“In Newport today, there is a 97% chance of rain, tapering off towards mid-afternoon” ran the weather report for Sunday’s final stage of the Tour of Britain from Newport to Cardiff. But the crowds were not put off, sheltering under the shallow overhang of the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales as they waited for a seat to watch the Welshman sign onto his last professional race. In the press room, fans craned their heads through the misty window, “that’s Geraint Thomas!” drifting through the cracked pane, before he took his final loop around the velodrome to the soundtrack of ‘The Vengabus’.
The hubbub continued at the finish line, as crowds of fans donned masks of Thomas’ face, or draped themselves in the Welsh flag, red dragon roaring. “This is not a normal crowd for the Tour of Britain,” I was told at intervals throughout the day.
To put what I saw on the streets of Cardiff plainly: people love Geraint Thomas. One man had come with his toddlers in tow, pushing along a double-buggy flanked by a 7 year-old in a Geraint Thomas mask. He’d met Thomas in London and wanted his kids to get one final glimpse of the cycling superstar. “To come from Maindy as a young lad and then win the Tour de France as well is incredible,” he told me.
Thomas, claimed by the whole of Britain for his cycling prowess, is acutely celebrated here, in the corner of Wales he grew up in. The final stage of the Tour of Britain was designed to see off rider, beginning after the velodrome named after him, past his parent’s house and the pub he had his first pint in.
“I can remember him from way back when he used to ride all the valley roads, the Bwlch and all the rest of it,” another fan, Mark, tells me during the race.
“He’s someone who really deserves where he is, and all that he’s achieved. He’s a good bloke, and a real hard worker. He’s an inspiration, especially for all the kids.”
It’s impossible to say how many people have picked up bikes because of him. The Team Sky buzz alone must have ensnared a generation of young riders, and cemented a familiarity with road racing in British culture more generally.
“I started cycling about eight years ago, and it was probably because of him that I started, and I’ve loved it ever since,” Deian says in front of the race’s live-stream. He’s in his late forties, and has come out with his band of pals to see off his hero in Cardiff. As soon as I ask about Thomas, his friends walk off, groaning, “see you in twenty years.”
Deian’s off, unperturbed: “When he won the Tour de France in 2018, and he came back to Cardiff, he lived sort of down the road and I’d see him every now and then. There was one night in particular when I was walking past a restaurant in Pontcanna in Cardiff, and he was sitting there with Luke Rowe and I paid for their meal without them knowing, and they ran out afterwards,[…] and I had a photo with them. So yeah, it’s a massive day for him, and for all the people here.”
I ask Deinan what it is about Geraint that has made him such an inspiration. “[It’s] just the true grit that he’s shown. I’ve read a lot about him, the fact that he trains harder than anyone else, pushes himself harder than anybody else, and the fact that he cycled with a broken pelvis, and just his determination…I think it’s a lesson to us all. If you think you’re down on your luck, just keep on going.”
The accolades continue to flood in. “He’s such a likeable person. He just comes across so ordinary,” Gwenda said, looking into the middle-distance, smiling. “All the way through his career, [he’s been the] same person, ever since I saw him in the Beijing Olympics, just the same Geraint [laughing].”
For others I talk to, the Geraint-effect is only just beginning. Katie started following pro cycling after watching the Tour de France with her dad over the summer. “Once he’d explained all the tactics and how it all worked, it got really exciting and interesting […] I only heard about [Thomas] during the Tour de France because everyone was talking about this happening and the end of his career and stuff. He’s everywhere!”
What Thomas’ fans have given him, he has given back. With record crowds drawn to Cardiff last weekend, the Tour of Britain will have also drawn in very real monetary gains for the city, too. Last year, the final stage in Northamptonshire drew in £3.6 million in attendee spending. With a double-whammy of sporting events in Cardiff on Sunday, after the 10k run just hours before the riders raced under the Lloyd’s Tour of Britain arc, it’s hoped that Thomas’ farewell race will secure the future of the Tour (and will have inspired a cohort of new fans) for a few years to come. But, to bring it back to the man of the hour…
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