After winning a stage, wearing the leader's jersey for several days and finishing 3rd overall in last year's edition, Geraint Thomas will be back at the Tour Down Under when the WorldTour season kicks off in less than two weeks time. However, the Welshman plays down his chances, pointing to Richie Porte as the likely captain of the Sky team.

With 2012 being focussed on the track and his quest to win a gold medal at the London Olympics, Geraint Thomas had his eyes back on the road when he lined up for the Tour Down Under in 2013. Being extremely motivated to start the year well, he Welshman came out with all guns blazing, winning the stage over the Corkscrew climb and defending the leader's jersey for several days before finishing on the final podium in 3rd.

Thomas will be back in Australia when the race kicks off the 2014 WorldTour in less than two weeks but this time he is not sure that he will be able to perform as impressively as he did last year. With a year of road racing under his belt, he is more focussed on the long-term objectives than the immediate results in Australia.

“I’d just come back from the track last year and wanted to start the year off with a bang. I’m a bit more relaxed now,” he told Wales Online.

Sky is often the team to beat in WorldTour stage races and this could again be the case in Australia this month. With Thomas uncertain about his form, the team is likely to focus on Richie Porte who has already made it clear that he would love to win his home race which has a hillier course than ever before.

“Obviously Richie [Porte] is here as well, we’ve got a strong team and any of us could get up there on any day," Thomas said. "[It’s about] strength in numbers and trying to be a bit more clever with it, not race on the front all the time, use the other teams.

“We’ve got a strong team here and a team that can realistically win it."

In 2014, Porte will try to win the Giro d'Italia and will be further ahead in his training at this time of the season than he was 12 months ago.

“I want to go to Tour Down Under and perform. As an Aussie it’s the race to win,” he said last month. “It used to be a sprinter’s race but now there are some good climbs in there like Corkscrew and Willunga. I’ve spent a bit of time in Adelaide so I know the climbs pretty well. I think if I’m in good form and we have a strong team there."

In 2013, Thomas focussed on the classics but was plagued by an extreme amount of bad luck. Crashes hampered his chances in Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and his best result was a 4th in E3 Harelbeke.

Later in the year he showed splendid form in the Criterium du Dauphiné but when he wanted to capitalize on his hard work in the Tour de France, he crashed on the opening stage and broke his pelvis. He fought his way through the race but failed to do the work that he had expected from himself.

In 2014, he hopes to have more luck.

“I like to think 2013 wasn’t lucky for me so hopefully that’s over for me now,” he said. “It feels like ages since I’ve raced properly so I’m looking forward to getting back into it.”

The Sky roster for the Tour Down Under consists of Porte, Thomas, Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard, Chris Sutton, Bernhard Eisel and new signing Philip Deignan.