For many, Paris-Roubaix is the Queen of the Classics. For Geraint Thomas (Sky), at least at this remove, it has the feel of a consolation prize. The Welshman has had his heart set on the Tour of Flanders since his first visits to Belgium as a teenager, and he entered last week’s race as one of the principal favourites after a stylish victory at E3 Harelbeke.
The Ronde turned out to be a disappointment for Thomas, however. After his Sky team policed the peloton for much of the opening 200 kilometres of racing, he was unable to follow the winning move of Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) in the finale, and had to settle for 14th place in Oudenaarde.
“It’s hard to say what happened. I wasn’t that bad, but just not as good as the weekend before,” Thomas told reporters in Kortrijk on Friday afternoon. “We had all eyes on us to work and it was a bit different to how we’d raced every classic before that. But you don’t lose all of your condition in a week and Paris-Roubaix suits us better as a team.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Thomas, however, admitted that his personal preference was for the Tour of Flanders. “There’s just something about that race,” his said wistfully. “It’s kind of a shame we can’t do the Tour of Flanders again this weekend.”
That is not to say that Thomas will not be a factor in Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. He was, after all, Sky’s best-placed rider last year, taking 7th, though his performance was eclipsed by the attention elicited by Bradley Wiggins’ 9th place finish. Both men were in winning move but neither was able to land a blow in the finale. Speaking on Friday afternoon, Wiggins blamed his own lack of communication. Thomas, for his part, confessed that he had simply been exhausted.
“I think I was pretty screwed by then,” he said of the approach to Roubaix, where Niki Terpstra ghosted away to win alone. “We rode quite hard all day and by the end I was pretty nailed. So it’s just going to be a question of trying to it again.”
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1ayzDui
No comments:
Post a Comment