Thomas praises Yates and Visma after Giro victory, but his buddy Rowe disagrees: "It's not rocket science"

"When I saw the stages in the Giro, I thought, 'How nice it would be to ride there now,'" Thomas begins his story. "I have to admit that I often feel that way during races, but I’ve been able to ride the Giro a few times in recent years, and it’s great to be at the start. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible this year."

The Brit is currently on a training camp, after which he will head to the Tour de Suisse and then the Tour de France. “I'm looking forward to riding again, first in Switzerland and then in the Tour, which promises to be tough. Tadej, Jonas, and Remco, all three of them, will be flying. But the Tour is the Tour, so I'm looking forward to it."

But now, back to the Giro, where Thomas saw his team, INEOS, deliver an excellent performance. "We had bigger ambitions, but we can be satisfied with Bernal's performance. He crashed a few times but always fought his way back. He's a real fighter, and we can be proud of his and his teammates' performance."

The overall winner of the Giro was Simon Yates, after a surreal finish on the Colle delle Finestre. "It was a bizarre stage, in which Del Toro partly gave it away himself. I don’t understand why he didn’t chase Yates when he attacked; he was only focused on Carapaz. When you have the pink jersey on your shoulders, you fight for it, right?"

But according to Thomas, it wasn't just Del Toro and Carapaz responsible for Yates winning the Giro, but also Yates himself. "I did expect Yates to make it to the podium, as he's always good in Grand Tours. His move to Visma also played a part in his victory. He fits in perfectly with the team and gets the best support there."

But did he have the best team with him? Former professional cyclist and podcast host Luke Rowe doubts this. "Visma did well in the flat stages, but for the GC? Putting van Aert on the attack? That's not rocket science. I think they were lucky that Yates did so well," said the sports director of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.

And overall impressions of the Giro? The former Tour winner is positive. "I'd give the race a solid 9 out of 10. There were many stages where we saw spectacular performances from the GC contenders, which we didn't expect. The only downside is that there was no battle for the points and mountain classifications."