Thomas on track to repeat golden times at Olympics in London

For the past few years, Thomas has been showing his apparently limitless ability on the road, by heading the best young rider’s category at the Tour de France, challenging for sprint finishes and leading the peloton over the toughest Pyrenean Cols.

However, his one focus for 2012 is simple – going around a 250m track for four kilometres with three friends with the aim of defending the Olympic team pursuit gold medal he won in Beijing in 2008.

The 25-year-old from Cardiff said: “I’m a completely different rider to then. I’ve had a few good years on the road now and moved on leaps and bounds.

“Track-wise it’s still to be seen. I found November quite difficult after a long hard road season, but I think that definitely helped where I am now.

“Within a relatively short space of time you soon find your track legs again and I’ve been feeling pretty good.

“For me it’s all about racing, that’s what we train for.”

As soon as his second stellar season with Team Sky came to a close, Thomas returned to the Manchester Velodrome to hone his track skills, which will be on display at the London Track World Cup next weekend, a competition which doubles as the Olympic test event.

The team pursuit squad has changed since Beijing, Thomas and Ed Clancy the only survivors after the retirement of Paul Manning and Bradley Wiggins’s decision to focus on the Tour and the Olympic road time trial.

Thomas and Clancy are joined by Steven Burke, Pete Kennaugh, Ben Swift and Andy Tennant in the squad for the London World Cup, with qualifying for the four-man, 4km event set to take place on Thursday.

Like Thomas and Wiggins, Kennaugh and Swift ride for Team Sky, while Burke won bronze behind Wiggins in the individual pursuit in Beijing.

The individual event is no longer on the Olympic programme.