EP2: Geraint Thomas, conquering the Tour de France mecca, Alpe d’Huez, and Winning in 2018

In 2018 Geraint Thomas became just the third Briton to win the Tour de France, joining Sir Brad in that elite group. In doing so he became the first man ever to win a stage up the iconic 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez whilst wearing the yellow jersey.

Joining Sir Brad and Graham in the café for this episode, Geraint reveals how he and Team Sky leader, Chris Froome, wrangled over the battle for yellow as he rode for history on the Alpe and tells of another occasion on the climb, “a memory I’ll never forget,” when he clung to the coattails of two of the sport’s all time greats as they battled for supremacy.

And if you’re wondering what it’s like to ride the Tour de France with a broken pelvis then Geraint can tell you…

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Credits:
Presented by⁠ Sir Bradley Wiggins⁠ and Graham Willgoss
Guest: Geraint Thomas
Researcher: Luca Unwin
Production Manager: Ross Aitken
Social Video Producer: Rosie Mansfield
YouTube Editor: Theo Stocklin
Produced and Edited by: Toby Gilles
Executive Producers: Faye Stewart, Ashley Unwin & Dominic de Terville
Recorded at: London Broadcast Studio

Sir Bradley Wiggins’ Café Aficionado is an Atomized Studios production.

[Music] welcome to Sir Bradley Wiggins Cafe Afficionado the podcast that tightens our cleats with Cycling Elite i’m Bradley Wiggins and every week we take the sport’s best guests stick them in front of a mic and get them to give you the view from the saddle as you’ve never heard it before and as all rides do we’ll be finishing with a coffee and a cake coming up in this episode those thoughts do come into your head from time to time and I remember just lying in this random hotel room like looking at the ceiling thinking [ __ ] I can actually win the tour today that’s when I was like that that’s just and I was like nah don’t don’t even like contemplate that today’s guest is one of the best to ever do it it is Gint Thomas i’m joined as always by Graeme Wilgos graeme good good to be good to be with you really looking forward to this one uh in my career as a as a sports journalist G was always a phenomenal is always still a phenomenal interview so fair to say that we’re both looking forward to getting stuck into this one while we’re here this series we should touch on um is focused on the greatest race in the world the Tour to France um and the stories behind its most famous clims uh its most spectacular stages and its big biggest rivalries and riders and so G fits right in but on this journey we want our listeners to come along with us all the way not just on the pod but on the socials we do hit follow so you never miss an episode watch every episode on YouTube and follow us in all your usual places on social media sir Brad’s Cafe you can get all the links to those in the show notes so this episode Brad we’re heading to Alair in the French Alps the southeast of France we’re talking of course uh for anyone who needs to place it it’s one of the sports great natural stadiums the 21 hairpin bends have witnessed some of the most dramatic moments featuring some of the most famous names in tour to France history winning on outdoors is one thing it’s enough to make your career winning on outdoors in the yellow jersey on your way to winning the tour to France is another thing entirely only one man in history has done that the 2018 Tour to France champion two-time Olympic gold medal winner and an old teammate of yours uh among other things Garrett Thomas welcome to Cafe Afficionado yeah welcome great how are you mate thanks for having me guys good thanks yeah just on top of uh another training camp up in Tidy up in uh on the volcano in Tenneref so hence a slightly patchy from our point of view anyway internet connection but uh as long as we can hear he is at 2 and a half thousand meters Graeme yeah I think I think we’ll allow it given uh Yeah given where we are and where you are um Brad should we should we get straight into it yeah Grind 2018 i actually watched the race again last night just to recap on what happened so much happened on the climb that day but from your point of view seven years ago now um your memories of that day how did the day start out for you obviously you’d won the day before and you were going up the Al in the yellow jersey what was what was the plan that day obviously you threw me was still that two-pronged attack at that time but can you remember looking back what was how it played out that day yeah it was um obviously like you said I won the day before took the yellow jersey and um I was just buzzing to be honest like I remember going to the starts and um you know you do the post uh pre-stage interviews before you sign on and whatever and one of the guys was like “Oh do you reckon you can win today?” And I was just honestly it was the first time that had even entered my head so I was just purely focused on just staying with the GC guys and I never really thought about winning the stage and that sort of planted the seed almost and we started the stage and you know it was a super strong team at that point as well you know we’d won how many was it like five including your tour that the team had won prior to that so we were like we had that aura in in in the in the pelaton really you know we were Sky and we knew what we were doing and we sort of just took the race out of strangle holes really and I was buzzing off that you know the fact that such a big strong team was riding for me um and yeah it was just I never really thought about it till we got to the it must have been the last final few of the climb really to be honest but halfway through the stage I remember it’s redot I was I was feeling a bit dehydrated was having to get a load of drinks down near the top of um was it quad the fair maybe we did before it um yeah and then drop down and then start the climb and yeah to be honest it was um you know what it’s like in the tour it’s just unreal going up there like the atmosphere is just insane