Geraint Thomas won the last week the 2015 Volta ao Algarve. The Team Sky rider showed that he developed his skill on one-week stage race. He won the second stage and secured his first place at the overall with a strong individual time trial.

“I knew that I was going well coming into the race but you never really know how everyone else is going," Thomas told Cyclingnews. "I’d done quite a bit of work after the Tour Down Under and I’d lost a bit of weight as well. I was just looking forward to getting stuck into the race and seeing what happened. I didn’t expect it but to win that stage on the second day and then to pull out a decent time trial and keep the jersey was really pleasing. The overall win has been good for the confidence.”

Thomas want to be more competitive on the week-long stage races. Winning a grand tour is most probably too difficult for him, but he will be able to be one of main favorite riders for the next Paris-Nice. “I’m enjoying this position and I’ve led the team a few times now. I’m learning over time and to have someone like Porte riding for me as well, it was great to lead and then win. The second to last day was really hard. [Etixx-]QuickStep really gave it to us and attacked us whenever they could.”

“There are going to be quite a few decent guys and going into the race I’ll be the back up and Richie will be the leader again. We’ve such a strong team perhaps I might be in the mix and then on the TT I might be able to get a little result myself but you never really know how things are going to pan out until you’re at the race and you’ve got a couple of stages under your belt but I definitely feel like I’m getting better over time, and I’ve done some good work over the winter.”

This winter, the 28 year-old man worked hard his position for the time trial. He focused also to lose weight. “I’ve been riding my TT bike a lot more. In the last few years I’ve neglected that side of things after riding it so much on the track, and obviously weight is another thing I’ve worked on. I’m not too far off my Tour weight from last year, when I was around 68, 69 kilos. I’m probably around a kilo over that at the moment. That’s been hard work and taken a lot of work but it’s great when you see it chipping off and you see it bring you where you need to be.”