Geraint Thomas has abandoned the Tour de Suisse ahead of stage 4, following a crash the previous day that left him nursing a twisted knee and strained hamstring. The 2018 Tour de France winner, who is targeting one final appearance at the race next month before retiring later this season, had completed Tuesday’s stage 3 but was visibly in pain at the finish.
The crash happened with just under 60km to go on a narrow, left-hand hairpin as the peloton descended towards the intermediate sprint at Magdalenau. Caught out by a lip on the edge of the tarmac, Thomas was the only rider to fall. He sat on the roadside for over a minute clutching his left leg before slowly remounting.
“I just hit a lip on the side of the road, really. It was my fault,” he told reporters at the finish. “I got my foot caught behind me and twisted all my knee and my hamstring – it was just a dead leg. I struggled to bend it for the first minute or so, but once I got on the bike and got rolling, it freed up a bit.”
Thomas was helped back into the race by teammates Bob Jungels, AJ August and Lucas Hamilton, and managed to reach the finish in Heiden more than 15 minutes behind the stage winner, Quinn Simmons.
Despite battling through to the line, Ineos Grenadiers confirmed the following morning that Thomas would not start stage 4, calling it a precautionary move. The decision casts doubt over his participation in the upcoming Tour de France, where he had hoped to make one final start in a race that has defined much of his career.
Team staff described it as “a gutsy ride to the finish” after a day where Thomas’s resilience was tested. He had returned to the Tour de Suisse for the first time since winning the race in 2022, a year in which he went on to finish third in the Tour de France.
The Swiss race was meant to be a final tune-up for July, but now the question is whether he’ll recover in time for the Grand Départ in Lille. “It’s just a bit sore,” Thomas said after finishing stage 3. “The muscles and stuff are a bit strained, but it’s all OK.” The next few days will determine just how true that turns out to be.
Main photo credit: Getty