just buzzing off here you know when you were going up the climb I mean you obviously in yellow you’d won the day before but Froomy was still the man who was chasing his fifth tour at that time i mean I know as the that tour panned out that it became more apparent that you were the strongest rider and you were about to win the race but at that time knowing you as well you you know had push come to shove you probably would have done the job for f had been asked because that’s the kind of rider you are and you’d have sacrificed what you know the the chance of winning the tour if f if that came about but there must been a small part of you still thinking I can actually I can actually win this myself even at that point of the race yeah yeah yeah it was kind of a weird situation cuz like you know Fumi had won four tours before then and he was after his fifth and he was super determined to do it and yeah I think um there was one stage where Egan had just finished his turn and I was behind Egan thing through me was sitting behind me and I ended up just pulling for maybe 500 meters or so but um like through the crowd and just like they were just parting in front of you you know last minute and it looks dodgy on the telly but when you’re in it it’s just like it’s incredible that feeling and um but there was a part of me in the back of my head thinking I can also win this you know I’m not going to completely ruin my chances here and do everything for through me um so yeah it was yeah if push had come to shove I would have maybe done if they had told me to ride I would have ridden but not not full gas now the other big incident that happened on that climb was of course we can’t see it fully on the TV but the flare that was up there was a red flare at some point about 3 and a half 4k to go and nibbly goes down and you get tangled up in that somehow but you can’t see on the TV images what actually happened can you remember what what the turn of events that happened out nibbly went down yeah I don’t really remember exactly what happened to be honest because well I didn’t see because um as I say the crowd was so close and I think he just ended up hitting someone and he I think there was some barriers there or something i don’t really know but I managed to just avoid him but you know it was a bit of a gap to me and the other boys you had to unclip did you yeah yeah and then I got back up to them and then it was a bit of a stalemate like we weren’t really thinking oh we should wait for Nibbi um yeah I wasn’t going to do that but it was kind of just like who’s who’s going to go type thing well it look like the guys in the front didn’t wait for you either so you kind of had and the guys in front at the time were So we’re talking you’re riding G with big Tom Dumalong Fi Valde Roman Bard did you have uh Lander with you as well Muel Lander at that point or Yeah I think he was the yo-yo in Yeah yeah so in and out of the group you’re you’re riding with the absolute cream of the crop the tour is still absolutely up for grabs at this point um did you see do you sort of see do you think that was the last time you were going to see them when you had to unclip there because they didn’t obviously through me didn’t wait for you no um no I did I just felt like I just felt like I could do what I wanted almost which is which is is really weird because you know when I started out as a pro it was just survival mode you know I did my first tour in ‘ 07 alongside Brad and I was just like every day was just a gravel just to finish the thing um do you I remember me pushing you up the cold ass band in 2007 you were having a really bad day cuz you’re only about 10 at the time weren’t you but yeah that was just like grim um so I thought of just being there in 18 like with with legs like that and just being able to respond to stuff and then it wasn’t until maybe 2k to go like I I having threw me in the team like so determined to win was was probably a blessing in the end cuz I didn’t let it get to my head and I thought if he attacks I’m just going to use that like the other guys have to ride um and if he’s behind and I’m not feeling too good I’ll just say I’m waiting for him you know so I I’d use it to my advantage but um yeah it was like I think maybe if I was younger like if I wasn’t 32 and had all that more experience I think it might have I could have cracked maybe and dealt with it slightly differently but um in the end it was kind of it was all good in the end and I I was just on defensive mode for most of it and then we get to the final corner um and I think I was the only one to sort of take it wide and take any speed into it the rest kind of went you know if you’re coming into a corner you go on the outside don’t even cut the apex and sprint out you walked the sprint though didn’t you i mean it was like it was like you was it was like you hadn’t done the climb you you you were considerably better than everyone else in the sprint yeah I was um I surprised myself i did my my best ever peak power i think I don’t think I’ve even was any better than it since but little bit of adrenaline meets sort of your track racing background kind of mixed together um I think so i think just was it also the realization you were on the ALP as well and you could win the AL dues stage because I remember sending you a message that night you won and I said [ __ ] me you’ve won on Al Duesg and you you sort of part of the fan in you couldn’t believe that because one of the things I said to the guys last week is I remember you always when we were on track camp back in the mid 2000s you would always say to me things like what would you rather win Brad Turaf Fllanders or Parubet remember you used to say things like that all the time alvonu and then you won ald duez [Music] Yeah yeah yeah or go graveling up that climb in the Jirro like would you have a beer or Manchester riding the track like but I mean you knew what it was to win on Aldz i mean you were a fan of the sport yeah just the history of it you know Abd is it’s the the climb you know of you know the world really like