In 2016 Geraint Thomas' focus is shifting to favour his general classification characteristics having balanced his stage racing and one-day ambitions simultaneously and successfully. A standout ride at the 2015 Tour de France resulted in the 29-year-old transitioning into Team Sky's latest GC contender with back-to-back Volta a Algarve victories early confirmation of his decision.
"It's always nice to be on the podium and get a win," Thomas said on the Team Sky website. "I don't get to do it very often so I certainly enjoy that. It's definitely a good confidence booster now going into the last big block of training. I've got a big block of racing then with three big stage races and then three big one-days as well. Hopefully I can take something out of all that."
The victory is Thomas' fourth overall victory having now won both Volta a Algarve and Bayern-Rundfahrt on two occasions.
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Thomas' best result across the five stages was a narrow second place finish to Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), lifting him to second overall at one second, while third place the following day in the 18km time trial saw him keep retain his position as Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) moved into the overall lead.
The final day climb to Alto do Malhão was always going to favour Thomas over Martin as the Team Sky rider finished fifth, at 28 seconds to winner Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), with with the Etixx-Quick Step rider well down in 123rd place, 18:17 minutes in arrears.
"Once Tony Martin got dropped first time up the climb the stage was all about defending that lead," Thomas explained of the finale. "[Ion] Izagirre was the biggest threat after that and I just didn't get carried away when Contador and Rigo (Uran) attacked. I just followed Izagirre all the way until well into the last kilometre. I had a little dig myself but I kind of knew I had it by then."
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