It’s arguable that but for two results, Team Sky’s arrival in the Pro Tour peloton in 2010 could have been classed as a poor one. The first was Juan Antonio Flecha’s beautiful victory in Het Nieuwsblad, while the other was Welshman Geraint Thomas’s inspired ride in the Tour de France.
He was fifth in the prologue, second to world champion Thor Hushovd on the brutal Arenberg stage and enjoyed four days in the white jersey of best young rider.
Back in 2003, a clutch of medals in the British junior track championships announced Thomas’s arrival; within a year he was world junior scratch champion and had won the junior edition of Paris-Roubaix.
The following year he was British senior scratch champion; had won two UIV cups (U23 six day races) and was performing well on the road.
By 2006 he was European team pursuit champion and had a silver medal in the same discipline at world level – a stage and GC win in Luxembourg’s Fleche du Sud showed that his road talent was also building nicely.
The progression continued the following season when he signed with Claudio Corti’s Barloworld team and ended the year as the youngest finisher in that edition of the Tour de France, as well as being world team pursuit champion.
Olympic year saw defend his world title and net Beijing gold as a member of the fastest squad ever. On the road, his Grand Tour experience was further extended with a ride in the Giro.
The highlight of 2009 was an (albeit short lived) world record 4 minutes 15 for the individual pursuit – but no Grand Tours due to Barloworld not receiving invites.
Thomas switched to Sky last season, and rode a strong Dauphine plus an excellent Tour. He did the latter whilst clad in the jersey of British elite road race champion.
This season already has seen the versatile man from Cardiff back on the boards at the World Cup in Manchester with team pursuit gold and individual pursuit silver the result. Importantly, he’s been able to mix road and track; the day after a tough Tour of Sardinia he took a strong sixth in the Classica Sarda, before riding a highly visible Paris-Nice where it was his lead out skills which guided team mate Greg Henderson to his stage win.
His strongest showing of the year so far however was his excellent second place behind Saxo Bank’s ‘back from the dead’ Nick Nuyens in Dwars Door Vlaanderen.
Thomas took time to speak to VeloNation as he sat aboard the famous Sky bus en route the team’s ‘try out’ over some of the Tour of Flanders route.
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VeloNation: Congratulations on your Dwars door ride. Is it your best single day ride so far, Geraint?
Geraint Thomas: For sure, I’ve felt good in the last couple of races; I didn’t lose any condition from spending time on the track, I’ve kept my weight down and feel like I want to race.
VN: You had mechanicals early in the race?
GT: Early on, at the Eikenberg, I thought the race was over for me but I got back.
VN: What was the Sky game plan?
GT: Matt Hayman, Flecha and I had freedom to ride for ourselves and try and make the selection; but if it came to a sprint we’d ride for Matt.
I knew Nuyens was strong and once we got away with around 20 K to go, I didn’t look back – not until the last corner when I saw the bunch bearing down on us.
VN: Your lead never went much above 20 seconds.
GT: We kept a pretty steady pace and there hadn’t been much organisation in the bunch so we knew we had a chance – but Nuyens was strongest by far.
VN: You said you went a little too early in the sprint.
GT: I looked back at the last corner with 300 to go and thought; ‘oh crap!’ and went for it, but when I felt the wind I thought, ‘what have I done?’
But I’ve been used to setting up sprints for other guys and it’ll take a little time to get used to sprinting for myself again. The experience taught me a lot and with the benefit of hindsight, maybe I should have sat on him and tried to get the rush off him but it was great to be on the podium.
VN: Does the GB champion’s jersey still give you a lift?
GT: Definitely, it’s always nice to be in a different jersey; it’s like when you have a sprinters’ jersey – you feel good about yourself.
VN: There seems to be less hype at Sky this year.
GT: Last year we were the new team on the block with the flash bus and all the money that was spent. This year we’re more established and Garmin has been the team that everyone is talking about, following the Cervelo merger.
We all know each other better now as well and the staff have got into their jobs; it’s natural that you’ll have hassles in the first year but this year we’re just getting on with the job.
VN: During Milan – Sanremo, did you got caught in the La Manie crash?
GT: Yeah, I had to change a wheel at the top of La Manie. I didn’t want to change it on the climb, even though it was rubbing – that’s a tough climb, the hardest of the day, six percent for five or six kilometres.
By the bottom and before we knew it, the split had gone – the Cipressa and Poggio were an anti-climax after that. But it was all good experience for the future.
VN: 300 kilometres – that’s a long way...
GT: I didn’t feel great at the start but felt good by the end and was OK when it kicked off a bit on the Cipressa in our group.
Eddy (Boasson Hagen) was our sole leader and when he made the split then that was it. It meant we didn’t have to do a lot.
But with hindsight, maybe we should have tried to get across over the Cipressa; there were four or five Sky’s out of 14 or 15. Scarponi made it, but he’s at a different level.
Seven hours isn’t too much more than what we’re used to riding, really.
VN: How is it going from the road to the track and back again?
GT: I don’t find it too difficult; I was fully committed to the track for 10 days for the World Cup. I had the Tour Down Under in my legs and done a lot of road miles so it was no problem.
VN: You rode well in the Classica Sarda to get sixth…
GT: I rode the Tour of Sardinia straight after the track and felt good – racing in Italy is always hard but I was riding for the GB team pursuit squad; that was different.
By the end of the Tour I felt strong but it was a bit frustrating in the Classica Sarda because I missed the final split. However it was a ride that gave me confidence.
VN: You put in a lot of graft in Paris-Nice…
GT: I came out of it tired; people don’t realise how much doing lead-outs take out of you. You’re putting in one kilometre flat-out efforts.
I had a bit of bad luck with punctures and crashes in the race.
VN: You’ve been going full bore for months – when do you get a rest?
GT: After Paris-Roubaix I’ll have four or five days off, some easy days, then I’ll tick over until Romandie, there’s a prologue in that which I might take seriously.
I’ve done a lot of hard racing this year, already – working for the team. And whilst it’s not definite, the Tour is in the plan again…we’ll see.