there’s the most famous um so G your reaction afterwards is is one of the most sort of famous images from your career your kind of Aldo man um and the and the kind of astonishment at at winning it you get back to the bus do things change for you as a team from that point are are there different directions because going in okay you were a two-pronged attack you and Chris Froom but after that you’ve now got a jersey to defend so surely you become the de facto number one yeah well a couple of things there you know you say two-pronged attack like it was always through me it was always in front um that’s the feeling I got that’s how it was um then even after that stage it was if anything the main thing it did was give me the confidence that you know I could um go on to do something special but I was never thinking too far ahead it was always just the next day um but when it came to the team Fumi was still desperate to attack and at least he’d tell me when he was going to attack but he you know it’s a weird thing when I’ve got the yellow jersey and the guy that sat literally like next to me on the bus like I can touch him wants to attack me to to take the jersey off me you know but um I think we managed to deal with it okay well we did um did you ever talk about it explicitly between you yeah yeah like a a few times um we talk about like the situation and and he was just honest and upfront saying that he you know he still wanted to have a go and he was he could go here or there or whatever and part of me by the end was a bit like come on mate like you know it’s pretty obvious who who the better guy is here but um that’s just threw me you know he’s so determined and self-confident like he’s an amazing belief in himself he’s a phenomenal like his mindset and everything and he was going for the double that year as well wasn’t he with the Jirro and tour and he was on the verge of creating history wanted to be a part of the the five time club um and so G I mean you still had a long way to go at that point as well you’re only on we’re only on stage 12 so you you’ve you’ve taken the jersey uh the yellow jersey in the Alps you’ve then got to go and defend it in the Pyrenees and you’ve got to take it all the way through to the time trial and the time trial was really where you had to uh defend it and and not lose too much time to Tom Dunalan um Tom Dumlan at the time world champion so building up to that day having gone in presumably with a little bit less pressure on you in that everyone’s kind of looking at Chris F to to make it five uh you are you’ve now you’ve now woken up on TT uh and you you’re staring down the barrel of the world champion who’s gunning for you yeah it was that was the day I was nervous to be honest until that point I was just I was confident i knew what I was doing um and I was just thinking of that day the next climb but then with a TT you know Brad you know what it’s like you do the recon and then you got 3 hours just on your own in some random motel room just to think about what’s to come and that’s probably the most nervous I was i was trying to listen to some random podcasts about anything um other than cycling you know and um TT days are horrible aren’t they especially when you’re in the race lead and and the thing I always remember about the time tri obviously you and Froomy would have been pretty off pretty close together so you two have been going through your pre-race routine but you know when they start packing stuff away because no one’s left and the bus is getting emptier and emptier and you’re the last one out there warming up and then the bus is sort of putting all the turbos away and things you get a real sense everyone’s going home and you’re still you’re yet to race yeah yeah yeah it is it is strange and um the guys off earlier a bit more you know jovial or whatever because it’s Yeah it doesn’t mean anything to them and everyone’s giving advice as well aren’t they like people come in and go be careful out there i’d maybe use a different gear don’t use a front tri spoke you know people kind of try and get in your head don’t they and you got to stick to your own game plan at that point exactly yeah and um I was kind of lucky you know from the track like we were used to sort of just getting in that zone and knowing what you’re doing but it was just a lot of extra time to think about stuff but and then once we got going it was okay i obviously had that little slip into one of the corners early on which didn’t really help you almost chopped it yeah so then like on the radio they’re like “Oh take it easy.” G like and then I don’t know like when somebody’s so defensive on the radio it’s sometimes it’s easier just you just got to take the pin out and just do it you know just race it and you just you just go don’t overthink it so let’s build in a little bit of history while we’re here boys 13 well and in fact a few facts 13.2 2 km in length 1,850 m of elevation at the summit 8.1% average gradient with a maximum of 13% about halfway up it’s one of the things it’s most famous for and we’ve touched on this already G is the fact that outdoors for the week leading up to whichever stage at the tour um it hosts and particularly on the day it just turns into one big party it’s like Glastonbury for cycling fans what’s it like being among that um and and in particular what was it like in 2018 because from memory it wasn’t all positive in terms of fans reaction to you uh to be honest the the reaction to myself I was it was always good but certainly the end of the 201s like Sky was taking quite a bit of abuse from the French but to be honest I buzzed off that when when you’re racing it’s just um you just want to win even more you know um when you’re getting a bit of that hate and whatever but to be honest on the whole it was still a great atmosphere and you know every corner has like you know there’s a Dutch corner there was even a Welsh corner in 2018 as well camry Camry corner yeah um so yeah it’s just like the atmosphere is just insane and um it is amazing but at the same time when you think about