Geraint Thomas admitted his confidence got knocked this year after he dropped too much weight, too quickly.

The Cardiff-born racer was expected to be Team Sky’s Plan B at the Tour de France after his victory in Paris-Nice.

But Thomas switched to more of a support role after a disappointing Tour de Suisse where he finished 17th having been runner-up in 2015.

The 30-year-old said: “Suisse wasn’t great and it certainly knocked my confidence.

“Looking back I could see the mistakes that I made with losing too much weight, too quickly, while doing a load of training.

“That just took me a while to regroup mentally as well as physically. Going into the Tour I wasn’t sure how I was going to ride.

“My weight had been up and down and it wasn’t what I was used to. When I’ve gone to the Tour before I’ve been confident but this year it was totally different.

“I just pushed it too far with the weight loss, losing the last bit too quickly.”

Thomas will launch his campaign in Australia next month but might focus his efforts in May’s Giro d’Italia this year rather than the Tour where he would again be a support rider to Chris Froome.

The Monaco-based rider, speaking to cyclingnews.com, added: “I’ll start in Down Under and head there on January 2.

“I’ll get in a good month block and set myself up for the year. I feel like that really works for me.”