Geraint Thomas has targeted Olympic gold for 2012.

The Welshman, who enjoyed a highly successful 2011 with victory in the Bayern-Rundfahrt stage race, a strong performance in the Tour De France that brought him a second spell in the white jersey of best young rider, and a pivotal role in Mark Cavendish’s world race championship victory, has made the London Games his priority for the season ahead where he’ll bid to add a second Olympic gold medal to his collection.

 

Speaking to British Cycling, Thomas said: “The Olympics is massive. I grew up watching it and it’s something I’ve always wanted to be a part of and winning in Beijing was amazing. The fact that this time it’s in London just makes it ten times bigger. It’s something that I really want to achieve and winning a gold medal at your home games is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Thomas has just completed blocks of training for the fourth and final round of the UCI Track World Cup at the London Velodrome in February, an event that will serve as the Olympic test event. His track form will be further tested at the World Championships in Melbourne in April, and finally on the Olympic stage.

Thomas was unequivocal in his belief that the nation’s men’s team pursuit squad can deliver in February.

“I think we know what it takes to win. We’re looking to go faster again. We’ve got a good squad and a great team spirit. There’s a lot of talk about times but I think the real test comes at London where we’re all in the same track with the same conditions and I think that’s really when we’ll see what everyone’s capable of,” he said.

Increased competition for team pursuit supremacy does not phase the Welshman. Russia and Australia will contest the final today at the third round of the UCI World Track Championship in Beijing, while a youthful British squad face New Zealand in the run-off for bronze.

“There’s been a lot said about the Russians setting whatever time, and what New Zealand are doing but it’s easy to get carried away and set goals in training but I think if we stick our guns – we know what we’ve got to do and have confidence in the training we’re doing and we’ll build it all the way to the Olympics. But I think the test event will be the first chance we’ll get an indicator of where everyone is,” said Thomas.

Thomas will again be a key rider for the Team Sky WorldTour squad in the early part of 2012, having made a strong showing in last year’s one day Classics, where he road strongly with Norweigian star, Edvald Boasson-Hagen

“Yeah it was great (forming a strong partnership with Edvald),” he told British Cycling. “We were rooming together as well but the whole team just stepped up and took responsibility when we lost Brad because we all knew we weren’t going to do anything on GC (general classification) so we weren’t going to put all our energies into that. It was more that everyone had a chance to get up the road and do their own thing. It pulled us all together and we managed to respond to that really well.”

Thomas will ride the Giro d’Italia in May, before turning his attention to the track. His belief in Dave Brailsford’s Team Sky has been reinforced by the team’s high-profile closed season signings.

“With Cav (Mark Cavendish) and Bernie (Bernhard Eisel) that boosts the team straight away. He’s going to bring wins to the table and that will be massive for everybody and success breeds success and that showed last year. So with Cav winning, it will definitely push everyone forward. It’s a massive squad of 28 riders who are either capable of winning races or backing that up, so the competition for places is even more fierce. So it can only push the team forward and provide the key to improving. It’s exciting times ahead,” he said.

Thomas will hope to repeat the ride he made in support of Cavendish at last year’s world road race championships in Copenhagen.

“It went better than any of us dreamed of really you know. I think it just showed the strength and depth of British Cycling now and there were a few guys that got left at home who could have stepped into that squad and as you say we’re all on the same wavelength. It was only Cav and Dave who weren’t part of Sky then but the rest of us were and it just shows we all knew what we had to do. We had the confidence and trust in Cav that if we put him in the right place and came out that corner with 200m he’d be really hard to beat. And he showed his class. It was just an unbelievable day and I don’t think there’ll be one like it again to be honest,” he said.