it you know they’ve been drinking all day well all night before as well and to get that close is that’s the unique thing about cycling but also the danger and you know as we mentioned with Nebuli you know you can get taken out but you tend to not think of the dangers you don’t think of that when you’re going downhill you don’t think of the dangers cuz otherwise you just wouldn’t be able to do it so um but yeah just really try and like buzz off that atmosphere and like sometimes you just stop and you just take it in and it’s just like yeah you get goosebumps really yeah it’s funny isn’t it how how no matter how much you’re hurting in a particular moment on a particular bend the minute you see one of your nation with a flag running beside you passionately cheering you on how much it takes away from that pain in that split moment oh 100% yeah yeah and like the only bad thing I’d say is the flares because obviously Yeah it’s quite hard to breathe when you’re doing like you know when you’re at threshold or whatever but it is that that atmosphere the support it it definitely Was that the stage that threw me you had a cup of piss thrown over him was it on i don’t think so i think that was uh it was a different stage but yeah yeah but never a pleasant thing that day has it ever happened to you no no luckily not not in a bike race anyway not yet no it’s funny you listening to you say that you were like kind of bit nervous that day because when we were on the track that was the one thing I always remember about you is nothing nothing really phased you like you you you when we remember we were in the Olympics in Beijing going to that Olympic final I was bricking it as usual any any Olympic final trying to stay in my and you and Ed were just sort of joking around you almost like you didn’t realize a sense of occasion and that was one of the things I always thought about you was you could take those occasions like like just as if you were going out for other bike like you it was like quite like being a junior again so it’s funny listening to you say that the tour that you kind of sense that because that was your greatest forte one of your best things I think was taking things in your shot yeah and I Yeah it still it still was but then it’s you know it’s hard it thoughts do come into your head from time to time and I remember just lying in this random hotel room like looking at the ceiling thinking [ __ ] I can actually win the tour today that’s when I was like that wow that’s just and I was like nah don’t don’t even like contemplate that just think about the process do this the first half the race whatever break the time trial down you know so and then just stick to that but it’s hard to do well G we’re going to get into it a little bit more with you uh plus more on the ALP uh including fans causing chaos on one of the most uh or one of the craziest clims in the sport uh and we’ll also ask geez come close but we’ll also ask if the record ascent can ever be beaten welcome back to Cafe Afficionado we’re here with the great Grant Thomas and Graeme you’re with us as always the the the the striving for greatness still so tell us a little bit more about the races the the history on the Alp well we’re going to get into it but we’ll keep it brief so um we in fact we’ll start in the mid ‘9s or the early 90s your man Giani Buno uh winning twice uh in as many years 1990 1991 uh then Italian dominance uh through to the middle of the decade with Marco Pantani uh 9597 the latter of which he set the course record the uh the the climb record I should say um before that we saw the the most famous battle uh for GC teammates Levie Levie Clair with um Bernardino and Greg Lemon going for the 1986 tour uh and then more recently obviously we’ve seen G do it in uh in in amazing fashion but G was also firsthand uh he he was there in in person to see Tom Pigcock yeah um with one of the most ridiculous rides in recent memory um should we should we start with Marco Pantani and and his ridiculous climbs were you old enough to remember these yeah I mean I was I was a teenager i remember Marco 95 watching him in Carrera when he went off the front um that was the first time he’d well the year before he he broke through at the tour to France winning a couple of stages broke through at the Jurro that year finished on the podium when Evani Berine won and um yeah that was really the the pump of Marco Pantani but definitely um 95 and then of course 97 as well he won uh Pantani Merkatonu that was after the leg break so um yeah I’m well well acquainted with those years so the that’s the fastest time the uh the record is 37 minutes 35 seconds so an average of just over 23 km/h in 2022 G top three uh times overall not the top three at the finish were Yonas Finger Tad Paga and yourself and you climbed the 21 bends in 39 minutes and 8 seconds i don’t think correct me if I’m wrong I don’t think you’ve done it any quicker i’d be amazed if you had given your company that day no no that day I was just those two were just like a yo-yo in front of me they just attack each other sit up and I just keep coming back and to be fair they if they TTED up it they would have gone a hell of a lot quicker really if they weren’t messing around but um yeah that was that was some day really obviously you mentioned Tom’s descent of um Galibier um what I will say it always does look worse on camera though like when you’re following a rider like in a TT it always looks a lot more dodgy than when you’re actually on the bike but um yeah then obviously Tom won that day which was amazing for the team and yeah for me though that day was just all about trying to get up it as quickly as possible and these two just Pog and Vingore just attacking each other like Yeah like nothing else but um I’ll always remember that day for sure but you just had to keep tempoing back to them um but every time they went I I sort of try and put myself in your shoes every time you went sorry every time they went was it a case of okay I just need to tempo focus on my own how clear in your own mind do you have to