Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas finishes 10th in Paris-Nice prologue

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/mar/08/geraint-thomas-paris-nice-prologue-bradley-wiggins

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Geraint Thomas handed Team Sky a solid start to Paris-Nice as he claimed a top-10 finish in the opening prologue.

Thomas completed the 6.7km stage around Maurepas in seven minutes 54 seconds to come home in 10th place, 14 seconds behind winner Michal Kwiatkowski.

The former race winners Sir Bradley Wiggins and Richie Porte finished a second behind their Team Sky team-mate to claim 12th and 13th places respectively.

Kwiatkowski, riding for the Etixx-Quick-Step team, edged out BMC Racing Team’s Rohan Dennis by just 0.3 of a second, with the Pole’s team-mate Tony Martin taking third place.

“Richie did a really good time trial. It was a fast and relatively flat course, where is Richie is really in climber mode right now so he did a great job there,” said Team Sky’s sports Director Nicolas Portal .

“G (Thomas) did a great job too. He was a bit disappointed because he missed a corner. He lost one or two seconds there. Not enough to win the stage but it would have got him a bit higher. Both he and Richie are really motivated right now.

Porte added: “Brad rode well but I think he was expecting more from the himself. He told me he felt good. I think if the stage was longer he could have moved up and done something but for this short stage it’s not a bad performance.”