"IT’S THE TOUR TOO, SO YOU FIND THE MOTIVATION”

At this point my state of fatigue is pretty extreme, but in any Tour in the third week, operating in that area becomes the new normal. You just have to carry on because we have a job to do, and it’s the Tour too, so you find the motivation. In the third week, it’s much more a mental battle. You’re exerting yourself so much throughout the day that every little bit of extra minor inconvenience seems like an impossible effort. Doing the recon on the time trial felt like it took forever. I’m finding it particularly tough when I get to the hotel room and with all the stuff you’ve got to do it’s already 11 o’clock and you’re getting up at seven the next day. Sometimes you’d almost sacrifice that extra sleep because you’re constantly with people and team meetings and the race and all you want to do is be alone, talk to family and maybe stare at the hotel room wall a while.

My strategy to fight that third week tiredness is to break each stage into chunks, then ask myself where I have to switch on and build up to that moment. I’ll tell myself, ‘Okay, just 20ks of being switched on and then I can relax about things.’ That’s totally unlike the first week, where I’d automatically be switched on for the whole stage.

Now it’s just trying to stay focussed for the 10 kilometre blocks you need to be, because right now that’s really as much as you can manage.