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Geraint Thomas wins BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year

Team Sky colleague Sir Bradley Wiggins presents trophy to Commonwealth road champion

Geraint Thomas’s victory in the Commonwealth Games road race in August has seen him named BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year for the first time. He was presented with the trophy by Team Sky colleague Sir Bradley Wiggins at a training camp in Mallorca.

The 28-year-old, who also won bronze in the time trial at Glasgow, clinched gold in the road race despite a late puncture nearly putting paid to his chances of victory.

During 2014, he also secured top ten finishes at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, won the overall title at the Bayern Rundfahrt for the second time, and secured his highest ever general classification place at the Tour de France, finishing 22nd.

Presenting the trophy Wiggins, who in June beat Thomas into second place at the national time trial championship in Monmouthshire, said:  “You’ve had a fantastic year once again, winning Commonwealth Games gold and working unselfishly for the team all year in the Tour de France, etc.

“I think it’s a surprise to everyone in this team that you haven’t won it before.”

Thomas said: “You look at all the previous winners, Ryan Giggs, Mark Hughes, Colin Jackson, Tanni Grey-Thompson etc, household names.

“It’s pretty nuts to be alongside them, to be honest.

“I just want to say a massive thanks to everyone who voted but also to everyone throughout the year who’s given me support.”

He added: "The Welsh flag is one of the ones you see the most now on the roadside during races, and it was just fantastic to cap that off in Glasgow in a Welsh jersey - which I don't get to wear that often."

To celebrate, Thomas conducted Sky riders and staff in a rousing rendition of the Welsh national anthem - and, as this BBC video shows, was unceremoniously dumped in the hotel swimming pool for his efforts.

Gymnast Frankie Jones, who won one gold and five silver medals in Glasgow and was named the most outstanding athlete of the Games, came second in the public vote, while mountain bike downhill world champion Manon Carpenter was third.

Thomas is the first cyclist to win the award in its 60-year history. In 2008, when Nicole Cooke became the first rider, male or female, to win the Olympic and world championship road race in the same season, it went to rugby union player Shane Williams.

Another rugby union player, Leigh Halfpenny, won the trophy last year, with Becky James, winner of two rainbow jerseys at the track world championships in Minsk, one of five athletes on the shortlist.

Wiggins himself won BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2012, the year he won the Tour de France and time trial gold at the London Olympics.

This year, however, there is no cyclist on the shortlist, the first time that has happened since 2007.

In 2008, the award went to Sir Chris Hoy, winner of three gold medals on the track at the Beijing Olympics that year, while in 2011 it was won by Mark Cavendish after he clinched the green jersey at the Tour de France and became world road champion in Copenhagen.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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8 comments

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WolfieSmith | 10 years ago
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Enough of Gee. Did you see Wiggo's lumberjack beard when he handed over the trophy? Crikey. Not good in a wind tunnel and it just confirms my suspicions that silly beards reached their peak early in January and clean shaven will be the fashionable chin for summer 2015.

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monkeytrousers | 10 years ago
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Living somewhere else doesn't stop him being Welsh does it?

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Edgeley | 10 years ago
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Formerly Cheshire and now Monaco based. Very Welsh indeed.

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Kapelmuur replied to Edgeley | 10 years ago
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Edgeley wrote:

Formerly Cheshire and now Monaco based. Very Welsh indeed.

Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, not Cheshire please  16

I used to see him out on training rides and can't understand why he'd want to move to Monaco.

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andyp | 10 years ago
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yeah, but *mountain biking* ffs. That's like giving the award to a footballer or something.

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Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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The amount of social media that he got, he was always going to win.

Manon Carpenter should have had it for me, 21 and winning the world champs and the world cup. For me that trumps anything Gee did this year. Including the commie games gold.

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farrell replied to Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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Gkam84 wrote:

The amount of social media that he got, he was always going to win.

Manon Carpenter should have had it for me, 21 and winning the world champs and the world cup. For me that trumps anything Gee did this year. Including the commie games gold.

So a sports person has managed to win a sports based popularity award based on having more popularity?

The utter bastard. May he burn in hell for his actions.

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HalfWheeler replied to Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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Gkam84 wrote:

The amount of social media that he got, he was always going to win.

Manon Carpenter should have had it for me, 21 and winning the world champs and the world cup. For me that trumps anything Gee did this year. Including the commie games gold.

Just googled Manon Carpenter there.

Yes, very impressive feat.

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