Although he had won numerous championships at the junior level previously, it was in 2004 that Geraint Thomas first captured the headlines when, in the space of a few months, he captured the scratch race title at the World Junior Track Championships and the junior version of the classic Paris-Roubaix road race. He then joined the Under-23 British Olympic Academy and moved to Manchester where he shared a house with Ed Clancy and Mark Cavendish. Unfortunately, a serious training crash in Australia at the start of 2005 necessitated the removal of his spleen and ruined his year, but he returned in 2006 and won a bronze medal in the points race at the Commonwealth Games, representing Wales. Thomas won his first world senior title in the team pursuit at the World Championships in Palma de Mallorca in 2007, and, at 21, was the youngest rider in that year’s Tour de France. The British team, with Thomas as an important part of their success, retained the world title in 2008 and then put in a world record-breaking performance to take Olympic gold in Beijing.
Thomas became a founder member of Sky Pro Cycling team (now Team Sky) at the end of 2009 and concentrated on road racing. He won his first national road race title in 2010 and then had an excellent 2011 season where he won his first stage race (the Bayern-Rundfahrt) and finished a creditable 31st in the Tour de France. Thomas won a gold medal with the four-man British pursuit team at the 2012 World Championships. The new foursome of Thomas, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh were favourites to retain the Olympic gold medal on home soil, and they set the fastest time in qualifying with a world record, and then broke it again in the final against their old rivals Australia as they won by nearly three seconds. Thomas won the gold medal in the road race at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, and also won bronze in the individual time trial. He competed in his third Olympics in 2016, finishing 11th in the road race and 9th in the individual time trial. In 2018, Thomas reached the peak of his road career when he won the Tour de France, while riding for Team Sky.
Great Britain