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Arise, Sir G? Geraint Thomas tipped for knighthood

Tour de France champion expected to be named in New Year's Honours...

Geraint Thomas has been tipped to receive a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours to set the seal on a remarkable year for the Welshman.

Already a double Olympic champion in the team pursuit, the 32-year-old’s Tour de France victory in July has propelled him to superstardom.

The Team Sky rider’s elevated public profile was confirmed last week when he was named BBC  Sports Personality of the Year, having already won the BBC Wales version of the award.

A source told the Sunday People that Thomas, awarded an MBE after winning his first Olympic gold medal in 2008, that his latest honour will be confirmed next week.

 “Geraint has achieved what no Welshman has achieved before and a knighthood is the right way to honour him,” the source said.

Thomas’s former Team Sky and Team GB colleague Sir Bradley Wiggins was knighted after his Tour de France victory in 2012, the year in which he won the fourth of his five Olympic medals.

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome, who this year became only the third man in the history of cycling to hold all three Grand Tour titles simultaneously, was appointed an OBE in 2016 but is yet to receive a knighthood.

Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford was knighted after the London 2012 Olympics, while Sir Chris Hoy was awarded his knighthood after winning three Olympic gold medals at Beijing four years earlier.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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24 comments

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Yorkshire wallet | 5 years ago
0 likes

Twiggy would be a pariah as a modern day woman as all the Facebook fatties would mobilise against her.

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bobbinogs | 5 years ago
2 likes

Made me laugh, all the talk in various sporting forums about the relative merits of sports folk...and Twiggy gets one of the highest gongs on offer for being a professional clothes horse and, err, not a lot else ☺

SNAFU!

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don simon fbpe replied to bobbinogs | 5 years ago
0 likes

Bobbinogs wrote:

Made me laugh, all the talk in various sporting forums about the relative merits of sports folk...and Twiggy gets one of the highest gongs on offer for being a professional clothes horse and, err, not a lot else ☺ SNAFU!

Didn't sir Bradders just ride a bike, and, err, not much else?

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don simon fbpe | 5 years ago
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Just an OBE, should've used the photoshopped image on the application. yes

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stephen ashforth replied to don simon fbpe | 5 years ago
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don simon fbpe wrote:

Just an OBE, should've used the photoshopped image on the application. yes

 

Yep, as predicted, the "source" was talking rubbish.

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BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
3 likes

Meh, sportspersons getting a big gong for doing their job well, sorry but it's bollocks. Maybe after they've done something for the country as a whole, helped set up a cycle organisation that gets kids/adults cycling, or like Chris Boardman, is actually doing something massively positive not just for cycling safety but health of the nation and is involved in community work post career, that deserves a gong.

it's just getting fricking ridiculous now, they're even talking about Alistair Cook getting a knighthood ffs!

As i wrote in the guardian comments, there's an 88yr old gent from my home city who has world champion honours both as a player and a coach at International level, one team club player and captain for most of his15 year pro career, never sent from the field of play, set up a hugely successful amateur club in his home city, brought through and trained thousands of kids, coached his county side, always involved in charitable events.

He's given massively over 40 years, not just to the city but beyond and has just being nominated for a hall of fame place within the sport he played at.

Johnny Whiteley, Hull RLFC & Gt Britain rugby league player and Gt. Britain, & Yorkshire coach, instigator of the West Hull amateur club and all round good egg, was awarded an MBE in 2005!

It's all about what's/who's popular, it's sod all to do with what you've given in the wider sense beyond your job, never mind what you actually achieved.

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Griff500 replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
1 like
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Meh, sportspersons getting a big gong for doing their job well, sorry but it's bollocks.

Much as I am a fan of G, I agree 100% with what you say. The honours system started out as recognition for people who had incurred if not risk, then at least some inconvenience in order to help others. Dishing out honours to pop stars whose greatest achievement is the accumulation of several hundred million quid of personal wealth, at the expense of the younger generation is a bit off.

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Yorkshire wallet | 5 years ago
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If imports like Mo (my coach was dodgy) Farah can gets knighted then why not Froome?

 

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don simon fbpe replied to Yorkshire wallet | 5 years ago
1 like

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

If imports like Mo (my coach was dodgy) Farah can gets knighted then why not Froome?

