WELSH Olympic stars Nicole Cooke and Geraint Thomas are expected to ride in Abergavenny next June after the National Road Race Championships were awarded to the town.

And, for 22-year-old Thomas, a track gold medalist in the Beijing Games last month, the race will come just days before he starts the 2009 Tour de France in Monaco.

The British Cycling board have chosen Gwent to stage all three road race events - women's, men's and juniors - after bids were made from other parts of the UK.

It is a huge scoop for Wales and comes just a month after Cooke landed the Olympic Games road race title in Beijing and Thomas was one quarter of the British Team Pursuit side which broke the world record by three seconds in winning gold in China.

Cooke, 25, from Wick, Mid Glamorgan, has won the national title nine times in a glittering career which has now given her every crown available in global women's cycling.

Cardiff's Thomas, who famously completed the Tour de France in 2007 on his debut in the event, is also going to be in the field for the men's race.

He is concentrating his efforts on the road instead of the track after Beijing, and is penciling in the Gwent race on June 28 as part of his high-profile programme next summer that is set to include the classic Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) and, on July 2, the biggest cycling event of them all, the 21-day Le Tour marathon.

Thomas, speaking from his Italian base today (Monday September 22), said: "It is awesome that Wales has got the Nationals again.

"I have missed it for the last two years because I've not been able to fit it into my schedule but I definitely want to do it next year."

Venues for the races are not confirmed at the moment but they are likely to be staged around the Abergavenny and Monmouthshire areas or around Newport.

It is another boost to Wales' reputation as a cycling hub in Britain, having staged the National Championships in Abergavenny in 2007, where Cooke and Tour de France stage winner David Millar took the gold medals, and also twice in Newport, in 2003 and 2004.

Newport also staged a leg of the Women's World Cup Series road race in 2005 while Britain's Olympic track stars have used the Wales National Velodrome in the Gwent city for both their 2004 and 2008 final preparations.

And just last June, Abergavenny staged a Union Cyclist Internationale-sanctioned international road race that incorporated teams from Belgium, France and Lithuania plus many British domestic stars, who will also be challenging for next year's National crown along with Thomas and Cooke.

Also, the stars of the future will be riding in their own national event as the Junior Road Race will be staged in the county over the same weekend of June 27-28.

Welsh Cycling president Bill Owen, whose bid for the events was accepted by British Cycling's board last weekend, said: "This is another endorsement that Wales is a real cycling powerhouse in the country. I'm delighted that British Cycling have granted us these races and we all know, from past years that we have held them, that the Nationals will attract the biggest riders here.

"Nicole will be defending her women's title again and the men's title should be a superb contest, with Rob Hayles defending it along with Geraint and this year's in-form road racer Russell Downing."

The picture shows David Millar winning the 2007 National Road Race in Aber.