Geraint Thomas takes first step to playing major role for Team Sky

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/mar/06/geraint-thomas-major-role-team-sky-paris-nice

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While Paris-Nice symbolises the true arrival of spring to the professional cyclist, for Geraint Thomas this year’s event will carry greater significance. The “Race to the Sun” opens with a brief time trial prologue on Sunday in Paris’s south-western suburbs but for the Welshman it marks the start of a key period, as it is followed by four major one-day Classics where he is expected to play a key role in Team Sky’s challenge.

The squad have performed strongly across the board this season, and the Commonwealth Games champion has been in the mix with a neatly taken overall win in the Tour of Algarve in February. Along with his strong ride last year in Paris-Nice – he wore the leader’s jersey for two stages before relinquishing it to the eventual winner, Carlos Betancur, of Colombia – the Algarve win should place Thomas on the shortlist of favourites.

Betancur is absent, so the field is headed by the Tour de France runner-up, Jean-Christophe Péraud. The Americans Andrew Talansky and Tejay van Garderen, the Pole Rafal Majka – King of the Mountains at last year’s Tour – could also figure, while three young riders will be closely watched: the Frenchmen Warren Barguil and Romain Bardet and Britain’s Simon Yates. The key moment is likely to be Thursday’s hilltop finish at the Croix du Chaubouret near Saint-Étienne.

“Last year it didn’t end the way I wanted it to,” says Thomas, recalling the crash that put him out on the penultimate stage, “but I’m in good shape and will take any opportunity.” He is at pains to point out that he is not Sky’s designated leader – that honour goes to Richie Porte by virtue of his overall win in 2013 – but the Australian may be closely marked and that could create openings, he believes.

“Richie is leading the team but the course suits me,” says Thomas, “and sometimes, like in Algarve, you take your chance and go for a stage win then that puts you up there overall, and I can ride a decent time trial. I’ll get stuck in, race it hard, and attack like I did in Algarve and I might get a free rein.

“You’ve got to race it, be aggressive. It’s a racer’s race. The Saturday stage around Nice is hard, the first few days there is potential for crosswinds.”

As well as Porte, Sky field another former winner in Sir Bradley Wiggins, whose victory in 2012 heralded his memorable season that culminated in the Tour de France and Olympic Gold. This time round, Paris-Nice could be his last major stage race in Team Sky colours and Wiggins has different priorities as his sights are firmly fixed on the Paris-Roubaix Classic on 12 April. “He’s a bit heavier than before so I think he’s relaxed about the overall,” Thomas says.

“For sure he will want to go well in the prologue time trial. It’s a distance that suits him and he will be wearing his world champion’s stripes. I think he’ll be happy to do some big turns on the front and make everyone hurt. It’s all preparation for Roubaix.

“As for the final time trial – the uphill burst to the Col d’Éze above Nice – OK he’s heavier than in the past, but he’s putting out a lot of power so I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Last year, Thomas’s strong Paris‑Nice was the prelude for a fine Classics season when he finished third at the Grand Prix E3 in Harelbeke, eighth at the Tour of Flanders and seventh in Paris‑Roubaix. At the opening Classic, Milan-San Remo, he expects to work for his team-mates Ben Swift and Elia Viviani, while in the “Northern” Classics – Flanders, Roubaix, Gent‑Wevelgem and E3 – he will be part of a key trio for Sky, along with Wiggins and Ian Stannard, a dominant winner last Saturday of the Belgian opener Het Nieuwsblad.

“Having Ian fit and fresh will give us a lot more to play with, another guy to follow a move or just attack on his own. We missed him last year,” Thomas says. “Especially in Flanders you don’t want to be on your own fighting for position, it takes so much energy. Having numbers is the key to winning these races, as long as we are honest with each other and have a good plan. If we can get three or four of us in the finale that will be key.”

But the road to Nice has to be taken first, and, as Thomas showed in Portugal a few weeks ago, with his aggressive mindset, anything is possible.