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‘It was at the top – you're not sat on it’ – Geraint Thomas explains how he managed to ride the 2013 Tour de France with a fractured pelvisGeraint Thomas alongside Nicole Kidman on The Graham Norton Show (iPlayer)

‘It was at the top – you're not sat on it’ – Geraint Thomas explains how he managed to ride the 2013 Tour de France with a fractured pelvis

Injuries, stolen trophies and Nicole Kidman’s cycling pedigree featured during Geraint Thomas appearance on the Graham Norton Show
by Alex Bowden
Sat, Nov 24, 2018 09:17
9

Geraint Thomas made an appearance on the Graham Norton Show last night. You can watch it here. He turns up about 31 minutes in.

Norton kicks off by asking Thomas about the theft of the Tour de France trophy from the NEC Cycle Show earlier this year.

It’s then on to the pronunciation of his name (“Gerrnt” is Norton’s best effort) and how much he has improved as a cyclist since he finished ahead of only one other rider in his debut Tour.

They then move onto injuries. Thomas lists his many broken bones and explains how he managed to rupture his spleen during a training ride.

Joe Lycett asks him whether he can actually cycle. Stephen Fry suggests he use stabilisers.

In 2013, Thomas crashed on stage one of the Tour de France, fracturing his pelvis. Rather than abandoning, he famously continued and made it all the way to Paris.

Explaining how he was able to do so, he said: “It’s at the top of my pelvis, so you’re not sat on it. The doctors were like, ‘oh you’re not going to do any damage by riding, so if you can put up with the pain, crack on.”

He said he had still felt responsible for doing his job as part of the team and reasoned: “Well I’m still here, so I might as well start tomorrow.”

After a quick skim over the dynamics within Team Sky as Thomas rode to Tour victory ahead of Chris Froome this year, Norton turns his attention to “keen cycling fan” Nicole Kidman.

Yes, it’s a slightly awkward segue into Kidman’s early role in the film BMX Bandits. Kidman says that she got the part because she was good at acting, not because she was good at riding a BMX.

She reckons she did a few of the stunts in the film, but concedes there was a stand-in for others. “They had a boy who wore a wig and a bra.”

Geraint Thomas
Graham Norton Show
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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9 comments

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srchar | 5 years ago
2 likes

Ah yes, Graham Norton. He’s the bloke whose early career revolved around shoving sex toys in the faces of senior ladies while shouting “fanny” at the top of his voice.

He was funny in Father Ted, mind.

Avatar
madcarew replied to srchar | 5 years ago
0 likes

srchar wrote:

Ah yes, Graham Norton. He’s the bloke whose early career revolved around shoving sex toys in the faces of senior ladies while shouting “fanny” at the top of his voice.

He was funny in Father Ted, mind.

Ah yes. Graham Norton. He's the bloke, much like the rest of us, who did stuff in his early years that are probably a bit cringeworthy now. But like most of the rest of us he's learned and grown over the years to become some pretty good entertainment. 

Avatar
srchar replied to madcarew | 5 years ago
1 like

madcarew wrote:

he's learned and grown over the years to become some pretty good entertainment. 

I do love road.cc for its membership’s polite challenges to impudent comments, but I wouldn’t heap that much praise on him!

Avatar
madcarew replied to srchar | 5 years ago
0 likes

srchar wrote:

madcarew wrote:

he's learned and grown over the years to become some pretty good entertainment. 

I do love road.cc for its membership’s polite challenges to impudent comments, but I wouldn’t heap that much praise on him!

Yeah, but I hear Ricky Gervaise has won awards. Go figure!

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
1 like

He's only doing this to court publicity, typical publicity whore! Oh wait, that only applies to Brad right Geraint?

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Freddy56 replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
3 likes

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

He's only doing this to court publicity, typical publicity whore! Oh wait, that only applies to Brad right Geraint?

You are a loon. It is a prime time talk show. He is a guest given 5 mins to entertain people with his life highlights.

Sure you get on to Mr Norton and propose to disect the problem of static wage growth, in 20-25 year olds in North-East London.

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds replied to Freddy56 | 5 years ago
0 likes

Freddy56 wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

He's only doing this to court publicity, typical publicity whore! Oh wait, that only applies to Brad right Geraint?

You are a loon. It is a prime time talk show. He is a guest given 5 mins to entertain people with his life highlights.

Sure you get on to Mr Norton and propose to disect the problem of static wage growth, in 20-25 year olds in North-East London.

Are you saying I have a mental health problem, that's quite a jump from me accusing GT of double standards when it comes to garnering publicity/talking about himself.

get a grip snowflake

Avatar
don simon fbpe replied to Freddy56 | 5 years ago
1 like

Freddy56 wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

He's only doing this to court publicity, typical publicity whore! Oh wait, that only applies to Brad right Geraint?

You are a loon. It is a prime time talk show. He is a guest given 5 mins to entertain people with his life highlights.

Sure you get on to Mr Norton and propose to disect the problem of static wage growth, in 20-25 year olds in North-East London.

Have we relaxed the rules on personal attacks?

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
1 like

Thanks for the synopsis.

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