Geraint Thomas has all but confirmed he will ride the Tour de France one final time, posting on Instagram his ritual pre-race haircuit selfie.
Ineos Grenadiers are still yet to announce their eight-man squad for the race, which begins on Saturday, which has led to speculation over the make-up of the team, and also what is delaying the announcement.
Last month, Thomas crashed at the Tour de Suisse, a heart-in-mouth moment for fans who were hoping for one final Tour de France for the Welshman, who will retire at the end of the year.
After Thomas rode on to the finish, his team announced that he had withdrawn from the race ahead of stage four as a "precautionary measure".
“I just hit a lip on the side of the road, really,” Thomas told reporters after the finish line on stage three. “It was my fault, but then I just kind of got my foot caught behind me and I just twisted all my knee and my hamstring – it was just a dead leg.”
"My knee didn't feel too bad, it was more the muscles and from the twisting of it really," Thomas said on last week's episode of his podcast, Watts Occuring. "The doc was basically like: 'we don't want to take the risk, we think you're better just having a few days off, make sure it's 100 per cent and then you can train again and be good for the Tour' rather than battling away through here.
"I think because it was Suisse and two weeks out from the Tour, they were super cautious with that side of things. Any other race it probably would have been like 'oh just start tomorrow, see how you are'. So I wanted to start, but it made sense, so that was the call."
However, with Ineos's Tour line=up still a mystery, there were fears that the 39-year-old had not recovered in time to race his 14th Tour de France, the race he won in 2018, and finished second at in 2019, and third in 2022.
The Instagram post has allayed those fears, suggesting very strongly that Thomas will be in Lille on Saturday for the French Grand Tour. He is set to be the oldest rider in the race, with his first appearance at the race coming in 2007.
"The final pre-Tour chop," Thomas captioned the image, which shows his wife Sara preparing to cut his hair.
