What does Geraint Thomas' retirement mean?

The 2025 season has not started yet and we already have to start talking about the retirement of cyclists who have announced that this will be their last campaign. The most relevant one is probably Geraint Thomas, the last British winner of the Tour de France, who seems to mark the end of an era for the INEOS Grenadiers.

End of an era for British cycling with Geraint Thomas retiring in 2025

In 2025, the last representatives of the legendary Team Sky, which changed cycling and brought it into the 21st century when it appeared in 2010, revolutionizing training methods, attention to detail, and ultimately, work methods at all levels of this sport, will leave.

A couple of days ago, Geraint Thomas, the last British cyclist to conquer the Tour de France with his victory in 2018, announced that he will end his successful career at the end of the season at the age of 39. The 2025 campaign starts with 25 victories in his palmares, including, in addition to the mentioned Tour de France, three stage wins in the French round, Paris-Nice, Tour de Suisse, Critérium du Dauphiné, Tour de Romandie, Algarve... as well as the painful second place in the Giro d'Italia two years ago when he lost the race to Primoz Roglic on the penultimate stage or a 2nd place in the Tour de France the year after his victory behind his teammate Egan Bernal.

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As Geraint Thomas himself admitted, focused these days on the Alicante coast, everything seems "a bit like Groundhog Day," referring to a 2025 campaign in which he does not hide that he would like to race one more Tour de France and then, in September, finish his career at the Tour of Britain.

A campaign that will start at the Tour Down Under followed by races like the Volta ao Algarve, Tirreno-Adriatico, and Volta a Catalunya. However, he will leave aside the classics "they are too crazy for me. You have to be prepared to fall, and I don't think I'm up for that anymore."

Along with the already more than likely retirement at the end of the year of Chris Froome, who finishes his contract with Israel-PremierTech and does not seem likely to find a new place, British cycling will be left without active Tour de France winners, starting a desert crossing that other countries like Spain or France have been experiencing for years and that does not seem to have a replacement in the short term in terms of the Grand Tours.