"I'll suffer round for the moment, do my bit for the boys" - Geraint Thomas puts aside GC goals at final Volta ao Algarve

Twice in the past, Geraint Thomas has secured the overall victory at the Volta ao Algarve. As he returns to Portugal again in the final year of his professional career though, the Welshman admits another general classification challenge is not on the cards.

"I'll suffer round for the moment, work hard in the next month, do my bit for the boys. It'd be nice to try and win a race in my last season and I'd love to go to the Tour de France one more time, we'll see," assessed the former Maillot Jaune winner honestly ahead of Wednesday's stage 1, in quotes collected by Cycling News. "It's a nice route, obviously it's changed a lot this year with the final TT but I've always found it's a nice way to start. Earlier in my career, I was lot more ready to race here, so now it's a slower build. But I've always enjoyed racing here."

Thomas was actually active at the front of the peloton as stage 1 neared the farcical sprint finale that never was on Wednesday. Having officially announced his impending retirement earlier in the week though, there was a lot of focus on Thomas pre-race. "I kind of knew about it for a while, to be honest, so it was kind of weird to just announce it to everyone," smiles the 38-year-old. "It wasn't like it was a secret of anything and I was surprised it had such an impact on the media back home in the UK."

"But it's nice to announce it now because then I can just really enjoy this last year, knowing that that's what it is, it's out there and stuff. I'm looking forward to this race now," he adds. "I'll try and soak it up, because you know it's not going to last forever. It's a great life being a professional athlete, so I want to really make the most of it, and just try and enjoy the racing, being with the boys. I want to really make the most of it. The racing has still got a toughness about it, things like losing weight and so on, and I'll try to enjoy all of it."