Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas react to missing out on Ineos Tour de France team
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Updated 19/08/2020 at 11:00 GMT
Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas have both given their reactions to the shock decision from the Ineos Grenadiers to omit the star duo from their Tour de France team.
Tour de France 2018 winner Great Britain's cyclist Geraint Thomas (R) and third placed Great Britain's cyclist Christopher Froome
Image credit: Getty Images
The Grenadiers outlined their shock plans for the rest of the season on Wednesday morning and confirmed the leaders for each of the Grand Tours with the star trio spread across the three feature races.
While the 23-year-old Egan Bernal will seek to defend his Tour title, which starts on Saturday 29th August in Nice, Thomas will instead focus on attempting to win the Giro d'Italia.
As for Froome, who will be leaving the team to join Israel Start-Up Nation at the end of the season, he will now switch his attention to La Vuelta rather than targeting a fifth Tour triumph.
Ineos posted a compilation of videos on their social accounts with Froome, Thomas and Bernal all giving their reactions to the news that took the cycling world aback.
Froome said: "It's definitely a readjustment for me, moving the goalposts from the Tour de France to the Vuelta.
"But I think, given where I've come from through the last year, I've had an incredible recovery from the big crash I had last year.
I'm in a very fortunate position to be back racing now, but I'm not confident that I can really fulfil the necessary job that would be needed for me at this year's Tour de France and I think it's a lot more realistic targeting the Vuelta and gives me the chance to really get stuck into something that is deliverable.
"At the end of the day, people have to remember that I'm coming back from a horrendous crash last year where I fractured a lot of bones in my body. I'm still coming back to that full level of fitness at the moment."
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Thomas said of his omission from the Tour: "It's nice to finally have a firm plan in place and to know exactly what I'm doing and try and get some kind of positive out of this year.
"I've always enjoyed racing there - I love Italy, the fans and the food, obviously. It's a race I've always enjoyed anyway, so I'm certainly looking forward to going back and that is the plan now."
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David Brailsford explains why Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas left out of Ineos Tour de France team
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