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Page last updated at 08:30 GMT, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 09:30 UK

Geraint Thomas is targeting Tour stage win

Geraint Thomas
Geraint Thomas competed in his first Tour de France last year

Geraint Thomas says his Sky team are targeting a stage win in one of the final two sprints of the Tour de France.

The Welshman is 60th in the overall standings with four stages to go.

That starts with the last of the mountain stages, the 174km race from Pau to Col du Tourmalet on Thursday.

"On the sprint days, I will be leading out Eddy [Edvald Boasson Hagen] so hopefully we can grab that stage win we've been looking for," he said.

"For me personally, the Tour has been going really good. It's good when you are suffering at the front rather than the back.

"I've had the white jersey for a bit, I've been second on the stage, fifth in the prologue and I just feel like I've been recovering really well, getting stuck in, in the lead-outs for Eddy and seem to be climbing pretty good as well."

Following the final mountain stage, the Tour moves to a 198km sprint from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux on Friday.

That is followed by the 52km time trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac on Saturday before Sunday's final stage, another sprint, from Longjumeau to Paris Champs-Élysées which is 102.5km.

The 97th Tour is the second for Thomas, who is part of the first British team to compete since 1987

Thomas, 24, was within 20 seconds of the leader's yellow jersey last Friday before the first mountain challenge.

"It's tough going [in the mountain stages] especially in the heat and the roads are quite heavy as well," he said. "It's not as fast and they are a bit steeper than the Alps.

"Thursday will be to get through as best I can and then we will have two sprint days and a time trial.

"If I'm feeling good I will give it full gas in the time trial and see what happens."



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see also
Armstrong misses out on stage win
20 Jul 10 |  Cycling
Thomas 'can win in grand tours'
11 Jul 10 |  Cycling


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