 

Because Mo has been seen as a representative of GB, Froome's success has generally come under the Australian owned Team SKY banner? I'm sure it'd be different had Froomedog won a couple of golds for his home nation Great Britain.

I'm against the whole honours bullcrap, so not bothered whether Froome gets one or not, nor whether Geraint gets one or not. Quite happily see the Royal family go too.

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littlegermanboy | 5 years ago
1 like

My view re such recognition is that, in the case of sports people, it should wait until they retire from top-level competition. They'll still be young and those doling out the honours will have more perspective. For Andy Murray his knighthood almost seems a jinx and Wiggo's gong hardly seems to have done him much good. I'd say for Thomas it's 50/50 at the moment, but if he becomes a Sir then Froome should absolutely be too (and despite all the showbiz BS, if those two are knighted then David Beckham really, really ought to be).

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daturaman | 5 years ago
5 likes

Froome has represented the UK at the pinnacle of his sport. He is hands down the greatest Grand Tour cyclist of the modern age and arguably one of the all time greats. I don't care if he was born and raised in Timbuktu, Greenland or the International Space Station. He has represented this country and if any sportsman deserves a KBE, it's him.

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srchar | 5 years ago
7 likes

Kenyans are eligible for knighthoods too and, as members of the Commonwealth, can use the title "Sir", so it doesn't matter what your opinion is on Froome's nationality in relation to being honoured.

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bobbinogs | 5 years ago
2 likes

Perhaps you can tell a man's country by the flag on his bike rather than a passport of convenience?

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Chris Hayes | 5 years ago
2 likes

Not to detract from the deserved Thomas, as one of the few men who have held all three GT jerseys simultaneously, Froome must be sounded out for a knighthood: this is the greatest acheivement of any British cyclist....and yes, if he holds the passport, he is British.   

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Chris Hayes | 5 years ago
5 likes

Not to detract from the deserved Thomas, as one of the few men who have held all three GT jerseys simultaneously, Froome must be sounded out for a knighthood: this is the greatest acheivement of any British cyclist....and yes, if he holds the passport, he is British.   

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JohnnyRemo | 5 years ago
0 likes

Maybe he turned it down.

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JohnnyRemo | 5 years ago
1 like

Maybe he turned it down.

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Marin92 | 5 years ago
1 like

Gotta to be Froome

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simonmb | 5 years ago
1 like

That Welsh flag is very poorly Photoshopped.

Must try harder road.cc!

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don simon fbpe | 5 years ago
0 likes

I think the important question is what Froome has done for the UK, excluding trade colour victories.

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Organon replied to don simon fbpe | 5 years ago
2 likes

don simon fbpe wrote:

I think the important question is what Froome has done for the UK, excluding trade colour victories.

He did win the bronze in 2012, so we know he has been to London at least once. Have there been many other sighting of him on this island? Perhaps HMRC also have a veto.

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Yorkshire wallet | 5 years ago
6 likes

Poor Froome. More worthy than Wiggins is being of late and a more impressive resume that Thomas.

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stephen ashforth replied to Yorkshire wallet | 5 years ago
6 likes

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

Poor Froome. More worthy than Wiggins is being of late and a more impressive resume that Thomas.

 

I really like Thomas and I know that he has won a couple of Olympic Golds on the track, but it is difficult to see why he is more deserving of a knighthood than Froome. Could be the "source" is talking rubbish, of course.

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Awavey replied to stephen ashforth | 5 years ago
0 likes

stephen ashforth wrote:

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

Poor Froome. More worthy than Wiggins is being of late and a more impressive resume that Thomas.

 

I really like Thomas and I know that he has won a couple of Olympic Golds on the track, but it is difficult to see why he is more deserving of a knighthood than Froome. Could be the "source" is talking rubbish, of course.

 

tbf the leaks on this stuff are usually pretty accurate by this time of the year, though lots of it still is just speculating to fill column inches. But Thomas didnt take the honour awarded from the 2012 olympics gold medal, which would have made him an OBE I guess, and an MBE is the lowest rank in the honours system,  so I think even those that follow these things closely would struggle to name anyone prior to this who was an MBE, who turned down a OBE, but then gets knighted only a few years later.

 

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