Rio 2016: Geraint Thomas 'lost quite a lot of skin' in road race crash ahead of trial alongside Chris Froome

Thomas owes his inclusion to the roll call of injured forced to withdraw following the brutal curtain raiser, Australia’s Richie Porte, Vincenzo Nibali of Italy and Dutchman Wout Poels

Geraint Thomas' own place in the time trial was under threat through injury (Getty)

Chris Froome will have Geraint Thomas for company today after the Welshman’s belated entry into the Olympic cycling time trial.

Ironically enough since he flayed the skin off his back and bruised a hip while crashing out of Saturday’s road race, Thomas owes his inclusion to the roll call of injured forced to withdraw following the brutal curtain raiser, Australia’s Richie Porte, Vincenzo Nibali of Italy and Dutchman Wout Poels.

Dismissing his own injury concerns Thomas, who eventually finished tenth in the road race, said: “Whilst I'm thrilled to represent my country in a second event in Rio, the circumstances surrounding my inclusion are unfortunate and I'd like to wish all those who withdrew through injury a quick recovery.

“I lost quite a lot of skin in my crash and my hip took a pretty big knock, but other than that my legs are feeling good. Technically riding it well is the main thing. Obviously the climb is important but there is a lot of flat road in between as well and it could be windy around there.

“I think it’s all about pace judgement, but I don’t see why I wouldn’t have a good chance of getting a result there. I’m looking forward to racing again.”

Froome said he expects no nil effects after being dropped on the final climb of Saturday’s 237 kilometer course. The time trial route includes two climbs along its near 60 km route plus the seascape at Grumari.

“In London four years ago I was completely spent. And I was fine in the TT a few days later. It should be enough time to recover,” Froome said.

He is aided here by the arrival of Team Sky coach Tim Kerrison, who flew out to Brazil at the weekend specifically to design a plan of attack in the time trial. Kerrison was the brain’s behind Froome’s successful approach at the Tour de France, where he finished first and second in the two time trial stages.

“It is something we have done a lot of work on and it worked really well at the Tour this year. Ideally we will be able to replicate what we did at the Tour, although it’s a very different type of effort.”

The usual suspects represent the greatest threat to Froome’s golden hopes, Holland’s Tom Dumoulin, Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and Germany’s Tony Martin, who split winner Bradley Wiggins and third-placed Froome in London four years ago.