On his temptation to delay his retirement until the 2027 Tour, Thomas said: “I was chatting to the family about it, but 41 is pretty old.

“I’ll have to make do with watching it on the side of the road.”

The men’s and women’s Tour de France will both begin in Britain in 2027, with Edinburgh to stage the men’s Grand Depart.

Route details and the Grand Depart for the Tour de France Femmes will be announced in the autumn.

And Thomas hopes Welsh cycling will benefit from hosting part of the Tour.

“It’ll just be so big, so massive for the whole country,” he added.

“I heard the rumours, but then when I heard it was actually confirmed that it was going to happen, I was like, ‘wow, maybe I could keep racing for another two years just to try and get there’.

“But, yeah, no chance of that really.

“It will be massive for Wales, massive for the UK in general, starting up in Scotland, and then obviously in England, and a stage finishing in Wales is just amazing.

“Wales has so much to offer. You don’t need super hard mountains to make it entertaining racing, and Wales definitely has a lot of hard roads.

“In south Wales you can easily do quite a few climbs and then finish in Cardiff. Or in north Wales, there’s plenty of tough terrain as well and beautiful landscapes.

“It’ll just be great to showcase Wales and how beautiful it is.”