Olympic champion Geraint Thomas wins first pro race in Germany
Related Link: Three time Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins has won the individual time trial on the fourth stage of Bayern-Rundfahrt. Click to read more >>>
British Road Race Champion, Geraint Thomas topped off a great stage race for Team Sky when he followed the stage victories by Edvald Boasson Hagen and Bradley Wiggins to win the overall for Bayern-Rundfahrt.
It was his first professional victory aside from his win in the British Road Race Championships in 2010. The key moment for Thomas was stage 3 when he made the selection in a break and then followed that up with a fine time trial to take the lead with a day to go in the race.
As well as the overall victory, Norway’s Boasson Hagen maintained an impressive run of consistency to take third in the sprint into Moosburg behind stage winner Giacomo Nizzolo (Leopard Trek) and John Degenkolb (HTC-Highroad).
Geraint Thomas: “Well that was Bayern Rundfahrt and my first stage race win! It has been a great week for the team, 2 stages a 2nd, 2 x 3rd, team GC, Points jersey and of course the Overall! It’s great, I didn’t really expect it coming into the race as we had Eddy and Brad and Christian (Knees) as well – we thought all four of us were capable of winning it and to be in that position is fantastic. It was a great end to the week – we’ve been on the podium every day as well so it’s a great race for us.”
“I’ve been asked a few times already if I’m surprised? Well, without sounding like a cocky so and so, not really to be honest. Obviously we had a super strong team here and had 4 guys that could have won.”
“I was fortunate enough to get into the race deciding break, toke the jersey in the TT, then had Brad and Christian riding at 50kph for the final stage. Perfect! We’ve all worked really well together this week. Even without radios, we’ve known exactly what we’ve had to do and we’ve all communicated really well. I think it shows that after a full year together we are really starting to gel as a unit and as a team. It’s really paid off this week.”
“I knew I had good legs though. I had worked hard since my break after the Classics and knew given the right opportunity I could do something. It’s been coming!”
On the season as a whole: “The goals this season were the classics and the Tour de France; I hit the first one of those pretty well, had a little bit of downtime after that and now the build-up to the Tour seems to be going pretty much to plan. I now have a nice chilled week at home before I head off to the Dauphine on Saturday. The Tour de France will be on us before we know it!”
“On the subject of whether I have been annoyed/nervous that I was missing that win, it hasn’t played on my mind, although I did really want it. I knew if I kept putting myself in the right place it would happen. Fortunately it did this week and I’m very happy!”
Servais Knaven, Team Sky Sports Director: “Today was another good day for us again. We took the GC with Geraint, got another podium finish for Edvald and the points jersey, plus the team prize – so not too bad!”
“We had the five riders and at the start there were a lot of attacks which we controlled pretty well. One rider went away and then it was fairly easy to control the race after that. Bradley and Christian were leading the field and the rider out front always had between three and four minutes.
“Eventually some teams came up to help so Brad could go back and conserve some energy for the end. At the finish he gave a good lead-out for Edvald with Chris (Sutton) and Geraint.
“Edvald did a good sprint and has been on the podium a lot this week which is really good to see. He has also been a big help to the team all week. Even when he had the leader’s jersey he had to do some work because we changed our tactics. It’s been a really good week for everyone and it was great for Geraint to take the win at the end.”
Full Story on team Sky website:
Stage 5
1 Giacomo Nizzolo, Leopard Trek 3:40:00
2Â John Degenkolb, HTC-Highroad
3Â Edvald Boasson Hagen, Sky Procycling
11Â Geraint Thomas,Sky Procycling
56Â Daniel Lloyd, Team Garmin-Cervelo
60Â Matthew Brammeier, HTC-Highroad
63Â Roger Hammond, Team Garmin-Cervelo
111 Bradley Wiggins, Sky Procycling @55
Overall
1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Procycling 19:09:36
2 Nicki Sörensen (Den) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:00:17
3 Michael Albasini (Swi) HTC-Highroad 0:00:19
12 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling 0:04:45
14 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:05:15
15 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Leopard Trek 0:05:18
26 Matthew Brammeier (Irl) HTC-Highroad 0:06:24
75 Daniel Lloyd (GBr) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:15:50
104 Roger Hammond (GBr) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:24:33
Sprint
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling 14 pts
Team
1. Sky Procycling