be to know that as tempting as it might be you can’t just try and get onto their wheels and follow them up there you know you have to play your own game yeah like I knew I just wouldn’t be able to follow you know if I was spiking like them then I just blow up completely so I had to just ride my own you obviously have to increase your pace but you you time trial it a lot more um yeah otherwise I might follow for two or three times and then I just completely blow up and lose minutes you know so that was the the best way of me getting from bottom to top as quickly as possible so boys just before we move it on uh let’s just revisit Marco Pantani’s record which is depending on where you uh where you get your information from is either 36 minutes and 50 seconds or 37 minutes 35 seconds uh G we reckon yours is 39 minutes 8 seconds brad you got to be well under 45 for me yeah any idea no no no no i think I’ve only done it once and I was 123rd i can I can tell you mine for the for the sake of comparison yeah no so uh would you like to guess is it under or over the hour probably just under the hour it is well over the hour well over 1 hour 17 minutes and 47 seconds but what what I’m really coming to here is and it’s certainly not going to be me but can Marco Pantani’s record ever be beat of course it can yeah like every other record in cycling at the moment which is being smashed Simon Yates at the weekend or whenever it was with the Finest Air and the Jirro um oh for sure it’ll be broken and and and I think it has already been broken on the Strava thing recently by a gentleman who couldn’t even get a pro contract ah now we might have to look into that but in terms of in terms of pro riders G can you see it being beaten can you see it being beaten at the tour to France i think so yeah as well like if the if it was in the tour um it’s not in there this year but maybe in 26 if it’s in there i don’t see why Pog if he’s the same level as he is now it’s just like everything’s moved on like equipment nutrition um you know methods of training everything you know and I think the whole cycling world is is completely like changing really all this data and everything so um and Pog you know we’ve already said probably the greatest ever oh yeah I put money on him being able to break it if it all depends on the race though doesn’t it like if they’re bottom to top as quick as they can then for sure but if it turns into a bit of cat and mouse then obviously that changes things but you got to figure if he goes if he goes out for it and sets us a target yes he usually gets him doesn’t he yeah and I mean he’s capable of it isn’t he definitely yeah and what’s it like riding with with Pagatcha in the Pelaton and coming up against him on these in these races on these famous climbs like you mate you’re aware that you’re you you must be aware that you are also in the presence of sort of alltime greatness yeah like it’s just insane what he’s done the last two years you know um or 18 months to this point but you just know it’s it’s special and it’s um yeah it’s one one in a generation if not the best ever so um you obviously got to marvel at it and give him a lot of um praise but at the same time you got to race him and you need to try to to believe that anything can happen um and yeah just just get out there and do your best with the boys but it’s um it’s tough coming up against the likes of him that’s for sure does he do you ever have a chat with him when you’re on a climb and you’re you’re kind of in a a small group like that uh not not the ends of the race no but before Leaz we start up this drag and um he came up and started chatting to me then and I’m doing like 420 440 watts and I’m just thinking mate I can’t I don’t want to talk right now i just want to concentrate on breathing you know but and he’s just there next to me just like yeah like as a Sunday stroll you know so different breed that boy you’ve spanned quite a few generations of riders didn’t you since you first tour in 2007 I mean the Continor era through me pagatcha and it’s it’s you were still competitive last year in the gro with them with these guys it’s you know it’s quite a quite a lengthy career in it G let’s so we mentioned the Tom Pigcock stage uh as well the stage 122 and let’s just underline It was one of the most remarkable exhibitions of climbing and particularly descending like he descended like a demon that day like a it’s like he was on rails um that I think we’ve ever seen but in the leadup to that stage am I right in understanding that he was sort of badgering the team for a free role and he just couldn’t wait to be let loose off the leash uh yeah well he obviously it’s a weird one with Tom you know he came to the team wanting to ride GC and be in you know have a go at the tour but he was never really in the position to do it but um yeah and he’s a winner and he and he he wanted his success and he was um that was a good day for him really and the way that the race was going it it worked out perfect really cuz over Galibier Vizma or Jumbo at the time were controlling it so when Tom went over the top they weren’t too too bothered about it really so they let him go um and he he had that leeway to get across the the break then um and then had a great chance of winning cuz the guys in the break obviously there were some strong guys well Froomi was there um probably the best day Fumi’s had since his his accident really um and uh who else louis Mankeys who’s obviously a good climber and then the rest you know you knew he could put them away so he was in a great once he got across that group you knew he had a great chance of winning and um yeah he took the ball by the horns and he he made sure he did it yeah he nudged speeds of nearly 100 km an hour coming off the slopes of both the Gibby and uh the quadifur um that was thrilling brad talk to me about descending have you ever got anywhere near that um probably at times yeah but not not you know I’ve had different moments descending but um you know I was always one that didn’t didn’t I was always thinking of the risk