Welshman grateful for support from long-time teammate
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Great Britain's Geraint Thomas (C) rides in the pack ahead of his teammate of the Great Britain's Sky cycling team Great Britain's Ben Swift (L) during the sixth stage.
Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) faces the press(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Geraint Thomas of Team Sky is seen on the Oude Kwaremont during the reconnaissance of Sunday's Tour of Flanders route.
Team Sky out training for the Tour of Flanders(Image credit: Team Sky)
The next eight days will be the last for Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins as teammates, as Wiggins draws the curtain on his road career. The pair have known each other for some time, riding together on the track and winning gold in the team pursuit at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It was then that Wiggins decided to put an end to his track career and focus on the road but their paths would cross again with the advent of Team Sky.
While Thomas was still performing at the highest level on the track, Wiggins was going from strength to strength on the road - culminating in his overall victory at the Tour de France in 2012. That year would be Thomas’ last on the boards and his road career has since enjoyed a dramatic leap forwards. Earlier this week, Wiggins tipped Thomas as the future of Team Sky and as a potentially talismanic figure for the British outfit.
Talking ahead of this weekend’s Tour of Flanders, Thomas remembered his time with Wiggins fondly. “He’s one of if not the best cyclists that Britain’s produced. He’s a top guy to have around and learn off really over the years,” said Thomas. “When I grew up he was a few years ahead of me, he was winning junior Worlds and then he went to the Olympics and turned pro and he was doing everything that I wanted to do.
"I haven’t really thought about Roubaix, obviously Monday morning you start thinking about that but when it comes to the leaders. Roubaix is the same as Sunday and a lot can happen and I think it’s good having Stannard, Brad and myself, three good guys who can be up there will help a lot.”
Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.
