Tour de France: Geraint Thomas' gilet for charity auction
- Published
Geraint Thomas put the gilet on for warmth before the ahead of the opening time trial of the 2022 Tour de France, but forgot to take it off
A gilet accidentally left on over former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas' aerodynamic cycling skinsuit is to be auctioned for charity.
The Welsh cyclist forgot to take off the bodywarmer during the first stage of the 2022 tour in Copenhagen.
"I think it's the worst half of a time trail I've ever done, it was so bad," said a still angry Thomas.
He is now asking fans to carry the gilet between each stage all the way to Paris before auctioning it for charity.
"It's still a bit raw at the minute, I'm still a bit angry," Thomas told the Watts Occurring podcast, external, which he hosts with fellow Ineos Grenadiers teammate Luke Rowe.
Despite the disruption to his carefully crafted aerodynamics, Thomas still managed to come 18th in the time trial, and has now decided to turn the mistake into a positive.
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He said he wants the gilet to pass to a different fan each day of the tour, before returning to him at the end of the last stage in Paris where it will be auctioned to raise money for the Geraint Thomas Cycling Trust.
Following the clothing blunder, Thomas finished the opening stage of the Tour 25 seconds off the lead.
Explaining how he made the mistake initially, he said due to the cold weather he'd asked for a jacket before the time trial began on 1 July.
"They came back with an extra small gilet, I zip it up nice and snug, nice and toasty," he said.
In June Thomas became the first Briton to win Tour de Suisse
"When you're trying to perform in a time trial… you're just focused on the race, anyway I completely forgot I've got the gilet on," he added.
He said he was helped up to the start line by two team members, who both also failed to notice he was wearing the gilet.
"It's not their fault," added Thomas, "I shouldn't have had an [expletive] gilet on."
Following stage four of the 2022 Tour, Thomas is sitting in 12th place in the general classification, 50 seconds off the lead.
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