Thomas on Roglic's 'silly buggers': "I just don't trust the guy"

After the stage to Val di Zoldo, Geraint Thomas stated in the post-race press conference that he had already figured out the tactics and mind games played by Jumbo-Visma and Primoz Roglic in the early stages of the race. He elaborates on that statement a bit more on his own podcast Watss Occuring.

Thomas and his teammate Luke Rowe discussed the matter quite early on. "Thibaut Pinot was in the breakaway, so the pace was high. Jumbo-Visma set the tempo, but Roglic was playing silly buggers. He was sticking to the back of the group, and suddenly Formolo (UAE-Team Emirates) came up to me halfway up the climb and said, 'Hey G, Roglic is struggling at the back, mate.'"

"I immediately thought to myself that I don't believe it. But if he's struggling now, he'll be struggling at the end of the race too," Thomas said. "We didn't plan on changing our racing style because I just don't trust the guy. He's always tired, his legs always hurt, and then he wins. We didn't let it influence us, but when we reached the final climb, he and Sepp Kuss were suddenly up there with us."

Thomas glad he was able to gain time on Almeida

During the steep climb to Coi, Thomas was proven right. "When Sepp took the lead, I thought, here we go. Through the earpiece, I quickly heard that Joao Almeida was struggling to keep up, but he's someone who can already ride at a solid pace for his age. He never goes into the red zone, but in the end, it was nice that we were able to gain some time on him."

Then the INEOS Grenadiers rider shifted his focus back to his closest competitor, Roglic. "He was doing 10-second accelerations, as if he was training. It seemed like he wanted to drop me, because otherwise you don't ride like that. It was the South American style of climbing, with a lot of increases in pace. That's how he wanted to test me, but I thought, I'm not going to let you ride off."