Geraint Thomas has been hailed as “Le Prince de Galles” and “Le cyclist next door” by French papers after winning his first Tour de France. But as the 32-year-old arrived back in Britain following a heavy night of celebrations, there were growing calls for Team Sky’s dominance to be curbed.

Thomas admitted that his victory had “all come together like a dream” and said he had received calls from Arsène Wenger and Elton John, as well as a video message from Thierry Henry. An open-top bus parade is also planned in Wales, although Thomas’s next appointment will be a criterium in Belgium on Tuesday evening

Team Sky’s latest success went down less well in France, with the Tour director, Christian Prudhomme, calling for an end to power meters to make the race less predictable. Meanwhile some French papers floated the idea of a salary cap for teams – pointing out that Sky has an estimated £30m-plus budget – while Sunweb, the squad of second-placed Tom Dumoulin, is reckoned to be about half that, with Movistar’s budget about £12m a year.

The 2014 winner, Vincenzo Nibali, has also floated the idea of a cap, a theme enthusiastically taken up by the French daily Libération, which warned there had been a combination of “disillusioned anger” from fans and “icy indifference” from the public during this year’s Tour. As it pointed out, in 2012 the UCI athletes’ commission had agreed that a more equal distribution of wealth was needed in professional cycling, but nothing had come of it.

“Six years on, the distribution of the booty has gotten worse,” the paper wrote. “The gap between the means of teams has exploded – while the shareholders of ASO refuse to give up a cent.