THE Brecon Beacons played a key role in Geraint Thomas’ Tour de France success, giving him an early taste for cycling over big hills and mountains.

His mum Hilary has a story about him getting lost on his first long cycle ride from their home in the Cardiff suburbs to the Storey Arms outdoor centre near Pen y Fan.

She told a reporter on the BBC Sports website that when she realised cycling was going to become his true sporting passion she used to “fuel” him up before his long rides with barbecue spare ribs and egg fried rice from the local Chinese takeaway and wrap jam sandwiches in tin foil for the ride itself.

Jo Phillips, the chair of Thomas’ first cycling club The Maindy Flyers, confirmed that he “must have” ridden in the Brecon Beacons during his training rides as a teenager. She said she first got involved in the club in about 2006, two years’ before Thomas claimed his first Olympic gold medal in the team pursuit in Beijing.

Breaking off from her holiday on the Great Orme headland off the north coast of Wales to speak to the Brecon & Radnor Express, she said: “We’re all so delighted for Geraint. He’s been so great to the club and we’re all looking forward to seeing him when he comes back to Cardiff.

“Although he has gone on to such great achievements in cycling, he has never forgotten his roots and regularly comes back to see us at the club. He’s always been very grounded – he’s very much the boy-next-door type. When I first got to know him he was already winning gold medals but he has a strong pride in his roots and his Welshness.

“He came back to see us last year after riding in the Tour of Britain and donated his yellow jersey from (last year’s) Tour de France to the club, which was a fantastic thing to do.”

She said the Maindy Flyers is both a track and road racing club and many of their members use the Brecon Beacons as their training ground.

The highest mountain range in southern Britain, the Brecon Beacons are a popular destination for cyclists keen to improve their endurance. Gospel Pass in the Black Mountains is Wales’ highest stretch of road, climbing up to 549 metres. Many of the Tour de France’s most iconic climbs top 2,000 metres.

Alpe D’Huez, the scene of Thomas’ Stage 12 triumph, is a famous 13.8km climb that navigates 21 hairpin bends and finishes at a ski resort that’s 1,850 metres above sea level. However the climbs in Britain, although shorter are often steeper, providing just the kind of resistance training top cyclists need.

Although Thomas’ early successes were on the track he showed his ambition to become a Tour De France cyclist by joining Barloworld, the same team as current Sky teammate Chris Froome, in 2007. His first attempt at the three-week grand tour proved difficult for a rider still carrying “puppy fat” and used to racing on the track, but he managed to make Paris despite finishing second-to-last overall. His second attempt at the Tour in 2010 saw Thomas wearing the white jersey for the best young rider and since then Thomas has played a key role in most of Sky’s Tour triumphs with British riders Bradley Wiggins and Froome. It was only this year, however, when Thomas insisted on joint team leader status that his ambitions to win the Tour de France’s general classification became clear – an ambition he fulfilled last Sunday on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Thomas has ridden in the Tour of Britain, which sometimes takes in the Brecon Beacons and in 2016 finished at the Royal Welsh Showground in Llanelwedd, although he didn’t take part that year.

As Sky are one of the teams taking part in this year’s Tour of Britain there is a good chance Thomas will be riding the race. Stage one starts in Camarthenshire and travels along the A40 to Llandovery and Brecon and then through to Crickhowell before heading to the finish in Newport. There will be a King of the Mountains contest at Defynnog, which will be a popular spot for fans hoping to see their hero.

When the race passes through Brecon it won’t be the first time Wales’ Tour de France champion has been to the town. On Sunday, October 19 2014 Thomas met the then Brecon mayor Neil Sandford and his wife, the mayoress Sian, at Brecon Leisure Centre.

The former town councillor said: “It was the ‘Castles & Cathedrals’ cycle event from Cardiff to Brecon and back again to raise funds for Shelter Cymru. Geraint was cycling with Jamie Baulch and Colin Charvis (ex Welsh rugby international). As mayor it was my job to welcome them and all the other cyclists to Brecon.

“Geraint was as he is on TV – totally laid back very unassuming – completely at ease with meeting people, genuinely pleased to be supporting a good cause and despite the success he had already achieved (Olympic gold medal etc) there was no sense of ‘bigness’ and was somewhat oblivious to the awe people held in him. He really was a nice ordinary guy!! Not sure about training in the Brecon Beacons but he certainly knew the area well.”

Sian had already been Geraint’s “biggest fan” before the couple met him and has been her phone wallpaper “for years”.