2005 31ST

“IT WAS A TERRIBLE RESULT”

Ihad to miss the 2004 Tour because I had a brain haemorrhage in the Vuelta a Asturias, so 2005 was my first time at the race. I remember just before the Tour the team management said that if anybody wasn’t in good enough condition to do it, could they please say, so that somebody else could step in. I was pretty nailed by then because I’d done Tour Down Under, Mallorca, Valencia, Setmana Catalana, Castille y Leon, País Vasco, Romandie, the Dauphiné… but I didn’t say anything because I really wanted to do it. And finally I did all right, but I was feeling tired throughout.

I can’t say the 2005 Tour was special because I had never experienced that level of stress before. And coming 31st wasn’t something I valued at the time – I thought it was a terrible result. I’d wanted to win the Best Young Rider’s jersey but, looking back, considering I was so young and it was my debut, it was a good Tour.

I never had any days when I thought I was going to retire, but one day I had a raging fever and was feeling really bad. Fortunately it happened on a flat stage, but I was in the hotel feeling poorly and got a call from Johan Bruyneel asking if I wanted to sign for him, because we didn’t know at the time if ONCE was going to have a team the following year. That cheered me up a lot, that somebody was interested in me as a rider even when I’d had such a bad time, although I didn’t finally sign with him until 2007.