Sky Procycling rider Geraint Thomas has proved to be exceptionally strong both mentally and physically, while getting through a tough season married by crashes, bad luck and innovative training conceptions, which never turned out to be satisfyingly effective. Even though no one should push the luck having such a perspective in the back of mind, the Welshman sees his future in the bright colours, hoping to provide the team with good results while leading the British squad through the spring classics campaigns as well as supporting his leader during title defence at the Tour the France.

After the 2013 season has officially ended for road cyclists, 27-year old Welshman took his time to enjoy few weeks completely off-the-bike and to recover after ten months of a hard work at Sky Procycling, despite being continously haunted by bad luck and having suffered as a result of serious crashes.

“It was pretty busy actually. Just went back to the U.K. for a couple of weeks, seeing friends and family … just things like that really,” he told VeloNews.

“Was just normal for a few weeks. Ate and drunk whatever I felt like. Was still pretty busy though. … It was good. I went to Tokyo as well to do the crit out there. That was nice to go out there with my girlfriend and see that. That was somewhere I always wanted to go.”

Despite having respectable results from track racing in his palmares – Thomas won gold in the team pursuit at the London Olympics and also won a world championship in the same discipline, Sky Procycling rider decided to fully concentrate on road races concerning upcoming season.

“I had a few shitty crashes last year,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to another year on the road, really, and not really thinking about the track.”

Talented Welshman, considered together with Ian stannard as one of main Sky Procycling leaders for spring campaigns, has proved in the past that he has what it takes to be in the contention in major one-day races: he finished 10th at the Ronde van Vlanderen in 2011, while this year he was fourth at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and fourth at E3 Harelbeke, before he badly crashed at Tour of Flanders and Paris-Rubaix.

Equally like in the previous season, Thomas want to kick-off the season at the Tour Down Under, where he finished third on his last attempt.

“I really like going down there to start the year. The weather’s good. Obviously, it’s good, hard racing. Then I’ve got Paris-Nice into the classics. I’m just really looking forward to all those races, and like I say, I’m really motivated at the moment to get in good shape for that,” he said.

Apart from experiencing crashes which seriously affected his spring achievements, Thomas partially blames the different rhythm of preparations for classic races for his unsuccessful campaigns. The Welshman admits, that unusual preparation during the Sky Procycling camp in Tenerife allowed him to build a satisfying form, but the lack of an adequate number of race days did not let him to properly come into the season, and thus to achieve significant results in the major one-day races.

“It felt like going into the classics I had good form,” he said of last season.

“It was also kind of a case that every race we did felt like the first race of the season, with the big gaps in between. And like you say, a couple of crashes — there’s not many guys who can crash and get back and be able to shout, really, unless it’s Fabian (Cancellara) or (Peter) Sagan, or someone really special. We learned from that as well, how we raced together and things. Hopefully we can definitely make amends.”

The versatile Welshman is one of the strongest Sky Procycling riders for the classics, even though he made a huge impression at this year’s Tour the France as a selfless domestique, supporting Chris Froome on his victorious way to Paris despite suffering from a fractured hip as a consequence of crashing at the first stage.

 “The Tour is the Tour, isn’t it? It’s the biggest bike race in the world, and you always want to be a part of that, especially on a team that has the likes of Froomey, and Brad (Wiggins), and Richie (Porte),” Thomas said.

“It’s great to be in the mix there, and with them, and riding for them. Once the classics are done, it’s full gas up to the Tour.”