element of descending and things like that and I think when you’re in a diff when you’re in a yellow jersey or in a position like that you think more of the risk and it’s about taking calculated risk tom was out the GC that day grant was fighting for the podium and and I think you you know when you’ve got nothing to lose or or gain really from something like that you you tend to take your head off a bit more descend is about just letting your head go and not thinking of the risks on each corner and getting down in one piece yeah and G particularly in your latter career presumably you’re always thinking about what you’ve got to lose at that point whereas Tom he had the benefit of youth on his side as well the fearlessness yeah certainly when you’ve had a few when you’ve had a few big crashes as well you kind of realize that you’re not invincible and you know stuff can go wrong but at the same time you know when it comes to that crunch moment in the race you still have to sort of um as I said before just take that pin out and just go on autopilot really um but it’s weird it’s kind of like some days you just do feel like one with your bike and you’re just going and it’s flowing nicely and then other days it can just for whatever reason you just don’t feel too smooth you know and every corner seems a bit more like a 50 piece rather than nice smooth corners and whatever but um yeah like with Thomas it’s he’s certainly one of the best and most confident in the pelaton so it’s uh it’s unreal when you see it talked about how your career G has spanned so many uh superb riders i was going to mention Jeep and I’m going to mangle the pronunciation of his name here jup six time uh second place on the GC at the tour he was one of the first uh Dutchmen he’s one of the reasons that um Outdoors is called Dutch Mountain and and Dutch Corner is so celebrated but he not only came second six times on GC he did manage to win it in 1980 uh but his career spanned Eddie Mks so he rode against Merks for the tour uh and at the other end of his career he came across Bernardino and uh and Gremont yeah and he won the world championships at 40 years of age in 1985 yeah so he had an incredibly long career and and spanned Yeah as you say quite a few different generations and world-class generations as well um G which corner we should mention the fact that uh if you win on DZ then you get your name on the plaque which corner is your name on i think it’s 13 um and when they put my name up they put it the wrong way around as well they always tell me Thomas is my first name like like you know what the French are like it’s like mate it’s my name i think I know which way around it is but um they’ve changed it now but yeah I think it’s 13 um which is pretty cool really um we’ve actually booked a skiing holiday for January i’ve never skied before so we’re going to go for the first time and we’re going to go up to ours so Oh brilliant that’ll be pretty cool okay gents time for our regular feature the ultimate cyclist G if you’re unaware every week we build the ultimate tour cyclist it’s 10 vital attributes that we’re looking for across our episodes or across this series 10 different riders who embody in their own different ways physical and mental assets when you put them all together uh it’s a puzzle that will mean this particular Frankenstein of a rider is unbeatable um on the road today’s attribute as a kind of tribute to our guest Brad is heart yes heart so determination you know picking yourself up when you’re down crashing and and um everything that goes with it really because you need a lot of heart to cycle don’t you heart to to win the tour to France or or race well in it there’s a G I think there’s a a quote from Dave Brazford that basically goes something like if you want suffering then then G is your man if you want a rider to suffer then G is your man um so I’m going to should we go to G for his one g if you had to pick a cyclist in history who represents better than anyone else heart who you going to go for blood and guts um it’s quite an obvious one as we spoke to him already and he’s been a teammate for so long but I think Chris F would be my shout um sorry it’s a bit obvious but I think just from riding with him like his determination and self-belief and even when he’s lost minutes he still thinks he can win and he’s had so many knockbacks and what how he came to the sport you know like growing up in South Africa and you know getting locked in I don’t know ostrich pens from by his brothers you know and running from hippos and all this type of stuff and then he’s winning the tour of France running up the von too cuz you know that’s the only thing he that came to his head when he crashed and then he just starts running because he doesn’t have a bike it’s just like yeah his uh belief self-confidence like always giving everything every day um even the training before it from November all the way through to the tour he was so determined like looking at every little advantage he can get different foods and whatever and yeah just loved being at altitude always pushing himself and yeah for me uh seeing it firsthand it’d be um through me right beat that Brad well I I this is going to be sound a bit naff but I was going to pick grind for this one only because p well mainly because of the the tour to France you rode with a broken pelvis is it 2013 yeah of course which I never forget and I mean I can’t imagine what that must have been like and then obviously the other thing that springs to mind is you were on for possibly a gold medal or certainly a medal of some color at the Olympic road race in Rio when you crashed got yourself up when you won the prologue in 2017 couple of days later was it the day late you crashed broke your collarbone or a week later was it and I I only remember you for crashing and and and how you pulled yourself back afterwards and and that kind of you know your your first thought was to get to the finish line no matter how bad you was to assess your condition for the next day and that’s certainly something I wasn’t capable