Geraint Thomas returns to the Road World Championships Individual Time Trial on Friday feeling upbeat and confident and with what he sees as a rare chance to perform at his full potential.
Thomas’ previous Worlds TT participation in Imola in 2020 saw him take fourth on a much shorter, hillier course than in Stirling and was overshadowed by the issue of a misplaced Garmin on his TT bike which left him riding blind, power-wise, and wondering what he might have achieved had he been able to guide his effort with live data.
Fast forward to 2023 and Thomas is looking forward to racing on home soil and his motivation when he rolls down the Stirling start ramp will doubtless be boosted by recently claiming a promising third place in the Tour de Pologne stage 6 time trial.
At 37, the former British TT National Champion says that he appreciates the chance to participate in the Worlds “because you know that it’s coming to an end soon. You make the most of it, try to take it in and being in the UK makes it more special.”
“I think I've never really been in decent shape at Worlds, maybe once in Imola and when Cav won in Copenhagen. It's nice to be at Worlds in decent nick,” Thomas said earlier this week.
Coming in the middle of his build-up for the Vuelta, he added that “I wouldn't say it's in the way but it's not necessarily ideal. With Poland finishing last week, doing this and going to altitude for another eight days then straight to the Vuelta, it's a lot of time away from home.”
“So you've no regrets, you know you've done all you can and you just do what you can do.”
The 47.8 kilometre course is a deceptively tricky one, given the first part of it is almost all about power, but then the final, rolling segment and uphill finish in the shadow of Stirling Castle could catch out those who don’t calculate their effort.
“It's some long straights and stuff and not too much going on until the last 10k then it gets pretty solid,” Thomas said. “Once you've got almost 40k in your legs, you do the hardest bit, it's going to be interesting.”
“When there's a lot going on it's easier, you can break it into sections and focus on each one. This is probably the most challenging thing when you have big blocks of time on a dead straight road.”
He has done some training on the TT bike recently, he said, not just for the Worlds but also because in the Vuelta there is an opening TTT as well as a key time trial at the start of the second week.
While arguing that a power riders course in Stirling, at least in its first part could tip the balance towards other contenders like fellow Welshman Josh Tarling or Italian Ineos teammate Filippo Ganna, Thomas points out that in any time trial, the end result rarely can be questioned.
“For me at the end of the day, you aim to be as quick as you can. It's a pure race, it's just as good as you are and that's that.”
“It obviously helps for the Vuelta, but the main reason coming here is to try and perform in the Worlds and perform in the TT. I would have loved to do the road race as well but the way Poland fell it wasn't possible.”
Prior to Poland his last big block of racing was the Giro d’Italia where the near-miss he had in winning overall, with the final verdict only coming on the last time trial, is one where he resolutely sees the glass as half-full, not half-empty.
“I look at the positives of it and the fact that the start of the year I had was so up and down, stop-start,” he said.
“I never really fully got going until March after Catalunya which was pretty close to the Giro. I was super happy just to be in the position to win. Getting so close on the last day made it hard to take but at the same time, I was happy with how I managed to get into that position after - literally from December camp - a good three months of stop/start training.”
Looking into next season, for which he still has yet to sign a contract, Thomas is already thinking about another event where he hopes to be wearing his nation’s colours, at the Olympics in Paris.
“I've seen the road race recently and I'd love to go. It'd be my fifth Olympics which is pretty mad. I think it would be a real good target to have that as a goal to go and try to do something there.”
