- Date of Birth:
- 25 May 1986 (22)
- Home Town:
- Cardiff
- Current Address:
- Liverpool
- Club:
- Barloworld
Geraint won Gold in the Team Pursuit at the Beijing Olympics.
Geraint started cycling after seeing an advert for the Maindy Flyers, a cycling club in South Wales, and decided to go along and try it out. He got off to a flying start, breaking the newcomers lap record and was instantly hooked travelling to races across the UK with the club.
After winning National titles as an U14 and U16, Geraint started to take his cycling more seriously. In 2004 he won silver in the Points race at the Europeans as well as the Scratch race at the Junior World Championships in LA.
After joining the Olympic Academy Programme in 2005, Geraint’s cycling has gone from strength to strength. In 2007 he signed with Barloworld and went on to win a Gold medal at the World Championships in Mallorca.
Geraint was the youngest rider in the 2007 Tour de France as Team Barloworld picked up one of the three wildcard spots allocated for the race. The first Welsh rider to compete in the race since Colin Lewis in 1967, Thomas received great support from Welsh fans at the opening of the race, with several following the entire race.
In 2008 Geraint chose to ride the Giro d’Italia rather than the Tour De France before returning to Britain to concentrate on preparations for the Beijing Olympics. After setting a world record in the heats with a time of 3:55:202 the Olympic team pursuit squad beat their Russian opponents comfortably to go through to the final ride-off for Silver and Gold. The following day they broke their own world record in a time of 3:53:314, beating their Danish competitors by a huge 6.7 second margin to win Gold. Geraint had also been a possible contender in the individual pursuit, but opted not to ride both events as he did not want to compromise the efforts of his team.
Chris Boardman stated that “Geraint keeps surpassing people’s expectations“ and he now has his sights set firmly on success at the London 2012 Olympics.
Achievements:
Track
2008 Gold, Team Pursuit, World Cup, Manchester
2008 Gold, Team Pursuit, Beijing Olympics
2008 Gold Team Pursuit, UCI Track Cycling World Championships
2007 Gold Team Pursuit UCI Track Cycling World Championships
2006 Gold, Team Pursuit, UCI Moscow World Cup
2006 Gold, U23 Team Pursuit, European Track Championships
2006 Silver, World Championships Team Pursuit
2006 Silver, Team Pursuit, British National Track Championships
2006 Silver, U23 Scratch Race, European Track Championships
2006 Bronze, Points Race, Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games
2006 Bronze, Team Pursuit, UCI Sydney World Cup
2006 Bronze, Madison, UCI Sydney World Cup
2005 Gold, 20km Scratch Race, British National Track Championships
Road
2008 Gold Smithfield Nocturne
2008 Bronze, Stage 1, Ster Elektrotoer
2007 140th, General Classification, Tour de France
2007 5th, Stage 1, Tour of Britain
2007 7th, Prologue, Tour of Britain
2006 Gold, Overall Classification, Fleche du Sud
2006 Gold, Points Classification, Fleche du Sud
2006 Gold, Under-21 Classification, Fleche du Sud
2006 Gold, Stage 2, Fleche du Sud
2006 Silver, Stage 3B, Fleche du Sud
2006 Bronze, British National Road Championships
2006 Bronze, Overall Mountains Classification, Giro d’Italia
