Geraint Thomas has said his recovery is going to plan after abandoning the Tour de Suisse and that the knee injury sustained in the crash seems "pretty good" as he builds for one final Tour de France.
The Welshman, who is set to retire at the end of the season, is currently at home in Monaco completing the final stages of his rehab as he returns to training before travelling to Lille for the Grand Départ next week.
Ineos Grenadiers are yet to confirm their line up for the second Grand Tour of the season, but speaking on his Watts Occurring podcast, Thomas spoke as if he is going to the race.
"My knee didn't feel too bad, it was more the muscles and from the twisting of it really," he said. "The doc was basically like: 'we don't want to take the risk, we think you're better just having a few days off, make sure it's 100 per cent and then you can train again and be good for the Tour' rather than battling away through here.
"I think because it was Suisse and two weeks out from the Tour, they were super cautious with that side of things. Any other race it probably would have been like 'oh just start tomorrow, see how you are'. So I wanted to start, but it made sense, so that was the call."
Thomas said that he "hated" the rehab process so was grateful that this time round the injury had been "straightforward" to deal with.
"It seems pretty good now," he said, assessing his knee and any after effects of the crash. "I need a big week now, that's the only problem. I'm not really chasing it, but it's more just the mental side. I could have had five more days of racing."
Thomas explained that having missed the rest of what would have been a key build up race, he now feels he needs to match the "intensity" of racing in the last few days of training before the Tour gets underway.
"I was also thinking, I've only got one more week of that," he said, explaining that his last week before the race will be his final serious racing build up before retirement.
"So a week of that, I'll go to the Tour, then I've got three weeks until the Tour of Germany, then there's a week in between until the Tour of Britain, but that will be a lot less intense, I'll be training, obviously, but it's a different vibe. So it's just one more week, that's all I've got to commit to now."
