Geraint Thomas

Geraint Thomas

Thomas at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné
Personal information
Full name	Geraint Howell Thomas
Nickname	G
Born	25 May 1986 (1986-05-25) Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	71 kg (160 lb; 11.2 st)
Team information
Current team	Team Sky
Discipline	Road and track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Rouleur, Pursuitist
Amateur team(s)
2006	Maindy Flyers/CC Cardiff Cardiff JIF Saunier Duval-Prodir (stagiaire)
Professional team(s)
2006 2007–2009 2010–	Recycling.co.uk Barloworld Team Sky
Major wins
British National Road Race Championships (2010) British Individual Pursuit National Champion (2009) Fleche du Sud (2006)) Bayern-Rundfahrt (2011)
Medal record Track cycling Competitor for Great Britain World Championships Gold 2007 Palma de Mallorca Team pursuit Gold 2008 Manchester Team pursuit Silver 2006 Bordeaux Team pursuit Olympic Games Gold 2008 Beijing Team pursuit Competitor for Wales Commonwealth Games Bronze 2006 Melbourne Points race
Infobox last updated on 6 February 2012

Geraint Howell Thomas, MBE (born 25 May 1986) is a Welsh professional racing cyclist who rides for the UCI ProTour team Team Sky. A track cycling world champion and Olympic gold medalist in the team pursuit, Thomas has also enjoyed success on the road, winning the Junior Paris-Roubaix in 2004, the British National Championships in 2010 and the Bayern-Rundfart in 2011.

Biography

Early life and career

Thomas, from Whitchurch, Cardiff, attended Whitchurch High School. He began cycling with the Maindy Flyers Cycling Club at Maindy Stadium at the age of 10, before going on to ride for other local clubs, Cycling Club Cardiff and Cardiff Just in Front. Following some successes in under 14 and under 16 events, including National Championships, but it was not until he won a silver medal in the points race at the European Championships that he started to realise his potential. Thomas then became a member of British Cyclings Olympic Academy. He won the Carwyn James Junior Award at the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year ceremony. Thomas competed at World Cup events around the world, and was training in Sydney, Australia in February 2005 when he crashed after the rider in front of him hit a piece of metal in the road which was flicked up into Thomas' wheel. He suffered internal bleeding after the piece of metal entered his body during the fall, he ruptured his spleen which subsequently had to be removed.

He rode most of his races of 2006 for Recycling.co.uk, but towards the end of 2006 joined Saunier Duval-Prodir as a stagiaire. He also rode a few races, such as the Tour of Britain, for the Great Britain squad.

2007

Thomas during the first stage of the 2007 Tour de France.

Thomas was the youngest rider in the 2007 Tour de France as Team Barloworld picked up one of the three wildcard spots allocated for the race. He became the first Welsh rider to compete in the race since Colin Lewis in 1967, Thomas received great support from Welsh fans at the opening of the race, with several following the entire race. He completed his first Tour de France, finishing 140th of 141 finishers.

He was nominated for the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year award in 2007, the winners were announced on 2 December, Thomas was third in the public vote.

2008

Thomas did not compete in the 2008 Tour de France, instead, he rode the Giro d'Italia earlier in the season before returning to Britain to concentrate on preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics. On discovering that the flags of non-participating nations would not be allowed at the Games, Thomas said:

"It would be great to do a lap of honour draped in the Welsh flag if I win a gold medal, and I'm very disappointed if this rule means that would not be possible."

On 17 August, Thomas was a member of the Olympic team pursuit squad which broke the world record in the heats with a time of 3:55:202, beating their Russian opponents comfortably to go through to the final ride-off for silver and gold. The following day, on their way to winning the gold medal, the British Team pursuit broke their own world record in a time of 3:53:314, beating their Danish competitors by 6.7 seconds. Thomas had been a possible contender in the individual pursuit, but opted not to ride both events as he did not want to compromise the efforts of his team. He had also been considered to compete in the Madison with Bradley Wiggins but it was Mark Cavendish who was selected to do so; Chris Boardman stated that "Geraint keeps surpassing people's expectations".

Following the disqualification of fellow Barloworld team member, Moises Duenas, from the Tour de France, Thomas expressed his strong anti-doping opinions on his blog on the BBC 606 website: "..if someone is fraudulent in a business, wouldn’t they be facing a prison term? I don’t see how riders taking drugs to win races and lying to their teams is any different. Bang them up and throw away the key!"

2009

He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.

Thomas suffered a bad start to his 2009 season when he broke his pelvis and fractured his nose in a fall; he crashed into a safety barrier having misjudged a turn in the time trial stage of the Tirreno–Adriatico in Macerata, Italy. The crash came shortly after an 8 km time check showed he was second fastest on the road. Although he was able to return to his team hotel from hospital the same day, a period of 20 days complete rest was required before he would be able to resume training.

