Thomas eyes Ineos management role after final race

Geraint Thomas is Team Ineos' longest serving rider

Geraint Thomas says he has held discussions over staying on at Team Ineos as he prepares to end his racing career.

It would see the 2018 Tour de France winner working closely with Sir Dave Brailsford to replicate their past Grand Tour successes.

The 39-year-old Welsh rider will cross his final finish line on Sunday, 7 September when the Tour of Britain concludes in his home city of Cardiff.

Thomas joined Team Sky, as it was then known, in 2010 and over the next decade helped the British outfit win seven Tours de France as well as success at the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d'Italia. However, they have not won one of cycling's major tours for four years.

Brailsford has recently scaled back involvement with Manchester United, which like Team Ineos is owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

"Obviously Dave Brailsford is sort of back in the fold now with the team," said Thomas.

"He stepped away for a while, but now he's back and he's key to the success of the team from the start.

"The thinking is just to be able to work closely with him and learn off him from that side of things as well."

Thomas - who also won two Olympic gold medals on the track, as well another two top-three finishes in the Tour and one in the Giro - is being lined up to join Team Ineos' top management structure, rather than taking on a more hands on role with riders as a sporting director.

"I've obviously got a lot of knowledge when it comes to the actual physical performance and the training preparation and all that, but then the other side, the management sort of side, [I want to] try and learn as much as I can in that area," he said.

"Nothing's certain yet, but that's the idea anyway, so hopefully we can figure that out soon."

The Cardiff-born rider aims to combine a part-time role within professional cycling alongside grassroots development.

"I feel like it ticks both boxes then," Thomas told BBC Radio Wales' Breakfast programme.

"It gives me that focus and that drive and that competitiveness, which will be in a different area of the team now, but I think will still excite me and get me motivated to help the boys out."

But Thomas, who has been based in Monaco during his racing career, will be moving back to Cardiff and is also looking forward to returning to the Maindy velodrome where he first learned to race.

"You get the real grassroots stuff as well of trying to get kids active and getting them enjoying riding their bikes," he added.

"If I didn't live so close to Maindy or if I didn't live in Cardiff I may never have ridden a bike, I may never have had the career I had, the life I've had, the enjoyment... and all the travelling and met all the great people I have.

"It sounds a bit corny, but [I want to] spread that joy really and just get everyone out on the bike."

Tears expected at 'unreal' farewell on home roads

Geraint Thomas was greeted by thousands of fans at a homecoming event in Cardiff after his 2018 Tour de France triumph

Before that Thomas will pull on the lycra and clip into his pedals for one final race.

The six-day Lloyds Tour of Britain starts in Suffolk on Tuesday, 2 September and finishes with two stages in Wales.

Sunday's Newport to Cardiff finale is the perfect setting to end the near two-decade career of Wales' most successful cyclist.

"I'm really looking forward to it," said Thomas.

"Obviously it's going to be a mix of emotions, it's all I've done for 19 years so come Monday morning after the finish in Cardiff it'll be strange waking up with no goals or targets racing wise, that's going to be strange."

Ten stage race wins, three World Championship victories, Olympic triumphs, a Commonwealth gold medal and numerous other successes later, he will finally pull off a race number for the final time.

"I just feel so lucky to be able to call time on my career on my own terms, you know when I'm finishing and even more lucky to decide where as well," he added.

"The fact that the Tour of Britain is in September at the end of season and the last stage is into Cardiff is just unreal really.

"I think they're planning some event afterward in Cardiff Castle as well so it's going to be nice to say thanks to the fans as well."

It will not be the first time the Welsh capital's historic setting has paid tribute to the man who in 2018 won both BBC Wales and the national BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

That year thousands lined the streets to welcome home their yellow-clad Tour-winning hero.

"That's probably the highlight of everything I've done off the bike really, that homecoming in Cardiff," said Thomas.

"Because I live away, since I've been a pro, outside of the UK you don't really get an appreciation of the support you get.

"Obviously I know it's a massive amount and I get a massive amount on the road but then to go back to Cardiff and to have that was just insane."

Similar scenes are expected next week, but once the fuss has died down and before he takes up his new roles Thomas is already planning more time with wife Sara and son Macs.

A first ever skiing holiday - out of the question during his racing career - has been booked.

Before all of that there are just 886km (553 miles) to race, six more days of sweat and maybe one or two more tears.

"I think so," Thomas admitted.

"I was always winding up Sara - because she's quite emotional, more emotional than me - and I was winding her up about crying at our wedding, and I was the one that cried the whole time!

"Obviously in the Tour de France [win in 2018] it was a similar thing. I never thought about the end, it was always about each day and then suddenly it got to the time trial and I'd won it and then it hit me.

"That's when I ended up crying obviously on international telly, so I think Sunday could be similar."