Opinion: Is Sky’s search for a classics rider over?

Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) wins stage 2 of the Tour Down Under (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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The search
If there is a weakness in Sky’s armoury it is that they lack a true contender for the spring. Juan Antonio Flecha has been shown the door after failing to deliver, and although Edvald Boasson Hagen appears to have many of the right attributes, he seems to have found a place at Sky as a stage hunter and domestique de luxe at the grand tours. Ian Stannard – who came second to Thomas in that 2004 junior Roubaix – has shown enough to suggest he deserves the team’s support in the mud and cobbles races across the Belgian flatlands, but come Ardennes week Sky’s arsenal looks particularly weak.

Tour de force

Given that this was a man who wore the white jersey at the Tour in both 2010 and 2011, where he lost it to Robert Gesink after waiting for a stricken Bradley Wiggins, there is even the possibility that Sky might have ‘grander’ ambitions for the Welshman. Thomas has talked of “getting his track fat off” and has obviously been inspired by the success of former GB team-mate Bradley Wiggins, but the team will have to balance his desire to lose weight with his need to retain power.