Geraint Thomas (Netcompany Ineos) said he accidentally ended up towing a group of around 30 amateur riders on the Giro d'Italia race route in Bulgaria, with team buses accelerating and honking around them on a road where the bunch was averaging over 40km/h.
Thomas told the Watts Occurring podcast on the Giro's first rest day – broadcasting from a park in Italy on 11 May – that the situation began after stage one. He and a companion got on their bikes to ride the course to the finish. Local riders were already out on the route, and the pair initially hung back to let them pass.
Then the group reformed around Thomas. Riders pulled alongside him for photos and videos, and word spread. "Without sounding like a knob, but word spread of that I was in this group and then people start coming up and more and more pictures and things," Thomas said. What started as a handful of fans grew to "30, 35 guys behind us," he said, as riders pushed the pace.
The route to the finish was shared with team buses heading the same way, and Thomas said the group was averaging "over 40k an hour" on the fast carriageway. As riders began passing buses, the buses sped up, closing the gaps and leaving riders between vehicles.
"So then we start passing some buses and then the buses speed up," Thomas said. "I've got 30 guys behind me. I feel quite responsible for them and they're kind of cutting in in front of the other bus. The bus is beeping..."
Thomas said his first instinct was to pull over and let the group ride on without him. "I was like, 'Oh, look, I don't want anything to do with this. I need to just stop and get out the way, you know, hide almost and then ride ourselves,'" he said. Instead, he kept pressing on.
Among the riders who joined were young racers from North Macedonia who told Thomas they compete around Romania, Bulgaria and the region. "It was an experience, you know, just seeing, hearing stories," he said.
The 2026 Giro opened with three stages in Bulgaria before moving to Italy, running from Nessebar to Burgas on stage one, Burgas to Veliko Tarnovo on stage two, and Plovdiv to Sofia on stage three. Thomas cited freshly tarmacked roads and large crowds in the host country. "I didn't know it was so popular over there," he said. "They're absolutely mad for it."
A major crash hit the peloton on wet roads during stage two, which saw the abandons of four riders and a big dent in the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad – as detailed in our in-depth story on the crash. Thomas spent part of the podcast discussing safety in the opening days. He also described his own incident with team buses.
"So yeah, it was eventful," Thomas added.
Cover image credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