of doing and and for that reason I got to pick a G it’s very very difficult not to pick him even the G’s choices the few of the yeah the few of the crashes so I think for possibly for the 2000 tour sorry 2013 tour alone crashing on the first stage in Corsica and then riding all 21 stages over Cobbles that year as well 2013 within your 2014 2014 cobbles 14 that was yeah yeah uh Gee I think it’s it’s got to be it’s got to be a fractured pelvis it’s got to be because you can get on your bike some mornings right you had to be helped on yeah the first few days were were rough having to get on the turbo and just Yeah getting the leg over the bike was hard um but like the main thing for that was cuz I missed out on 2012 when Brad won and like you know cuz I was riding the track at the time so I missed the tour and I just really wanted to be a part of that and then so when Froomi was you know looking like you had a really good chance I just didn’t want to go home and the the the doctors were like you’re not going to do any more harm um so if you can put up with the pain it was kind of like a just a challenge then really and but luckily every day it did feel a little bit better and yeah you you managed to get through it in the end but um that was tough i don’t know if I’d be able to do that now hard as hard as nails uh hair so hairline fracture of your hip right your pelvis yeah the top part like on your back like the high part there so it was Yeah there would have been worse places to break it but um yeah it wasn’t ideal for the first week or so that is not one for me uh so G uh has got has got to take it for for that performance alone you can check out our Frankenstein of an ultimate cyclist on our Instagram page Sir Brad’s Cafe and tell us if we were right to choose a Gite um as having cycling’s biggest harp the the bravest man in cycling that’s what we’re going to bestow you definitely as a title g um well I’ll accept that we’ve touched on a few highlights or or low lightss depending on how you want to look at them um from your career uh you I mean the fact that you didn’t come off your bike in the 2018 tour when you seem to have there seem to be so many things that could have gone the other way is in itself and forgive me for saying this it is in itself a minor miracle given your track record which you just seem to be one of the unluckiest men on a on a a bike as well one of the unluckiest men in pro cycling yeah yeah i don’t know you know I’ve had my fair share of crashes obviously but um a lot of them have you know the more results you have the more you stand out and the more people realize you crash um there’s been a lot of other guys that crash more maybe but they they’re not as sort of well known I guess but yeah I think since then well it’s just yeah some points it’s been um it did there was a period of time maybe 16 15 16 17 team where I had a few big ones um but I always kind of put myself in that danger zone as well and he was always trying to stay out the winds and you’re always sort of in that bubble where isn’t necessarily ideal and obviously some were my fault and some you just can’t help but you know the JRO when I crashed out there was a police motorbike that was on the road one of the lads in front of me hit it and you know nowhere to go and so things like that you know [ __ ] happens doesn’t it but um yeah luckily like you say you know I was managed to to have that one tour where I didn’t have any bad luck and it it went rather well So um that makes it all okay in the end you’ve obviously got far more to your Palm Marz uh than than that talk to me about the Beijing Olympics your first I think you’ve well your only gold medal together in the in the team pursuit squad yeah um we won the world title for two years the two years running up to that broke the world record in Manchester grant you were only young then were you 19 20 uh 21 2008 yeah I was 22 by Beijing came around but yeah I was I remember that was the um the rejuvenation of the British team pursuit squad we were getting battered every year by the Australians Athens Olympics world championships in Stogar um and then G came along as this you know just out of junior junior world champion and went into the squad into Bordeaux in 2006 and they just lost the gold medal by half a second or something and then from that moment on with him and Ed we built the the makings of of a world-class team pursuit squad so I remember the excitement from myself and Paul Manning who were the sort of elder riders in that group was um we were over the moon you know we got two young riders here that we can actually compete with the Australians so for that two years I think we went everywhere together and um it was all about winning Olympic gold and um we did it is it we did it yeah and then you went and did it again and again uh J I want to bounce back to um some of the other highlights from your palm because I what I want the other thing I really want to ask you while we’re looking back at the at at your career um is I mean we’re talking about Parinise in 2016 the tour to Swiss in 2022 uh the Doofane 2018 as well in the leadup to um in lead up to your tour win the tour to Romani uh in 2021 E3 Harold Becker so apart from your Olympic golds and the tour to France if we can take those out of the equation what’s your proudest moment on the bike in terms of your wins in terms of your the your victories um it’s a tough one cuz Paris was kind of like the third time trying i’d like well crashed out the the two previous um then the doofen is just so big but then E3 as well like it’s kind of like the one below the two monuments Rube and Flanders and the way I won that as well with with Peter Saran who was at the height of his powers at the time and uh Stear who was you know a super talented light cross guy and rode for quick step and I’d probably say E3 if I had to choose because yeah to put those two away I jumped in with maybe 4K to go i was the one to attack up uh Quam Mount as well and took those two with me and um that was one of those days where you just yeah