Geraint Thomas might be done with the Tour de France

Geraint Thomas has hinted that he might not ride the Tour de France next year in what could be his final season as a professional cyclist.

In an interview with Cyclingnews and VeloNews, published on Wednesday, the Ineos Grenadier rider said he wanted to "make the most of" his 2023 season, and that he could ride the Giro d'Italia instead.

This year he finished third at the Tour, the third time he has finished on the podium at the Grand Tour, after winning it in 2018 and finishing second in 2019. He also won the Tour de Suisse, and proved his worth to his Ineos team despite there being a plethora of general classification riders in the squad.

"We have to sit down and work out what I want to do, it could be my last year as well. I want to make the most of it,” Thomas said.

“I don’t even know if I will do the Tour to be honest, maybe the Giro. It’s all up in the air, really. I wouldn’t mind doing something different.

"This year’s been quite refreshing, doing a few new races like Coppi e Bartali, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Flèche Wallonne and Itzulia Basque Country. They’re all races I’ve never done or only done once."

"Last year was pretty horrific, so it was nice to enjoy the racing and get some results too. I am proud of my ride at the Tour de France, that was good and to win Suisse as well, that was really nice, I’d been close before. It’s been a really good year."

The Welshman's contract runs until the end of the 2023 season with Ineos; he is the only rider to have been on the team since Team Sky's inception in 2010. In a team and a sport that has increasingly come to be dominated by younger riders, Thomas is full of valuable experience.

The 36-year-old said that he feels he has "nothing else to prove" going into next year, having proved to his doubters that he still has it, despite being 11 years older than Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard.

"When I won the Tour, it was nice to come back the next year to show it was not a fluke. And it was nice to come back this year as well, when people thought I was done. Now I feel like I have nothing else to prove," he explained.  

"It’s always extra motivation to show that you’ve still got it. The main thing was to keep enjoying the racing and doing my own thing. You can see that progression as well, as in most years. It was nice to be in the thick of it."

As for next year, Thomas said that he wanted to be at the forefront of the action from the beginning of the year. In 2022 it took until June and the Tour de Suisse for the Welshman to be at the front of action, after an inauspicious first few months.

"In 2023 I want to start the year going a bit better than I was this year. I want to be at the front of the race and in the mix of the racing, not necessarily winning, but being right up there, you enjoy it more," he said. 

"I want to start at Tour Down Under. That would be a nice place to start the season." 

Over the off-season, Thomas will decide if he races on beyond 2023, by which time he will be 37; his long-term teammate Chris Froome is still racing at 37, but is far from his best. Thomas, conversely, is still one of the top riders in the sport, but the form cannot continue forever.

"I’ll sit down with my wife and decide what I want to do," he said. 

"She’s keen for me to carry on. We’ve got our son settled in a school in France and we’re happy. It’s more about how I feel. I still enjoy the racing and the training, the main thing is the time away from home.

"It would be nice to do something new, but I’m not also wishing it to go away quicker."