Geraint Thomas has publicly responded to the news that Chris Froome is moving to the Land of Israel Startups, saying that his teammates will find it "strange" in their new environment.

Thomas, who is currently attending Team Ineos training camp at Mount Teide, said on the podcast Watts Occuring (opens in new tab), which he hosts with Luke Rowe.

Thomas has been racing with Froome since their Barloworld days in 2008, and Lowe joined them both at Team Sky in 2012, but it was announced last week that the four-time Tour de France champion will move on in 2021.

Lowe said it would be "weird" to race with Froome, but Thomas argued that it would be even weirder for Froome to move to a new team in his first attempt at the World Tour.

"I think it's weird for him too. But I think it's odd for him too.

"It's a big change.

"Honestly, he's going to be taking a step backwards on a lot of things by going to that team. But a lot of riders step up to new challenges in a new environment."

When announcing Froome's departure, Team Ineos said it could not guarantee the leadership role that Froome has enjoyed. Thomas and Egan Bernal have two previous Tour winners, have signed Giro d'Italia champion Richard Kalapas, and are training 23-year-old Pavel Sivakov.

"Frankly speaking, we have a lot of leaders now. He, you, Egan, Kalapas, and Pavel are all young players," Lowe noted.

"But he's going to go out there and arguably be the top dog."

"Is that why he left? I thought it was a money thing," Thomas said grimly.

"He's doing incredibly well just to get back to where he is after that accident," he said, referring to the career-threatening injury Frum suffered last June.

"Fair play to him. He's a determined guy. It's great. I hope it ends well."

Thomas, Lowe, and Froome are currently in Teide, Tenerife, camping at altitude with six other riders on the Tour de France long list: Sibakov, Michal Kwiatkowski, Andrei Amador, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Dylan van Baarle, and Jonathan Castroviejo.

The only exception is Bernal, who is still in his native Colombia awaiting a charter flight to Europe this weekend.

"It's good to be back in a team environment. I can focus 100 percent on training. It's always better to train with a group.

"At lockdown, we just had to work hard. We're all basically bike racers."

Lowe added: "It's not a competitive group. "We're not a competitive group, but obviously there's that level of ...... Let's face the facts. There is a competitive spirit. That's a good thing, and it's not going to boil over.

Outlining the team-based effort to close Friday's session, Lowe asked Thomas if he and Frum were going to "mano a mano" to demonstrate their authority over each other.

"Yeah, we'll see. Right now I think Pavel is more of a threat. Fair play.

"He's flying. He's lean."