If Geraint Thomas has been harbouring nascent ambitions of becoming a Grand Tour leader, he could be forgiven had his resolve weakened at the Tour de France, where he saw Sky teammate Chris Froome forced to deal with a cocktail of doping innuendo and urine on his way to overall victory.
Yet the Tour has had quite the opposite effect; the Welshman's determination to be up there in three-week races has only been strengthened by what happened in July.
Largely free from the speculation that surrounded Froome, Thomas was the revelation of the Tour, performing super-domestique duties for his leader and riding himself into the top five for an extended period in the process. He seemed to have the match of all Froome's rivals – the best riders in the peloton – but the race was a couple of days too long and he fell away on stage 19.
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As a richly talented all-rounder, with a fruitful Classics campaign as well as stage race success under his belt this year, the 29-year-old received confirmation that the Grand Tours are a realistic future prospect.
"I know I can do that now. It gave me a huge amount of confidence, and the belief that I can do that. I did a hell of a lot of work from day one really, and to still be there on stage 19, where it all sort of fell away, it gave me that belief and confidence that I can actually perform in those races now," said Thomas, catching up with Cyclingnews ahead of the Vuelta a España.
"It was also a climber's race – there wasn't a time trial or anything really – so it was really encouraging. If I hadn't had to do that extra work, and concentrated on myself it might have been a different story coming into the final few days.
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