With the prospect of the past season filled alternately with bad luck, crashes and the results not congruent to the expectations, Team Sky's Geraint Thomas has already started planning his next year start’s calendar. In cyclist’s opinion a responsibility for an unsuccessful  campaign is connected, in part, with unusual preparation for the spring classics in which typically used races like Paris – Nice or Tirreno – Adriatico were omitted.

Thomas admits, though unusual preparation during the two-week camp in Tenerife allowed him to build a satisfactory form, the lack of an adequate number of race days did not let him to properly come into the season, and thus achieve significant results in the Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

“Physically, I was in great shape, but maybe it felt for a while as if every race we did was like the start of the year, because there were such big gaps between them all. That may have affected us a bit. Next year, I think I’ll definitely ride Paris-Nice,” Thomas told Cyclingnews.

At the same time the Welsh cyclist points out that in addition to his numerous accidents and the build-up, which did not bring the expected effects, the lack of experience has left significant mark on this year's results. This was the first season in which, alongside Ian Stannard, Thomas had the opportunity to chase his own results instead of playing a domestique role in cobbled classics and he admits that races haven’t been played well enough from a tactical side.

“From my point of view, I just had some bad luck but it was disappointing,” Thomas said.

“I wanted to get a decent result in one of them. I think we learned a lot as well. Tactically we weren’t the best at Roubaix, so we know where we can improve there for next season for sure."

“For myself and [Ian] Stannard, it was the first time we really targeted those races as riders in with a chance of getting a result, so it’s a learning experience for us all really. I think we can improve on that.”

Thomas, showing so far great versatility, is still to decide in which direction his career should develop. It is very likely that also next year he will ride both summer classics and the Tour de France, as Team Sky's Chris Froome will need his experience to safely carry it through the cobbles during the stage to Arenberg.

“I’ve grown up loving the classics and the Tour is the Tour, so it’s great to do both,” Thomas said.

“In a year or so, I might have to decide what route I need to go down – whether it’s the classics, or the weeklong stage races and then trying to see where I could go in a grand tour."