CYCLIST Stephen Williams, from Capel Dewi, has been selected to represent Team Wales at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Williams enjoyed a very promising first year at the SEG Racing Academy, competing on the European international stage, and said that competing in the Commonwealth Games road race was one of his goals.

As well as being a climber, Williams has the ability to sprint quickly at the end of a race - and the SEG Racing Academy coaches have been delighted with his progress.

Despite having his first season with the team derailed by crashes and injury, the former JLT-Condor rider scored some big results, and the team is full of enthusiasm for what he can achieve.

Williams has recently attended the first team training camp out in Loutraki, Greece, with SEG Racing, and is looking forward to another action-packed year.

“The first camp was great, starting the year with a solid block of training in Greece was what I needed,” he said.

“It was good weather and a good atmosphere with the rest of the lads, and getting the team together really sets the tone for the season too, everyone mixing and having a laugh is crucial for the team at this time of year.”

Williams has seized strong results in 2017, such as runners-up spot in Flèche Ardennaise and 11th overall in Ronde de l’Isard, despite having to deal with crashes and injuries in races such as Giro valle d’Aosta or the U23 Giro d’Italia, that were big goals for the Welshman.

“One of my goals for the season will be mainly not to leave so much of my skin on the road, I did enough of that last year!”, he said.

“In all seriousness, I would like to be a lot more consistent throughout the year.

“I am targeting the hilly one-day races like Liège-Bastonge-Liège, Flèche Ardennais and also the hilly stage races including Ronde de l’Isard and the U23 Giro, for sure if things go well I would like to race compete at Tour de l’Avenir and the World Championships with the Great Britain team.”

The 21-year old climber is going into his last year in the Under 23s team with a positive mindset and a willingness to keep improving his skills on the bike as he gets ready to make the next step into the professional ranks.

“I will begin racing in four weeks’ time,” said Williams. “I’m definatly eager to get going now, as the form starts to become better, you just want to pin a number on."I would like to improve my general classification skills, and work these coming months on higher mountains."Improving my individual time trial would also be a big thing for me, but all in all I’m hoping for a great year, and looking to enjoy it with the team.”

Team Wales’ full cycling team for the Commonwealth Games is James Ball (para); Elinor Barker; Rhys Britton; Eleanor Coster; Scott Davies; Sam Harrison; Joe Holt; Ciara Horne; Rachel James; Dylan Kerfoot-Robson; Pete Kibble; Manon Lloyd; Zachery May; Jon Mould; Lewis Oliva; Daniel Pearson; Dani Rowe; Luke Rowe; Ethan Vernon; and Stephen Williams.