Former Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas may target Giro in 2020

2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas (Ineos) revealed that the wealth of leaders on his Ineos team may lead to him racing the Giro d’Italia in 2020.

With the return of multiple grand tour winner Chris Froome from injury, and the presence of both 2019 yellow jersey Egan Bernal and reigning Giro champion Richard Carapaz at Team Ineos, competition for leadership spots is hot.

“You’d think Egan would want to ride [the Tour] again, obviously, being the defending champion,” said Thomas.

“Froomey, it’s his big goal, he wants to win five,” Thomas added, referring to Froome’s quest to join Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Anquetil, and Miguel Indurain as a five-time Tour winner.

“The difference between winning the Tour and coming second is huge, you come second and nobody cares,” said Thomas at a pre-world championships press conference on Saturday. “I’m going to wait at least until I see the routes for the Giro and the Tour and then go from there.”

Having finished second to 22-year-old teammate Bernal in 2019’s Tour de France, 33-year-old Thomas is in no rush to confirm his plans for 2020. The route for the Tour is revealed in October and the Giro in November, at which point he will make his selection.

The Welshman has ridden the Giro three times previously, and raced the 2017 Italian tour as co-leader of Team Sky, but had to abandon after colliding with a parked race moto. “If I did the Giro, it would still certainly excite me and get me out of bed in the morning,” he reflected.

Thomas is riding in Sunday’s men’s road race world championships despite pulling out of the time-trial earlier this week citing a lack of form. He will be part of a six-man British team working for Ben Swift (Ineos).

“I’ll stay in the wheels and try and hold on, obviously it would be amazing, but maybe top five is the target,” Thomas said on Friday.