Belgians kind of say diamonds in the legs you know just you just don’t really feel the pedals it was just like playing with them almost and I knew exactly where I was going to attack and when and how and went for it and had the legs to pull it off so I think um yeah E3 probably cuz it’s just you know you cross the line first as well like when it’s like do I didn’t actually win a stage I don’t think that year and obviously it’s still a massive race and whatever but um and the diversity to do that as well you know top 10 in Perry rub third in game we gam it was quite a pal mar isn’t it when you consider what he’s achieved commonwealth games title as well on the road when when it when it looked like you punctured didn’t you in the last few ks and it looked Uh you might it might slip out of your hands there yeah yeah so I’d gone away I don’t know 15k or so to go punch a 6k to go and just thinking these two guys are going to catch me now but luckily there was um there’s no race radio so I think that probably played in my into my hands at that point cuz they were just racing for second then but that was obviously special cuz you know I love I love Wales and um rugby and stuff and you never really get to put on that Welsh jersey only the commies and I’ve only done it three times maybe so yeah to win for Wales and then ended up carrying it was on the last day of the of the game so they asked me to carry the flag at the closing ceremony as well which was um super special so that was obviously a big big deal as well g we we’re told you love a dad joke so we’ve been uh we’ve we’ve been through the serious stuff let’s let’s start to to wind it down on a slightly lighter note give us your best dad joke mate uh what do you call a Spanish footballer with no legs gracias gracias oh yeah good that one okay what about What about a man with no shins Tony [Laughter] hell no legs ground beef is there a story about you smearing banana on the walls from back in the day and you were accused of it being something else yeah that was in Junior Worlds in Moscow and I was rumoring with Matt Braier who’s um coach of British cycling at the moment actually and he basically put banana in my pillow or something and I like going to sleep and then took it out threw it at him he threw it back at me and ends up on the walls and you know a bit on the floor on the way to the toilet um but we were late for breakfast so we just go straight to breakfast then we come up and all these Moscow cleaning ladies were just going nuts at us thinking that it was well poo basically cuz obviously when banana goes off it goes that type of color doesn’t it and um yeah that didn’t go down too well and we got called into the office when we got back and Dave Braillesford was there Shane Sutton um yeah and they just gave us a massive massive bollocking for yeah just not behaving like when we’re representing GB and this that and the other but um yeah what would what would Shane have said Shane um I don’t know Shane Shane always excused riders that he he thought a lot of and he thought a lot of G you know and and I think talent was more important and and you know the talent and your possibility of winning things he he’d overlook things like that So Sutton was obviously with you u well with with you both at team sky as well and in the pouring rain in in the most dramatic way it was great uh yeah it was a week after the tour as well i just felt terrible i remember saying to Luke like “Oh mate if you feel good you can have a go.” And he was like “No no you’ll come good.” And um but yeah he was right g we always ask our guests uh two questions um on the on the way out of of Cafe Afficionado the first is what what keeps you in love with cycling oh I just love uh the freedom of it you know you just go out and you just you can go on your own and do what go wherever you want um especially that’s what got me into it as a kid you know you get to just your boundaries go so much further but I think just pushing myself as well like just that getting back from a long ride and you just feel tired but it’s a nice sort of tiredness and um obviously the racing as well is great but just riding my bike is yeah just love it and then final question Brad over to you as the the patron of Cafe afficionado yeah what’s what’s your go-to at Cafe G what you what’s your order coffee wise uh oh it’s always a flat white yeah nor me too as well oat or normal milk oh normal milk mate come on and you But you’re not allowed a cake when you are allowed a cake or if you were allowed a cake what would you go for oh a carrot cake all day long it’s got to be moist though it can’t be dry and what’s your favorite cafe G what’s your favorite bike cafe uh in Nice is a nice new one now alvin’s in the port um easy to get to yeah it’s not I think it’s an Aussie bloke or a Kiwi bloke it’s hard to find in France you know so we’re looking what’s she want in Wales what’s your one in Cardiff cycling cafe uh Ground is a good one george North’s a good mate he’s invested in it as well so got a supporter support brother on the list so gee thank you mate because you’re based in Monaco we should we should tidy that up so Nice is uh just down the road for you yeah yeah or we go to Italy most of the time if you want to stop anywhere you know but you got to plan your stops in France because coffee is terrible yeah nice well G thank you so much for joining us in uh Cafe Afficionado yeah thanks for having me guys it’s been uh it’s been great and um yeah Swiss in the tour now and then going to finish a tour Britain so it’s going to be uh it’s going to be emotional I’m sure but looking forward to it good luck with everything mate on your on your victory lap nice one cheers thanks for coming on G um remember you can follow us on all of the socials uh sir Brad’s Cafe and you can watch us on YouTube um and please hit follow wherever you get your podcasts thanks again for joining us Brad thanks to you Graeme and thank you Groin for joining us as always and thank you for joining us at Cafe Afficionado see you next time for another ride [Music]