Geraint Thomas expects his next three days to be tougher than competing in the Tour de France as he commits to spending 36 hours on a turbo trainer to raise money for the NHS.

The 2018 Tour winner wants to replicate the shifts of an NHS worker as he embarks on three 12-hour stints on the bike with the goal of raising £100,000 to help the fight against the coronavirus.

Thomas has no targets in terms of speed or distance, and no mountains standing in his way, but the Team Ineos rider expects this to be up there with the greatest challenges he has faced – because that is how he designed it.

Otherwise Thomas is planning to chat to fans via live streams of his effort on Instagram and Facebook, while catching up on F1 series Formula One: Drive To Survive on Netflix, having decided Tiger King is "a bit weird".

Thirty-six hours on a turbo trainer is far removed from the Tour itself, with the fate of the race this summer unknown.

With speculation the Tour could now start in August, Thomas said he will continue to work towards competing.

"That's how I'm treating it, that it's going to happen," he said. "I am hoping and praying that it is going to go on, we will all be there and all this will be done and dusted.

"It might not be back to completely normal but at least everyone can sort of move on.

"I would be willing to race whenever really to get the races in. Because that's what we want to do, we are bike racers, that's what we do it for."