Team Sky rider talks about being focussed on the Olympic track, switching Giro for Tour, and leading out the World champion
2011 was the strongest year yet for Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas as the 25-year-old continues to develop as a World class rider. Big rides in the Classics, which included second place at the Dwars door Vlaanderen and tenth place at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, were followed by his first ever international victory as a professional at the Bayern Rundfahrt.
Thomas rode a strong Tour de France, where he finished 31st overall despite working hard for Team Sky’s sprinters; then a form building twelfth place at the Tour of Britain put him in perfect form for the World championships, where the Great Britain team delivered Manx Missile Mark Cavendish to victory.
With 2012 an Olympic year though, Thomas will see his road campaign trimmed down to allow him to peak for a defence of Team GB’s team pursuit title. VeloNation caught up with the former British champion at the second of this season’s Revolution meetings on the Vélodrome at the National Cycling Centre, Manchester.
“I love coming here when it’s a full house like this,” Thomas smiled. “The way cycling’s like at the minute everybody’s loving it, so it’s great to come and put on a good show for them.
“For me as well, it’s good to have another day… another evening on the track; just getting those legs back really, because it takes a bit of time and there’s no better way to ride than just race. So yeah, it’s good fun.”
For many cyclists – particularly those who race on the track – 2012 is all about the Olympic Games in London; for British riders it is even more so. As a member of the defending champion pursuit team from Beijing in 2008, Thomas and his teammates have already begun their preparations for the event.
“We’re doing the base… putting foundations down for next year,” he explained. “We’ve done a lot of the hard yards, you know, just getting the miles in on the track and hopefully that’ll all pay off come August.”
Because of the Olympic focus, and especially the fact that he is aiming to peak for the track races, Thomas’ 2012 road season will look considerably different to 2011.
“I’m going to miss the Tour [de France], miss the Classics, but I’ll still have a decent programme,” he said. “The Tour Down Under, [Giro di] Sardinia, Paris-Nice, Milan-Sanremo and the Giro [d’Italia]. So there’s a few races there for me to go at; a few prologues in there and the team time trial in the Giro; plus all the sprints now with Cav [Mark Cavendish, who joins Team Sky in 2012 – ed] – they’ll be really good to get stuck into, especially with him in the World champ’s jersey.
“It’s really good for the Team Pursuit as well, that kind of effort – a lead out effort.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he added, “and, with the Olympics, it’s everything for that really. That’s why I’m not doing the Tour, I don’t want to risk anything.”
As Cavendish joins Team Sky, his long time lead out man Mark Renshaw heads to Rabobank. Thomas would be an obvious replacement but, with him missing the Tour and Olympic road race, the team will need to look elsewhere for many races; Edvald Boasson Hagen would be another likely candidate but, with the 24-year-old being Norwegian, he will obviously not be available for the Olympic race either.
“When we’re racing for Sky I think it’s really simple,” Thomas explained. “Eddy’s such a good guy and he’ll understand that that’s his job to lead him out in certain races and he’ll get his opportunities for sure; he’s such a quality bike rider.
“When it comes to the Games I think the main idea – if it is all for Cav – will be to keep it together for him and then let him do the rest,” he continued. “We’ve only five guys anyway, so it’s not going to be one good team who can do a really good lead out.”
Not having the lead out train that he has become used to in his years at HTC-Highroad will not hinder Cavendish's chances though, Thomas believes; since the Manxman managed to take a complicated sprint in the Copenhagen World championships, as the Great Britain team was forced to cede control of the race in the complicated finale.
“Cav is tactically very good anyway,” said Thomas. “He knows the wheel to follow and I’m sure that, as long as it’s there for him, I think he’ll give it everything and you’d be a brave man to bet against him.
“Obviously we were running thin on the ground from then [in Copenhagen],” he explained, “then we went around that last corner and he wasn’t on my wheel. I went back and he was on [Australian Matt] Gossy’s wheel and it was perfect for him, so I left him there and, like I say, he finished it off; just like nine times out of ten he does.”
With a maximum of five men per team in London then, it will be unlikely that any team will be able to provide a decent lead out to its sprinter.
“I think a lot can happen,” said Thomas, “especially in the sprints, and it’ll probably be every man for himself really, and that’ll work for Cav as well as having a lead out.”
Thomas’ switching of the Tour for the Giro has good omens for the team pursuit later in the summer. “I did it before Beijing,” he said.
Something obviously went right with Thomas’ build up to the Beijing games, as the Great Britain team took a dominant victory in the team pursuit, smashing its own World record in the process.
“Exactly,” he said. “We’re doing a similar programme to that and so hopefully it’ll be a similar result.”
While the Giro will be ridden with preparation for the Olympics in mind, it will be far from a training race for Thomas, who will be able to pick out some targets for himself.
“I’d like to go for the prologue,” he explained. “I may as well, I’ll just go flat out anyway; and the team time trial will be good as well, and then sprints for Cav. If I’m feeling okay, and there’s a day where it looks a possibility, then yeah, I’ll go for it, but I’m definitely not going to have the road legs that I had last year.”
Concentrating so much on the track will also mean a slight physiological difference for Thomas, which may affect his results. When the irrepressible Welshman pins a number on his back though, there is rarely any holding him back.
“I’ll obviously be a bit heavier as well, because I won’t be so concentrated on the road, but anything can happen,” he said. “I just love to race, that’s what we train for so the more I can race the better really.
“I’m just really looking forward to it,” he added. “It’s a massive year, but the pressures on and everything; but I’m enjoying it.”