Geraint Thomas says he 'just needs to stay positive and try to keep going' after Olympic time trial

The British rider has suffered through crashes at both the Tour de France and the Olympic road race

Geraint Thomas riding to 12th place in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games individual time trial
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Geraint Thomas was the best-placed of the two British riders at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games time trial around the Fuji International Speedway, but it was only good enough for the 12th spot on the day.

The Welshman has had a tough last month of racing, crashing on stage three of the Tour de France, his main objective, before crashing again in the Olympic road race.

>>> Tokyo 2020: Primož Roglič 'had nothing to lose' on gold medal ride in Olympic time trial

Speaking after the time trial, Thomas said: "It was tough. I tried to start at a pace that we thought would be there or thereabouts for a medal. Then I heard I was 50 seconds down on [Primož] Roglič which wasn’t great for morale."

The British rider looked struggled to get close to the biggest names in time trialing, but he wasn't giving up.

"I had a bad patch on the climb of the second lap, I fell off the watts and lost momentum and concentration a bit. Rohan [Dennis] caught me and that wasn’t good for the head either.

"It did refocus me, gave me something to chase. That’s the difference between a pure time trialist and someone who can be decent but isn’t a pure specialist. You need someone to chase almost."

Thomas's career has been marred with crashes over the years, especially since winning the overall title at the Tour de France in 2018, with him crashing out of the Giro d'Italia in 2020, a race he was favourite to win.

"I’ve got to be content with [12th], it’s been a super hard five weeks and it just seems to be one thing after the next.

"I tried to stay positive and stay on it, tried to put the hat in the ring and not be scared of failing. It’s just been tough, especially mentally as well. Just need to stay positive and try to keep going."

Currently, Thomas is unofficially down to race the Bretagne Classic in Plouay at the end of August, but away from that, it is not known when he will next race.

The road cycling events in the Tokyo 2020 Games are now finished with the track events in the velodrome getting underway on Monday, August 2.

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Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.