GERAINT THOMAS is measuring his Tour de France campaign in Big Macs as he aims to French fry leader Julian Alaphilippe and put on the Yellow Jersey.
The defending Tour de France champ, 33, takes on the Tour’s toughest stage so far in the Pyrenees on Thursday.
The Welshman revealed he burned enough calories to chomp down on NINE burgers during stage nine.
The Team Ineos star was chatting with pal Luke Rowe on his new mid-Tour podcast ‘Watts Occurring’.
Thomas said: “I was 5,000 calories, you were 5,500.
“A big Mac is 540 odd calories, so I could have nine of those.
“But I was more a McChicken man when I was a kid.”
Cyclists are usually obsessive about their weight going into the mountain stages, while Thomas has previously admitted he had to cut weight after Christmas, after he enjoyed his status as last year’s Tour winner.
Ineos will have a huge opportunity to stamp his authority on the race today, with two huge mountains and a hair-raising 13-mile descent into Bagneres-de-Bigorre.
Thomas finished 102nd on the same descent in 2013, but was working for Chris Froome who was wearing the Yellow Jersey for the first day in his career.
But that day was won by pal Dan Martin, who Thomas has raced with for about 15 years.
Thomas also revealed their team-mate Wout Poels has been told to take it easy for the first two weeks of the Tour, so they can use him in the last few mountain stages.
Thomas said: “He’ll come into his own after the time trial, he’s ‘Third Week Wout’.
“Basically first 10 days he’s been told just to finish the stage and try and help the guys in the first 20km.”
Aussie sprinter Caleb Ewan won Wednesday’s bunch sprint into Toulouse, edging out Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen.
Thomas remains second, 1min 12sec behind Alaphilippe with Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal four seconds behind in third.
