I’d love another tilt at tour – Geraint

TOUR de France winner Geraint Thomas insists he won’t lose any of his motivation to defend his prestigious title next year, unlike his Tour triumph predecessor Sir Bradley Wiggins.

Five-time Olympic gold medallist Wiggins claimed his own career-high Tour victory in 2012 but didn’t go on to repeat the trick.

Cardiff cycling hero Thomas believes Wiggins’ heart wasn’t in making the huge sacrifices necessary to win the Tour de France again – and that’s in sharp contrast to his own ambitions. Ahead of the launch of his latest book detailing his triumph in France, The Tour According to G, Thomas said: “I’d love to win it again.

“Each year’s different but I still feel I’m improving even though I’m 32. I still have the motivation and commitment where I think Brad Wiggins, once he’d won it [in 2012], didn’t have 100 per cent motivation. I’ve still got the appetite. I enjoyed the whole race – not just the end.”

Thomas concedes that despite this year’s Tour being a monumentally memorable experience, his team bosses at Sky angered him on numerous occasions with a perceived lack of support.

His new book captures his frustration as he believed Sky favoured Froome even when he’d established a significant lead.

But Thomas remains amiable and balanced, pointing out that Froome has won six grand tours and they are friends. The last pages of Thomas’ book are given over to Froome who stresses their long relationship as teammates and how, “despite my own regrets … it was a pleasure watching G win.”

There was less harmony on other key days. Thomas recalls how, before the team time trial, he was told he would be left by the other riders if he endured a puncture or a crash. Only Froome, trailing Thomas by 52 seconds after two stages, would be protected. Thomas “sat there and stewed” before saying: “Guys, could you really not wait for me?”

“I was frustrated because I thought I was also a protected rider. But it’s not a decision they took lightly. They would have thought about it and debated it. I said my bit, and they said, ‘No.’ So you have to accept it. The likelihood [of a puncture] is really slim but at the time I wasn’t impressed. Yeah, it dragged me down a bit, but you let it go.”

“The biggest thing with Froomey was that it was never awkward. When he congratulated me he seemed genuine, and since the Tour we’ve had a couple of nights out.”

■ The Tour According to G by Geraint Thomas is out in book shops tomorrow.