Geraint Thomas Recovering from Aussie Crash
Interview by British Cycling's Larry Hickmott
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Here we are in Los Angeles in the very place that Welsh rider Geraint Thomas won his World Junior title last year. Less than 12 months on and the young rider is not competing in his first Senior Worlds due to a crash in Sydney last month where he had to have his spleen removed. Geraint however is here and helping out the team in other ways as well as getting some experience at what its like to be at a senior Worlds.
Getting a feel for what the riders are like and the competition he will have when he does get to the ride the World Championships. So whilst his fellow Great Britain team mates trained on the track, and in between his duties holding up riders for the Team Pursuit, I had a chat to him about how he is recovering.
As he sat there, with the words World Champion emblazoned across his socks, I started by asking about the crash he had last month. "We were just riding to our new hotel for the World Cup, riding two abreast with me on the back and Tom who was in front of me clipped a piece of metal and it went into my front wheel. And instead of just falling away and sliding, I went straight down and it went into my body. The forks snapped, the wheel was mangled and whilst I was lying there, I thought I was only winded. It didn't feel as bad as it turned out to be. At first in hospital, I didn't want any morphine or that because I thought I would still be racing. I was like "don't give me any morphine" and it was like seven hours later when I had a CT scan or something and they realised what I had done. After that, I went onto the morphine!"
"I was in intensive care and although I wasn't enjoying it, they were looking after me really well. The pain was quite constant and although my spleen stopped bleeding for a while, it started again in the middle of the night and they had to operate straight away. I was quite fortunate to be in Oz which was English speaking, but it was tough lying there knowing the lads were racing and I just wanted to be there too."
It helped a lot when GB brought my family out so I had someone to talk to during the day because obviously Shane couldn't be there all the time."
Asked did he see the lads while he was in hospital, he replied "yes, they came to see me when they had finished the World Cup".
As for the operation to remove his spleen, he says "it was better to have got it out as I was able to get back on the bike quicker . I seem to recover really quickly which is really good and I'm already on the bike.
Asked if he was pleased to be at the Worlds despite not being able to ride, Geraint says "its definitely good to be here and learning off the riders and seeing what happens at a Senior worlds. I'm really grateful for what Rod and Shane have done after they helped me through the initial weeks which were hard. It was difficult being in Sydney and watching them train just after the World Cup when they were all on a high. Now I'm a bit used to it but still you think about what could have been."
As for the rest of this year, he says he's hopeful of still going to the Europeans on the track mid way through the year, then the Road Worlds, British Track championships, some World Cups perhaps and also the Commonwealth Games. He expects to start training properly when he returns to Wales after the Worlds before resuming racing for the Under 23 Academy which he is now part of. We wish Geraint all the best for his return to racing and hope that at next years Worlds in April, he can at last compete for another rainbow jersey, this time as a senior. Good luck Geraint.