'All I'm thinking about now is the Giro d'Italia' says Geraint Thomas

On the eve of his final race before the Giro d'Italia, Geraint Thomas has insisted that his eyes are firmly on the Italian Grand Tour, in light of his ambition to ride both the Giro and the Tour de France this season.

Speaking to WielerFlits ahead of stage 1 at the Tour of the Alps, Thomas was asked if the Tour de France had affected his preparations for this year's Giro d'Italia, but the Ineos Grenadiers leader was clear that his focus remains in Italy.

"Slightly but I guess all I'm thinking about now is the Giro," he said. "I tried to take it a bit steadier in the build-up and then we deal with the 'after the Giro' after the Giro.

"Obviously [last year's Giro d'Italia] didn't end the best way but with the start of the season I had I think it was still a good one, but we'll see what this year brings."

The 37-year-old finished second to Primož Roglič at last year's Giro, holding the pink jersey for eight days before relinquishing his lead to the Slovenian in the penultimate stage time trial. It was not the dream ending for his Ineos Grenadiers team, but as Thomas is quick to note, his preparations had been hampered by a UTI infection.

This time around, Thomas will begin the Tour of the Alps with the same number of race days (13) in his legs as last year, but with a far smoother run-in.

When asked about his form heading into the five-day stage race he said, "I think slightly better hopefully. I have had a bit more consistency so looking forward to a good one.

"It's good timing you know, with two weeks after this until the start of the Giro just to fine-tune things. But a good, hard five days of racing in the mountains is always good."

In the Tour of the Alps, Thomas will lead an Ineos Grenadiers team that is a blend of the old and the young, with elder statesmen like Thomas, Salvatore Puccio and Ben Swift joined by Óscar Rodríguez, Tobias Foss and the youngster of the team, AJ August. In Foss and Thomas, the British team should place well in the general classification, but it remains to be seen as to how Thomas tackles the race.

Read more:

• AJ August, youngest Paris-Roubaix rider in 114 years, misses time cut but fights to the velodrome
• Tobias Foss looks forward to support role at the Giro d'Italia

At last year's Tour of the Alps, the 37-year-old played a supporting role for Tao Geoghegan Hart and saved his bullets for the Giro, as has been his modus operandi over the last few seasons. In fact, the last one-week stage race that Thomas challenged for the general classification was the Tour de Suisse in 2022, which he won.

The Welshman was keen not to give away any secrets on the eve of the race, but in a race where the main favourites, on paper at least, appear to be Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost), anything should be possible for the 2017 race winner.

"Similar to last year, we're looking forward to it. Some good hard racing, it's certainly a tough race with the climbs and things, so yeah it should be a good one.

"I'll take what I can, every race you want to get the best result so we'll see how the legs are and take any opportunity as they come."

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