Geraint Thomas delivers brutal putdown to former riders after criticism of Giro d’Italia Stage 13 alteration

Geraint Thomas hit out at criticism from older riders by delivering a withering putdown, as he prepared for Stage 14 at the Giro d’Italia.

That led to some comments from former riders who felt the race might have gone ahead without any alterations due to safety concerns, but speaking to Eurosport, the current Giro pink jersey holder dismissed the comments with a swift putdown.

When it was put to him that a lot of riders who competed in the 1980s and 90s were disappointed with the decision of the peloton he said: ”A lot of things happened in the 80s and 90s that we don’t do now, which we’re proud of, so they can say what they want.”

Discussing the action at Stage 13, won by Einer Rubio, Thomas was relatively stoic over the outcome.

He said: “Same time, we saw quite a strong headwind, and the way a lot of the boys were riding, it put everyone off.

“We were expecting more, but that didn’t materialise. There’s hard days to come for sure.”

Looking to Saturday’s action to come, he predicted: “Probably a breakaway, but you never know. If Astana and Movistar work together early on, it’s more breakaway, it could be a sprint. We’ll see, we’re expecting a hard start.”

‘Arrogance came over him!’ – Breakaway react to Thibaut Pinot attacks

Adam Blythe, Robbie McEwen and Dan Lloyd had their say in the Eurosport studio after the day’s racing on Stage 13, and the trio all agreed that emotions seemed to scupper Thibaut Pinot’s best intentions with emotions causing some ill-advised tactics.

“It is almost like he forgot to be a bike racer,” Blythe began on The Breakaway. “He rode all the way up that climb on the front, kept attacking, kept being brought back, kept attacking.

“If you do that three or four times, you’d be like ‘I’m not doing this anymore, I’m just going to save myself because they just keep catching me’. So for me, it was quite daft of him really, I think that is the politest way to put it.

“It was just like he unattached his brain. I think maybe a little bit of arrogance came over him thinking ‘I’m a lot better than you guys, I’m going to keep doing this’ because why else would you keep riding the whole way up that climb on the front?”

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