Thomas chooses Olympics over Tour de France

The track events at the  London 2012 Olympics have priority for Geraint Thomas over the Tour de France. The Sky rider has said that he will ride the Giro d'Italia next year and skip the Tour so that he can do as well as possible in the London Olympics.

Thomas took gold in the team pursuit on the track in Beijing in 2008, and will follow the same routine. "I'm going to be doing similar preparations to before Bejing when I rode the Giro and didn't ride the tour," said Thomas to BBC Sport Wales.

"That'll give me the work from a three-week race but also give me time to adapt back to the track and give myself every chance of making the team."

It was his decision alone to miss the Tour, but this will allow him to concentrate on what may be his last Olympics. "The Olympics is the main goal for me so I don't want to jeopardise that in any way."

"Riding the tour is a bit more of a gamble. I could be going really [well] but could also end up on my knees and pretty tired."

It basically came down to the fact that the Tour is held every year, while the Olympics don't come to London so often.

While he would have liked to have ridden the Tour with Sky newcomer Mark Cavendish, “for me this year as in previous years the Olympics is the main goal. I'll still have the Tour de France the year after, it's an annual event so that's one way we're fortunate.

"But home Olympics, it's a once in a lifetime thing."