Geraint Thomas suffered one of the Tour de France's most infamous crashes as he "fell off the side of a cliff" - leaving his wife crying on live TV. The Welshman is among the modern greats in cycling having enjoyed tremendous success as a track and road rider. Thomas, 38, is not only a three-time world champion, but also a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a winner of the France-based Grand Tour. However, even cyclists of Thomas' ilk suffer a crash or two, with the Cardiff native's most infamous collision coming in 2015 during the Tour de France. Riding for Team Sky at the time, Thomas was in the 16th stage of the race and was heading into the difficult descent of the Col de Manse into Gap. While turning, he was hit by a fast approaching Warren Barguil, leaving him scarily steering towards a telegraph pole as he then fell over the railing and disappeared over the side of the road. His crash was revisited during season one of the Netflix series 'Tour de France: Unchained' as he opened up about the incident alongside his wife Sara Elen, who revealed just how shook up she was watching the crash unfold. "You've had your fair share of crashes - I was watching and you just basically went off the side of a cliff," she said. "I was actually working for S4C at the time, the Welsh language programme, I started crying on air because nobody knew what happened to you. "Since that point I was like, 'I just can't really watch it'." Despite his wife's emotion, Thomas was surprisingly cool when recalling the incident, admitting he wasn't hurt amid the dramatic nature of his fall. "It was a good clash that one because there was nothing wrong with me but it was really dramatic," he coolly said. "Basically, there was this netting thing that stopped me falling any further which was pretty good obviously. I climbed back up and got back on my bike. I only lost 30-odd seconds or something." He certainly wasn't fazed at the time as he immediately returned to his feet and got on a spare bike to finish stage 16. After being asked about the crash following the stage, he laughed off the seriousness of it and said: "I was all tangled up in the bushes, a nice Frenchman pulled me out." Thomas will be calling time on his sporting career at the end of the 2025 season and said his desire to retire while still radiating positivity was important for him. "This will be my 19th year as a professional - it has to end at some point, and I didn’t want to do one year too many and be that grumpy guy on the bus who is a negative person," he said on the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club podcast. "I’m still enjoying it and still feeling competitive, but the timing is right. Wanting to go faster and longer, that hasn't changed or dwindled as the years go by, but you can’t do it forever - I’m getting a few grey hairs and I don’t want to reach the stage where I’m like, ‘I should have stopped last year, I don’t want to be here anymore'. "Since I was a kid, I dreamed of riding on the Tour and being part of the Olympics, so to win the Tour was a dream in itself. The yellow jersey is iconic. You go anywhere in the world and people will know the yellow jersey, how it signifies cycling and its history. So to be a part of that history and to win it, I just pinch myself."