Great Britain's new national road race champion, Geraint Thomas has one personal goal in the Tour de France; Saturday's opening prologue time trial.
"In the future, I want to try to come here and win it. Tomorrow is practice for the future, the process, the run up to it and dealing with all the potential hiccups," Thomas told Cycling Weekly.
The Welsh rider came in to form at the Criterium de Dauphiné in June, coming fourth in the prologue before contesting the opening sprints then holding on for 21st overall. "I'm good at the individual pursuit and so the prologue is the next step for me. It would be every bike rider's dream to wear the yellow jersey."
Thomas, 24, is racing his second Tour de France. His first was in 2007 when, at just 21 years of age, he raced with team Barloworld and finished second to last.
He said there is a night and day difference between his participation with Barloworld and racing in support of Sky team-mate Brad Wiggins.
"This time, racing the Tour has been a goal since the start of the year. Brad is the GC man here and the team will have a real focus and goal everyday for him."
Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha wil be Thomas' room-mate throughout the Tour de France, but Wiggins has spent a lot of time with Thomas ahead of the 8.9-kilometre prologue. The two talked on the bus after riding the course yesterday morning.
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"He explained how he's going to ride it, the bridge and the corners. It's great to have people like him to feed off," Thomas continued. "He feels that it is not as technical nor sketchy as the Giro d'Italia prologue."
Thomas is in serious contention for the white jersey of best young rider in tomorrow's TT. He believes that Lars Boom (Rabobank), Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) and Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) are his top rivals for the prologue.
Even if Thomas doesn't take one of the Tour's classification jerseys he know's he will start Sunday's road stage sporting a new look. he took delivery of his new British champion's jersey on Friday and on Sunday will become the First British road race champion to show it off in the Tour.
"I just tried it on and I had a look in the mirror. It looks pretty cool, I am quite happy with it.
"It is massive to have that jersey and to represent your country. To wear it at the Tour de France, the biggest bike race in the world... It doesn't get much better than that, a part from having the yellow jersey."
World and Olympic track champion Geraint Thomas gives us a first glimpse of his new national champions jersey. He confirmed he'll be wearing black shorts, not white.
Thomas also got a new Kask helmet to go with his new top.
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Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.
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