An achievement for a good cause. Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas, winner of the 2018 Tour de France, has pedaled for 36 hours on rollers in his garage to raise 300,000 pounds (nearly 350,000 euros) for the British public health system (NHS), including staff struggle to care for patients with Covid-19 in the UK.
"I have heard so many stories about what caregivers are doing that it makes me want to try to play a very small role in trying to help a little bit," the BBC told the Briton from the Ineos team, recalling that his retired mother had returned to work at the hospital in Cardiff, and that her best friend was a hospital doctor.
Thomas, also double Olympic team pursuit champion in 2008 and 2012, achieved this performance in three days, 12 hours a day, in the garage of his Cardiff residence.
The equivalent of eight or nine stages of a Tour de France
"Without exaggerating, the last two hours have been the hardest in my entire career," he said. "I could barely sit. "Until then, my longest road trip by bike was 8:20 min in a group, with a coffee break," said the 33-year-old champion. "There, it was serious," said one who ran the equivalent of eight or nine stages of a Tour de France. "I'm going to need a week to recover," he said.
Our file on containment
Thomas, named British sports personality of the year in 2018, is in containment like most high performance athletes because of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused the postponement or cancellation of all major races until the 'summer.
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