On 30 October 2009, Thomas set the fastest pursuit time under current rules, at the time, when he completed 4 kilometres in 4 minutes 15.105 seconds at the first round of the 2009–2010 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics in Manchester Velodrome. Thomas' time was only surpassed by Chris Boardman, 4 minutes 11.114 seconds, set in 1996 on a bicycle position that has since been banned. On 1 November, on the last day of this World Cup round, Thomas was a member of the team pursuit squad which set the second-fastest time ever on their way to the gold medal, setting a new track record of 3 minutes 54.395 seconds in the process.

Thomas was runner-up to Ryan Giggs in the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year award in 2009; the winners were announced on 8 December.

Thomas left Barloworld at the end of 2009 to join new professional team, Team Sky.

2010

Geraint Thomas in the White Jersey at the 2010 Tour de France

Thomas began 2010 as part of the team time trial winning team for Sky at the 2010 Tour of Qatar. After competing in the classics, he impressed at the Critérium du Dauphiné, finishing in the top ten in each of the opening four stages. As a result of these finishes, he was the leader in green jersey competition for stages two and four and six. He finished fifth in the green jersey competition overall, and twenty-first in the general classification.

Thomas beat team mate Peter Kennaugh to win the 2010 British National Road Race Championship. His good form continued into the 2010 Tour de France, in which he finished fifth in the Prologue and second on stage three. This led to him leading the Young Riders Classification after stage three. Thomas finished 67th overall in the Tour, and 9th Young Riders' Classification.

Thomas had been due to travel to Delhi, India in September to compete in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, but pulled out, as did several other cyclists, due to health concerns. Dengue Fever was one specific concern cited. Illness was especially a risk for Thomas following the removal of his spleen in 2005. Following the decision, Thomas said "It's a massive disappointment, I only get to ride for Wales once every four years, but that's the decision I had to make."

2011

Thomas in the prologue of the 2011 Tour de Romandie

Thomas started the year with some promising performances, finishing sixth in the Classica Sarda and second overall in the Dwars door Vlaanderen. Thomas claimed his first professional victory in May 2011 by winning the five-day Bayern-Rundfahrt race, after finishing second on stage three and fifth on stage four. On 26 June 2011, Thomas finished second to Bradley Wiggins in the British National Road Race Championships.

At the 2011 Tour de France, Thomas finished 6th on the opening stage to take the white jersey. He retained the jersey the following day, as Sky finished 3rd in the team time-trial. Thomas lost the white jersey to Robert Gesink on Stage 7, as team leader Bradley Wiggins crashed out of the Tour, and the remaining Sky riders lost time after waiting for him. Thomas won the combativity award on the 212 km Stage 12, following an aggressive breakaway 2 km into the first Pyrenean stage, that saw him lose contol twice on the descent of the Hourquette d’Ancizan. He finished 36th on the stage after being caught by the GC leaders with 7 km to go on the final climb of the day, and rose to 25th overall. Thomas signed a new three year contract with Sky after Stage 16. He finished 31st overall in the Tour.

Thomas had a successful Tour of Britain, winning the points classification, having been highly placed in the overall standings before a crash. He was part of the Great Britain team for the 2011 UCI World Championship Road Race, and helped lead out Mark Cavendish to victory.

2012

Thomas has confirmed that he will focus on track cycling for the 2012 season, with the aim of competing at the 2012 London Olympics. As such, it is unlikely that he will compete in major road races during much of 2012. Thomas will ride the Giro d'Italia before turning his focus to the track.

Palmarès

2004

1st Junior Paris–Roubaix

1st Scratch Race, Junior World Champion

2005

1st Scratch Race National Champion

2006

1st Overall Fleche du Sud

1st Points Classification

1st Under-21 Classification

1st Stage 2

3rd Overall Mountains Classification, Giro d'Italia (Baby Giro)

3rd Points Race, 2006 Commonwealth Games

2007

1st Team Pursuit World Champion

2008

1st Team Pursuit Olympic Games

1st Team Pursuit World Champion

1st Smithfield Nocturne

3rd Stage 1, Ster Elektrotoer

2009

1st Individual Pursuit National Champion

5th Coppa Bernocchi

2010

1st National Road Race Champion

1st Stage 1 TTT Tour of Qatar

2nd Stage 3 Tour de France

Held Young Riders Jersey From Stage 3 – 6

2011

1st Overall Bayern-Rundfahrt

2nd Dwars door Vlaanderen

10th Ronde van Vlaanderen

Tour de France

3rd Stage 2

5th Stage 5

Held Young Riders Jersey From Stage 1–7

Combativity award Stage 12

Tour of Britain

1st Points Competition

3rd Stage 3

4th Stage 4

Grand Tour General Classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Giro	-	118	-	-	-
Tour	140	-	-	67	31
Vuelta	-	-	-	-	-

WD = withdrew

External links

• Official website
• [1] Profile on WalesHome.org
• Geraint Thomas Profile on britishcycling.org.uk
• Geraint Thomas's video diary, BBC Sport, 9 June 2008

Sporting positions
Preceded by Kristian House	British National Road Race Championships 2010	Succeeded by Bradley Wiggins