‘So this is what it’s like to be famous,’ writes other Geraint Thomas

He prefers fast cars to speedy bicycles and counts joining a gym as his greatest athletic achievement.

But because he shares a name with the winner of the Tour de France and has a Twitter handle that looks more genuine than the real thing, Geraint Thomas, a university lecturer from south Wales, has had a taste of what is like to be a sporting hero.

Thomas’s Twitter account @geraintthomas has been deluged over the past week, mainly by well-wishers congratulating him on his win – plus a few cynics wondering if drugs had anything to do with his triumph.

“It has been a crazy week,” said Thomas, 30, whose pedal bike is in pieces in a shed somewhere and admits he much prefers whizzing around in his Porsche Boxster. “The vast majority of messages have been positive, which is incredible.”

His favourite so far has been a confused fan who expressed amazement that he had won the Tour de France while holding down a full-time job lecturing in visual effects at the University of South Wales. “That was an odd one,” he said.

Thomas explained that he set up the @geraintthomas account in 2009, the same year his namesake joined Team Sky. The cycling Thomas had to make do with adding the year of his birth to his handle, @GeraintThomas86. As one Thomas became a cycling star, the other offered Team Sky his handle but was politely told it was not necessary.

During the 2016 Tour, however, Team Sky accidentally named the wrong Thomas: “The stage finished in a hailstorm, but @GeraintThomas didn’t mind.” He certainly didn’t. He was safely tucked away in south Wales.

Lecturer Thomas does not follow cycling, but when it became clear that his namesake was likely to win this year’s tour his friends told him to brace himself. “I thought, OK, I’m sure it will be fine. I’ll have a few tweets here and there.”

It began steadily. On the final day of the tour as cyclist Thomas was heading toward the finish line in Paris, lecturer Thomas was at home doing chores. When fans began tweeting him their support he replied: “Thanks, means so much with everyone supporting me doing the ironing this morning.”

After cyclist Thomas crossed the line, lecturer Thomas’s Twitter feed exploded into life. He tweeted: “So this is what it’s like to be famous,” thinking people would realise that must mean he wasn’t the real Thomas. “It backfired enormously,” he said. It sounded like the sort of thing the modest cyclist might have said.

By Friday the tweet had received almost 30,000 likes and been retweeted more than 2,000 times. His number of followers has soared from 180 to almost 2,300, though it was still well short of @GeraintThomas86’s 400,000.

Geraint Thomas (@geraintthomas)

So this is what it’s like to be famous.

July 29, 2018

Lecturer Thomas tried to dampen down the interest by tweeting: “Not a cyclist, nor do I own a yellow cardigan.” He has also started using the hashtag #imnotacyclist, but has been inspired enough by cyclist Thomas to join a gym.

“I’m not massively athletic,” he said. “I’ve got more of a keg than a six pack. I’m more into four wheels. I’m a huge petrol head.”

As the tweets piled in, he was invited to the join the “misdirected Twitter club”, which includes the likes of an Imran Khan who never played international cricket before becoming one of the world’s most well-known politicians and a John Lewis who is not a department store famous for its price promise and Christmas adverts.

But lecturer Thomas has become a fan of the other Geraint, especially after the tour winner replied to his: “So this is what it’s like to be famous” message with a typically concise tweet: “You’re welcome.”