Published September 1, 2025 02:57AM
End of an Era: Geraint Thomas Signs Off Legendary Career at Tour of Britain
2018 Tour de France champion bows out on his 19-year career at the Tour of Britain, with an emotional farewell at home in Cardiff and a future at Ineos Grenadiers.
Thomas has become the soul of Ineos Grenadiers. His exit this winter will leave a void. (Photo: MAARTEN STRAETEMANS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images))
Geraint Thomas rides his last race as a professional at the Tour of Britain this week.
But the 2018 Tour de France winner isn’t about to let his 19 years of racing experience sit on the shelf. Plans to remain in the sport and a move into management with the team he dominated at Ineos Grenadiers are now gathering pace.
Thomas doesn’t like to make a fuss, but the legendary rider fully expects the tears to flow when he ends his racing career in Cardiff on September 7 after the closing stage of the 2025 Tour of Britain.
For the 2018 Tour winner, the wheel will have turned full circle, as his final race takes him back to South Wales where it all started at the Maindy velodrome.
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“If I didn’t live so close to Maindy or if I didn’t live in Cardiff, I may never have ridden a bike, never have had the career I had, the life I’ve had,” he told BBC Radio Wales.
Thomas says too that he is “really looking forward” to his final race, which begins in Suffolk on September 2 and then travels east to west, across Britain, before a final weekend in Wales.
Thomas goes out on home roads
To mark the occasion, he has also designed a celebratory jersey for his final outing as a professional.
First seen on Wednesday, the red kit celebrates both his achievements and his Welshness, sporting a fiery red color, a Welsh dragon and a sketch of dad standing on the top of a podium, by his young son, Macs.
“(It’s) certainly the most meaningful jersey, that’s for sure,” he said on social media. “I think it definitely will be emotional come the final stage, finishing in Cardiff, wearing this.”
The jersey also includes a motif of the multiple hairpins to Alpe d’Huez, where he won stage 12 of the 2018 Tour de France, and the dates of his first and last races, in 2007 at the Tour Down Under and September 2025, in the Tour of Britain.
“Well, hopefully it’s my last race,” he said of the British national tour, with his usual dry humor. “Hopefully I make it there.”
Thomas remains a popular figure in the peloton even if his final season has, to date, lacked some of the grand tour highs of recent years.
But as his profile on the bike fades, his star is expected to rise again in the coming months as he transitions into the management team at Ineos Grenadiers, under the mentorship of Dave Brailsford.
Taking on a new role
The 39-year-old has already spoken of his wish to carry on working in the sport, in an as-yet-to-be-specified management role, and it’s thought that more details on his plans will emerge soon after his final race.
“I’ve obviously got a lot of knowledge when it comes to the actual physical performance and training preparation, but then the other side, the management, (need to) try and learn as much as I can in that area,” he said.
With Brailsford now back at the heart of Ineos Grenadiers, following his spell overseeing a restructuring process at Manchester United, a management reshuffle within the team is widely expected this fall.
Although the team won two stages in this year’s Tour de France, and has made a competitive start to the Vuelta a España, Brailsford is known to be considering some tweaks both to personnel and to racing strategy.
Describing Brailsford as “key to the success of the team since the start,” Thomas said that he aims to “work closely” with his fellow Welshman and to learn from him as well.
A tearful farewell
But for now, it’s all about an emotional Welsh farewell for Thomas in a race currently curated by his former mentor at British Cycling and Team Sky Rod Ellingworth, the director of the Tour of Britain.
“I just feel so lucky to be able to call time on my career on my own terms,” Thomas told the BBC, “when I’m finishing and even more lucky to decide where as well.
“The fact that the Tour of Britain is in September at the end of the season and the last stage is into Cardiff is just unreal really. I think they’re planning an event in Cardiff Castle as well, so it’s going to be nice to say thanks to the fans as well.”
Thomas’ legendary career began on the track, and his palmarès is overflowing with Olympic gold medals, one yellow jersey and four other grand tour podiums among 25 pro wins on the road.
He remains the only Tour winner born in the UK — Chris Froome was born in Kenya and Bradley Wiggins in Belgium — and his career spanned the heart of the boom in British cycling.
Already there is a visible legacy of Thomas’ success both in the WorldTour and as an Olympian, with the number of Britons competing in professional races across the world at an unprecedented high.
No less than 13 British riders started the 2025 Vuelta, while seven competed in the recent Renewi Tour and three in August’s Deutschland Tour.
Eleven British riders also started this year’s Tour de France. Thomas’s influence has been key to their development and to the career opportunities they have been given.
