Team Sky, Thomas back to Paris-Roubaix and debuts in Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2018

Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas enjoys his return to Paris-Roubaix in 2018. The Welsh, after having missed the appointment over the last two years’ editions of the Hell of the North, is ready to return and compete on the cobblestones this year. This decision is part of a plan that will lead Thomas in the best shape to next Tour de France. In this way the thirtyone years old is not going to change his preparation but is just adding a dowel in the puzzle of his seasonal programme and will still focus on stage races. Thomas explains his choice because Classics are the races he grew up watching and he’s had “a little bit of relative success in them in the past“.

“I’ll still be training as a stage racer, trying to go up hills as fast as I can, but I’m super excited about dropping in and doing Roubaix“, begins Thomas. His motivations turn out to be not as strong as his ambitions: “I’m definitely not going to be as good as I could be when it comes to that real punch and capacity effort over a few minutes. But the form should be good and it’s still a bike race so anything can happen, especially at Roubaix. There have been surprise winners in the past”, claims. Former Barloworld rider is also willing to sacrifice his drives in the name of the team’s good: “You never know, but I would hope to be there towards the final. If I can be there to help one of the other guys win that would be great”, says Thomas.

On the eve on his seasonal debut at Volta ao Algarve Thomas declared that he has his eye on Liege-Bastogne-Liege, a course that he hasn’t tackled yet over his career. “From the training I will have been doing it should suit me a bit better than Paris-Roubaix – says Thomas – I’m certainly looking forward to going there. We will have a super strong team. Kwiatowski, Sergio Henao and Poels will be a piece of the action. It will be good to go and do that and see what happens“, concludes.