Geraint Thomas misses out on GB squad for Paris Olympics

Double Olympic gold medallist and former Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas has been left out of the Great Britain squad for Paris 2024.

The British Olympic Association confirmed the first 20 riders for what will be Team GB’s largest ever cycling delegation at a Games on Monday with no place for Welshman Thomas in the men’s road category.

The squad is instead headed by defending men’s mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock, and three other previous medallists in Ethan Hayter, Katy Marchant and Jack Carlin.

The group also features 10 Olympic debutants across the track, road and mountain bike disciplines, including rising star Emma Finucane, the sprint world champion.

Thomas, 38, winner of the Tour in 2018 and third in this year’s Giro d’Italia, had been hoping to compete in a fifth Olympics.

Pidcock is named in the men’s mountain bike and road groups. Current under-23 world champion Charlie Aldridge, selected for his first Games, joins him in the mountain bike category with Hayter and debutants Fred Wright, Stevie Williams and Josh Tarling with him in the road team.

Commonwealth champion Evie Richards, having overcome numerous injury problems, returns in the women’s mountain bike along with another new face in Ella Maclean-Howell.

After his road commitments, Hayter will switch to the men’s track endurance squad, linking up with Ollie Wood, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Vernon and debutant Dan Bigham.

Marchant competes in her third Olympics but will be part of a women’s sprint squad for the first time after Britain secured team qualification for the first time since 2012. Wales’ Finucane and Sophie Capewell, another debutant, join her.

Tokyo silver and bronze medallist Carlin heads up the men’s sprint squad for his second Games, alongside new names Hamish Turnbull and Ed Lowe.

The riders for the BMX racing, BMX freestyle park, women’s endurance and women’s road events will be announced on July 4.

Team GB chef de mission Mark England said: “Team GB has a rich tradition with Olympic cycling, and I am thrilled that we will be taking our largest ever cycling team to Paris.

“I am fully confident that all the athletes selected today will put in some fantastic performances this summer.”

Stephen Park, performance director for the British cycling team, added: “We’re blessed with an incredibly talented, passionate and hungry squad of riders, and we are now fully focused on supporting their final preparations so that they can be at their very best come Paris.”