't be disappointed." The 11.5-mile climb up the Finestre, with a lung-bursting average gradient of 9.2 per cent, took Yates above the snow line. More importantly, he overturned Del Toro's 81-second advantage, converted it into a 1min 41sec lead and his brilliant Visma/Lease A Bike team-mate Wout van Aert's inspired escort did the rest. Del Toro's UAE Team Emirates were caught asleep at the handlebars, with baffled onlooker Thomas tweeting in disbelief: 'What is going on?' But as Yates wheeled into the Eternal City, simultaneously he landed in the rarefied atmosphere of Britain's greatest riders.
The Independent
17-02-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
How Geraint Thomas became the loveable face of Britain's tainted cycling boom
The question was never whether he had the lungs or the legs. They had been proven on the track and the road countless times. The question was whether Geraint Thomas could carry his body over cobbled track and hard hills, whether he could climb into the sky and fly back down a sheer mountain face day after day without getting hurt. Thomas had to prove he could make it through the gruel of a three-week grand tour intact without 'DNF' on his name. Perhaps, too, there was a lingering question over his mentality. Thomas didn't have the bravado of Bradley Wiggins, nor the steely focus of Chris Froome. On the surface he was the easy-going Welshman who enjoyed a few beers in his downtime, not the picture of a ruthless winning machine. He was the perfect domestique, the dream team player. But could he lead a group of elite riders into the battlefield of a Tour de France? In 2018, aged 32, he answered those questions emphatically. In the shape of his life Thomas conquered a brutal Tour, while Froome faltered two months after winning the Giro d'Italia. Thomas grew into the race with a typically understated presence before grabbing hold of the yellow jersey with victory in La Rosiere on stage 11, attacking with the unmistakable punch of a potential champion. It laid the ground for his greatest moment, victory atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez the following day. That picture, crossing the line with fists clenched while howling into the mountain air, remains perhaps the defining image of a 20-year career, the one he should have framed somewhere in his house. His resilience on the Col du Portet a few days later underlined his status as the strongest rider in the peloton, flinging open his yellow jersey on a burning hot afternoon as he resisted a wave of attacks from rivals Romain Bardet, Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin on the climb, before shaking them off near the summit to extend his lead to nearly two minutes with only three stages to go. And as it turned out, his laid-back mentality was an asset as the attention ratcheted up through the three weeks, as questions rained on his relationship with teammate Froome, who had started the race as both team leader and favourite to win a historic fifth yellow jersey. Thomas calmly assumed control, seamlessly usurping Froome as Sky's de facto leader not by bloody coup but instead by a gentle undermining of power. Thomas diffused the press tent of any tension on the second rest day when he joked: 'We get on – for now, anyway.' When asked whether he wanted to win the Tour in the second week or was just there to support Froome, he began: 'I could give you some PR bullshit but I'm not going to,' and after his brilliant performance on stage 19 he gave a self-deprecating nod to his history of untimely crashes, saying: 'Anything can happen in cycling – especially with me.' It was this aspect of Thomas, his ability to find the funny in almost any situation, that made him so thoroughly likeable, and so no wonder seemingly half of Wales turned out to welcome him home. He promised to party for weeks, maybe months, and later admitted that he didn't seriously refocus until January the following year. Defending his crown in 2019 was much harder. Thomas got himself back in shape but he crashed at the Tour de Suisse, two weeks before the Tour de France. His young teammate Egan Bernal swept to Suisse victory and although Thomas recovered to make the start line of the Tour de France, the pair were installed as co-leaders by Ineos team principal Dave Brailsford in an obvious downvote of confidence in Thomas's form. Thomas was clearly a little shaken, and Bernal was too strong. After the Colombian's yellow jersey was all but confirmed on stage 20 atop Val Thorens, I found Thomas sitting down on a little wall outside the media tent. He was exhausted and he was clearly hurting. This was perhaps his best chance to become a multiple grand-tour champion and it had slipped by. Yet the next day he smiled and held his teammate's hand magnanimously as they processioned down the Champs-Elysees, the bridesmaid once more after years serving Wiggins and Froome. There have been many other glories, like the Olympic golds won in Beijing (looking barely a man) and London, and notable stage races such as Paris-Nice (2016), Dauphine (2018), Romandie (2021) and Suisse (2022). From track to time trial to the highest Alpine roads, Thomas proved to be an accomplished all-round talent. He rode the wave of British Cycling's transformation, from no medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to 14 medals at Beijing 2008. Britain boomed into a cycling powerhouse under performance director Dave Brailsford, who then set Team Sky the quest of winning the Tour de France and achieved the feat with Bradley Wiggins in 2012, before Froome's years of domination and Thomas's triumph in 2018. Thomas had a front-row seat for the low moments too, like the Jiffy bag scandal which ended with a government select committee accusing Team Sky of 'crossing the ethical line that David Brailsford says he himself drew'. Froome's adverse analytical finding cast another shadow over the team, but Thomas emerged largely unscathed from this period, unruffled, with the air of a man who not only despised doping but thought it was probably a faff. He came close to becoming a multiple grand-tour champion not just at the 2019 Tour de France but agonisingly missing out on the 2022 Giro d'Italia by 14 seconds to Primoz Roglic. Thomas finished on the Giro podium again last year, showing remarkable longevity into his late 30s, and yet the 10-minute gap to winner Tadej Pogacar underlined the challenge in toppling the sport's new stars. And so perhaps, as he predicted, Thomas might be remembered as a one-hit wonder. He achieved so much more but if so, at least it was the greatest hit of all. 'I got into cycling because of this race,' he said on the winners' podium in 2018. 'I remember running home from school to watch it. The dream was always just to be a part of it. Now I'm here in the yellow jersey and it's just insane.' In winning the Tour de France, one of Britain's less heralded sporting stars began to receive wider recognition beyond the cycling world. He won the Sports Personality of the Year award and was recognised in Queen's honours list – no longer 'DNF' but 'OBE'. And perhaps this will be the story of Thomas, the rider who couldn't stop falling off his bike, who will end his career as a symbol of determination and durability.
