Tour de France winner cycles at home for NHS

With professional cycling on hold because of the new coronavirus, 2018 Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas has decided to raise money for the UK's National Health Service by completing three rides in three days on an indoor training bike at his home in Wales.

Starting his charity ride on Wednesday, Thomas said he decided to mirror the length of a health worker's shift and cycle for 12 hours each day.

This year's tour was officially delayed on Wednesday due to the virus restrictions in France and is now set to begin in Nice on 29 August before finishing in Paris on 20 September.

The Team INEOS rider welcomed the decision and said it was "great news" that the race had not been cancelled, but would go ahead two months later than originally planned.

Thomas also explained that his charity rides were probably the equivalent in length of eight or nine stages of the Tour.

"And to be compressed into three days, just on a stationary bike in my garage, mentally that's tough," he added.

The Welsh cyclist set a target of £100,000 (124,796 US dollars) but by 1245 local time (1145GMT) on Thursday, his charity ride had raised £168,567 (210,419 US dollars).