Devastated Thomas rules out Vuelta participation
After crashes at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, Geraint Thomas will not be racing the Vuelta a Espana.
Geraint Thomas says he does not have the mental strength to turn his focus to the Vuelta a Espana after crashing out of the opening two Grand Tours in 2017.
Thomas was named as co-leader for Team Sky at the Giro d'Italia earlier this year and was a favourite to claim the general classification title.
However, the Welshman's race came to an abrupt end when a poorly parked police motorbike caused chaos in the peloton on stage nine.
He managed to ride on for another few days but the pain of his injuries forced him to abandon and move his attention to the Tour de France.
Thomas excelled on the opening time trial of the Tour and wore the leader's yellow jersey for four days before Chris Froome took over after stage five.
That saw Thomas revert to his role in support of Froome but another stage nine crash saw him withdraw, the 30-year-old unable to avoid a pile-up caused by Rafal Majka as he suffered a broken collarbone.
It will be his last Grand Tour of the year, though, after admitting refocusing on the Vuelta would be too much of an ask both physically and mentally.
"[Will I race the Vuelta?] I don't think so, I just don't think I've got the mental strength to go again," a devastated Thomas - who has had a plate and pins put in to fix his collarbone - told Omnisport.
"I was on it for the Giro since November really, obviously had that disappointment, got over that and got onto the Tour and had a similar disappointment again.
"To be as light as I need to be and be in that shape I just don't think it's achievable.
"I could go and ride for the team and do a few weeks of racing like that but it's the same thing, mentally I just don't think my heart would be in it. I think I'm maybe looking more at the Tour of Britain and things like that."