Geraint Thomas has ‘improved in every area’ since 2018 Tour de France win – INEOS director

Geraint Thomas is better now than when he won the Tour de France in 2018, according to INEOS Grenadiers racing director Rod Ellingworth, despite the Welshman sitting a distant third in the general classification this year.

With two stages remaining in the 2022 Tour, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) holds the yellow jersey and a 3’26” lead over defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates).

Thomas is the best of the rest, sitting in a podium position with more than three minutes separating him from fourth-placed David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), but 8’00” behind the imperious Dane.

Although this year’s GC battle has proved to be a shoot-out between Vingegaard and Pogacar, Ellingworth has been encouraged by the 36-year-old’s performance.

“I think the team performance this year has been very good, and it’s been great to see Geraint do what he’s doing,” Ellingworth told Cyclingnews.

“He’s got all three places on the podium now, which is something, and he’s proved that he’s capable of improving. It’s not like he’s the same as when he won, he’s actually getting better.”

The absence of injured Egan Bernal was a blow to INEOS Grenadiers’ hopes this year, but Thomas’ consistency over the last three weeks led Ellingworth to suggest his performance has matched, or even surpassed, his yellow jersey win four years ago.

“When he won in 2018, it was a very well put together race for Geraint,” Ellingworth said.

“But, across the board, he’s improved across every area since then, and it was a near-on perfect performance from Geraint here.

“Every day, he’s gone from start to finish as best he can. He’s not got carried away. He’s realistic, that’s the thing. He knows what he can do, and he’s sat perfectly in his position.

“He’s clearly the third best bike rider here, there’s no accident or bad luck that took out any GC guy, he’s proved he’s the third best guy here. We’ll take that. We’ll take it on the chin and learn from it.”

The penultimate Stage 20 takes place on Saturday, a 40.7km time trial, before the procession into Paris on Sunday.

Frenchman Christophe Laporte came out on top in Stage 19, ending the host nation’s long wait for a win with a late surge.

Pogacar could only shave five seconds off Vingegaard’s lead by finishing fifth in the final sprint, after an audacious attack inside the final 35km came to nothing.