FORMER Tour De France champion Geraint Thomas made a low-key return to racing last week at the five-stage Volta ao Algarve, placing 10 minutes back on the leading cyclists

The superstar cyclist - who owns the St Tewdrics wedding venue near Chepstow and numbers the Blorenge Tumble among his favourite hill rides - may well lead the Ineos team in this year’s Tour, with Egan Bernal currently recovering from a horror crash.

But the 35-year-old Welshman says he will no longer base his entire program around wining the three-week race, in a year when he wants to regain the Commonwealth Games road race title.

Velo News reported that Thomas, who crashed in last year’s Tour, is slightly behind in his season preparations after missing training over the winter due to surgery.

And he said: “The shape is okay, and it’s coming but I missed five weeks of the winter and that’s a decent chunk of time. It will come back quickly, it’s just good to be here racing because you can go deeper than in training.

“Hopefully, I’ll just get some consistency. That’s the key for me now. The end of last year was ****.

“I finished the season in a pretty crap place and I’m still missing that extra time from the winter. Since the turn of the new year, I had a good chunk of time in LA… and I’m moving on nicely.

“I’m enjoying racing, I love the training still, it’s just that the knocks are harder to take now. When you have operations and broken bones it takes its toll. I feel like I can still bounce back well. We’ll see.”

Thomas, who used to be a regular at the old Abergavenny Festival of Cycling, has been honest enough to admit that Ineos are not placing great hopes upon his shoulders for the Tour.

And he told BBC Wales: “There’s definitely less expectation within the team - when it comes to the Grand Tours anyway.

“But I’m still hoping to get to the Tour in the best shape possible. If I am in that shape, I don’t see why I can’t be competitive over the three weeks.

“But this year isn’t just all about one race. It’s about just enjoying racing my bike and going for the win in everything.”

The Tour is expected to be a fight between the two dominant Slovenians, defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma).

“In cycling now everyone talks about young guys. And if you’re in your 30s, let alone your mid-30s, you’re past it. So it’s always nice to prove people wrong.

“I’m realistic. You can’t keep racing forever. I want to make the most of the next two, three, whatever it’s going to be years, and commit to it properly.

“Even if I don’t win anything, as long as I enjoy it and have a good time, that’s the main thing - and be happy and thankful for what I’ve done so far as well.

“I’m not sort of going into these last couple of years and just thinking I need to do X, Y and Z.

“It’s more get out there, train hard, race hard and then see what happens - and have fun doing it.”