Geraint Thomas Homecoming Plans Gather Pace As Cardiff Turns Yellow

There’s already a golden post box dedicated to Geraint Thomas’ Olympic triumphs opposite Cardiff Castle and now there are plans to create a yellow one to celebrate his Tour de France victory.

Cardiff West MP Kevin Brennan was one of thousands who backed the plan on Twitter, while there were also calls to paint the Lighthouse dedicated to Arctic explorer Captain Scott at Roath Park the same colour.

Cardiff council lit up the City Hall with yellow lights over the weekend in tribute to one of its most famous sons. They trumped that by flying a yellow jersey in the Civic Centre as a mark of further respect on Monday.

Castles across Wales joined in the yellow theme, as did the Welsh Government’s Senedd building, and more than 500 cyclists turned up for an impromptu celebratory ride on Sunday night. Now, preparations are underway for a massive homecoming party.

Thousands of fans turned up at for Cardiff City’s Premier League promotion party this summer and there were an estimated 100,000 people on the streets of the Welsh capital when Fred Keenor’s Bluebirds returned with the FA Cup in 1927.

“We are planning something big and something special to welcome home Geraint. We’ve now got something that every city in Europe wants, a Tour de France winner,” said Councillor Caro Wild, Cabinet Member for Transport.

“We had a car free day in the city centre when we hosted the Cardiff City parade and we’d like to do something similar for the cyclists not only from Cardiff, but from all over the UK for Geraint’s return.”

Thomas arrived back in London on Monday and was greeted by a group of youngsters from his first cycling club, Maindy Flyers. The rest were at Maindy Stadium for a training session in front of the media.

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“It has been pretty crazy over the last few days with so much media interest in where Geraint started,” said Nick Jones, one of the leading coaches at the Flyers club.

“We had 60 youngsters out in the rain on Sunday and were been inundated with requests to join. Everyone wants to be the next Geraint Thomas.”

Leading the youngsters around the nearly 70-year-old track were two of the club’s latest international prospects, Zoe and Elynor Backstedt. With a father who won a stage of the Tour de France and Giro D’Italia, and a mother who represented Wales at the Commonwealth Games and won the British road race title, cycling is in their blood.

Elynor, 16, is off to Switzerland next month as one of three Welsh cyclists in the British team at the World Junior Championships – the latest star in the making off the Maindy Flyers production line.

Meanwhile, Cardiff Council intend to use the impetus created by Thomas to push forward their plans to make the Welsh capital one of the best cycling cities in Europe.

They are bidding for £20m to help five new cycle lanes to create a proper superhighway across the city to cut down on cars and reduce pollution.

Next month their highly successful ‘nextbike’ scheme will see the number of bikes available for usage around the city rise from 250 to 500 at 50 different stations.