The plan was to have one of our non-climbers, Nico Denz or Max Kanter, in the early break if possible.

That way, they’d have a head start on the 20km long San Bernardino Pass after 85km and, even if they got dropped on the climb, might be able to give us a hand when the peloton caught them.

After another eyeballs-out start, Nico managed to get into a nine-man move after about 45km and got a maximum lead of five minutes. On the long climb however the break began to disintegrate with Nico getting dropped and caught about 8km from the top.

Our initial plan was to start riding hard on the penultimate climb, the Spluga Pass, after 125km, but when we caught Nico, Romain wanted to go a bit earlier. Nico took over at the front of the peloton and the game was on. When Nico blew up, I took over and rode as hard as I could for about 5km on the climb before pulling over.

With the bunch splitting in pieces, I donned a jacket from the car for my lonely 60km ride to the finish, as Chris took over and stormed down the descent with Michael and Romain in his slipstream. The trio opened a gap of 20 seconds. When second placed Damiano Caruso and Pello Bilbao of Bahrain rode across the gap, Chris, Michael and Bilbao rode hard to open the gap for their two leaders before leaving them to fight it out for stage victory on the summit finish.

Unfortunately, Romain's legs deserted him in the dying kilometres of the climb. As Caruso rode off to his first Giro stage win, race leader Egan Bernal and teammate Dani Martinez caught and passed Romain on the line and he had to settle for fourth after a very brave ride.

I think we can have no regrets today. Everybody did the job they were supposed to do and Romain threw everything he had at the stage. Although he was disappointed not to be able to pull off a stage win, his efforts leapfrogged him over Hugh Carthy into fifth overall. He is just eight seconds clear of Martinez though, with another good time-trialist, Joao Almedia around a minute back so tomorrow's final time trial will be another big day for Romain.

Sunday May 30, Stage 21: Milan Individual Time Trial (10kms)

After yesterday's tough stage, we had a three-hour drive to our hotel last night. What made it so long was every team bus having to do a three-point-turn to get around each hairpin on the way back down the mountains.

As a reward for three weeks of hard work we had a burger and a glass of wine for dinner ahead of today's final time trial and will have an end of race meal together tonight.

As soon as I left the start ramp this afternoon, I knew today wasn't going to be a day for me. After a day in the break on Thursday and two hard days in the mountains, my legs just felt empty. Today was one of those days when my breathing and everything else was fine but I just couldn't hurt myself. It's a strange sensation, feeling like you can push more but just not being able to.

In the end, I cruised to the finish to complete my 22nd Grand Tour and sat with a beer waiting to see how my roommate Romain got on. He put in a pretty good performance today but unfortunately Martinez and Almeida both leapfrogged him in the overall standings and he finished this Giro 30 seconds off fifth place, in seventh overall.

Overall, my DSM team have had a pretty good Giro. We may not have been the strongest team around but we rode really well together and committed every single day to getting Romain up the GC. Romain had a really good Giro and is in some of the best form of his life. Others were just that bit stronger, so he can have no regrets.

On a personal note, it's been fun rooming and working for him and, overall, I'm happy with my Giro. I'm not a team leader anymore so the last three weeks were about the work I did, being strong and reliable every day, rather than results. I tried to give my best every day and I had fun with the squad we had here. It was nice to see my cousin Dan win a stage and finish tenth overall too.

I don't know what my next race is yet, but I’d love to ride the Olympics again for Ireland.