{"id":285263,"date":"2025-07-23T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285263\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:12:10","slug":"when-you-spoke-the-room-went-quiet-rowe-praises-geraint-thomas-as-career-reaches-final-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285263\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen you spoke, the room went quiet\u201d \u2013 Rowe praises Geraint Thomas as career reaches final chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geraint Thomas<\/a> fresh off a bruising Stage 16 to Mont
\nVentoux, spoke to Luke Rowe<\/a> on their Watts Occurring podcast to dissect the
\nday’s drama, action, and confusion. Between chaotic racing, awkward crashes,
\nquestionable team tactics, and an incredible atmosphere roadside, the two former
\nINEOS Grenadiers<\/a> teammates had plenty to unpack after the stage.<\/p>\n

One of the first things they discussed? A crash during the
\nneutral zone that had Thomas both laughing and cringing. \u201cDoesn\u2019t see the guy
\nin front of him, bam,\u201d Thomas said, recalling a teammate\u2019s moment of
\ndistraction. \u201cI felt genuinely sad for him. It\u2019s so embarrassing\u2026 his pride and
\nego definitely weren\u2019t fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stage had been a full-gas affair from the gun. Thomas,
\nnot in the break, spent most of the day trying to stay out of trouble while
\nwatching his teammates scramble to make moves stick. \u201cIt was just a chaotic day
\nas always,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThe first hour was over 50k an hour, and we were just
\ntrying to go in the break.\u201d At one point, he saw a move starting to form and
\nradioed to check if any Ineos riders were in. Silence. \u201cConnor comes on the
\nradio\u2014\u2018No, we\u2019ve got no one there.\u2019 So I was like, bollocks\u2026 might as well
\nchase.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Thomas ended up pulling to close the gap with help from Decathlon
\nbefore hoping that either Thymen Arensman or Carlos Rodr\u00edguez could take it
\nfrom there. \u201cCarlos probably had the legs to go, but didn\u2019t. Thymen jumped
\nacross, but it just wasn\u2019t his day really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowe, who was part of the commentary team on TNT yesterday,
\nwas in the studio for Stage 16. \u201cIt was just a mad day, mate. That break looked
\nlike it was going to go and then everything kicked off again. The story of the
\nrace, expect the unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

That unpredictability extended to the green jersey battle
\ntoo. Lidl-Trek\u2019s lack of focus on the intermediate sprint caught Rowe\u2019s
\nattention. \u201cToday for them was all about getting maximum points. 112k into the
\nrace was their finish line. They should\u2019ve ridden flat out once that break
\nestablished. They\u2019ve got a real shot at green, and you can\u2019t waste those.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for how the breakaway fight played out, Thomas admitted
\nhe had \u201cabsolutely no idea what actually happened in front.\u201d Rowe filled him
\nin: Enric Mas went early, with Thymen Arensman and Julian Alaphilippe trying to
\nchase. Then Ilan Van Wilder surged back with 1km to go and took the win. \u201cBen
\nHealy looked the strongest but got rolled at the end. Doesn\u2019t matter how strong
\nyou look\u2014it\u2019s where you cross the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both agreed Van Wilder deserved the win and Continental
\nTires\u2019 Chapeau of the day. But they also gave credit to Visma for a
\nwell-drilled ride with Jonas Vingegaard attacking relentlessly. \u201cThey did what
\nthey could,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cIt\u2019s pan-flat then finish up a mountain\u2014how many
\ntactics can you really use?\u201d<\/p>\n

They also reflected on the atmosphere on Mont Ventoux. \u201cIt
\nwas pretty much lined from bottom to top,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cTen miles of people,
\ndeep crowds the whole way. A few times we had to go single file behind the moto
\njust to get through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their thoughts turned toward the final five days and the
\nnext sprint stage. \u201cI still got money on Poggy to win in Paris,\u201d Thomas
\nquipped. \u201cNot literally, that\u2019s against the rules. But I\u2019d bet on him if I
\ncould.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowe leaned toward Arnaud De Lie or Jonathan Milan for the
\nsprint win but admitted Tim Merlier was hard to bet against. \u201cEvery time he\u2019s
\nthere, he wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The podcast wrapped with a nod to Thomas\u2019 last Tour and his
\nleadership behind the scenes. \u201cYou weren\u2019t the loudest on the bus,\u201d Rowe said,
\n\u201cbut when you spoke, the room went quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geraint Thomas fresh off a bruising Stage 16 to Mont Ventoux, spoke to Luke Rowe on their Watts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-285263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114902725199759541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}