Geraint Thomas has had his bike stolen during a training ride.
The Welshman is currently getting back to training after six weeks off the bike, the combination of his regular off-season holiday and the recovery period after an operation on his shoulder, and so is back in Monaco where he lives with his family.
The 35-year-old had stopped in Menton, a town on the French Riviera, for a coffee when someone stole his Ineos-issued Dogma F.
"Lovely ride. Lovely coffee stop in Menton. Except someone nicked my bike. Now in an Uber home," Thomas said, taking a disgruntled selfie from inside the taxi.
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Thomas hopes his bike is distinctive enough that it could be recovered, just as the Italian track team's two dozen stolen bikes were a few weeks ago, discovered during a drugs raid in Romania.
"It’s a Dogma F with F12 stickers. Random mismatched wheels and in need of a wash. One of a kind," he said.
Possibly the biggest inconvenience for Thomas, who should have no problem getting a replacement machine from Pinarello, is the fact he hadn't uploaded his first week of training rides to TrainingPeaks from his Garmin.
"Plus I haven’t downloaded my Garmin this week If it ain’t on TrainingPeaks it didn’t happen, right?"
In a recent interview with Cycling Weekly, Thomas said he's planning on shaking up his 2022 schedule to keep things fresh, hoping to potentially contest either the Ardennes or cobbled Classics, yet still undecided on which Grand Tours he will ride.
"Once I've seen everything, the three Grand Tour routes, the Ardennes could be something or the cobbled Classics...a few different things that I could potentially go for, I wouldn't mind doing something slightly different," Thomas said.
"Even if I did do the Tour again I think the run into it could be different, do a few different races. Just mix it up a bit because I've done the same sort of programme, year in, year out now for the majority of my career, so it'd be nice to just change it up a bit."
Update:
Thomas later posted a photo showing three police officers at his door with his bike.
"Look what showed up!" Thomas said. "Boy have I got a good story for you on next week’s pod. Big thanks to the Menton Police for their help. All’s well that ends well."
