2007 1ST

“I WASN’T LOOKING FOR THE YELLOW JERSEY THAT YEAR”

Ionly wanted to win the white jersey of Best Young Rider in 2007. I did all right in the Alps, but the second part of a Grand Tour is where I tend to make the biggest gains on my rivals, and this year was no exception. All the business with Rasmussen [expelled from the race while leading, allowing Contador to take the lead] meant it was a dream come true to win the Tour, but the pressure on me was incredible.

On top of that, there was the stress of the final time trial where the race was decided. I had checked out the route in the morning and, in fact, halfway through the recon I’d stopped and got in the car because my legs were hurting so much. I didn’t like the route at all – it was constant up-and-down, lots of ruts, a badly surfaced road. I was using a time check from one of my team-mates, Levi Leipheimer, but he stopped being a time reference because he was riding the time trial of his life.

When they told me I had a 25-second advantage on Cadel Evans and you know you’ve got 25km to go and your legs are hurting so much it’s impossible they can hurt any more, people watching the TV say, ‘If he loses a second per kilometre then he’ll be all right,’ or whatever. But, believe me, situations like that have got nothing to do with maths. You either blow or you don’t.

It hurt so much and, on top of that, being the last person to start in the TT felt like a huge responsibility. I only believed I had the Tour in the bag when there were five kilometres left to go. Before then, I didn’t believe it at all.