After Mike took fourth and one point at the top, more attacks came and went. I bided my time before putting in a little dig and going clear with Frenchman Pierre Latour.

It was absolutely lashing but we had a big gap so I was hoping a group would come across to us and we’d be gone for the day.

A few minutes later, we got caught by what I thought was the peloton but it turned out to be a 40-strong breakaway so the attacks kept coming like crazy for another 20 minutes or so.

I tried to keep things together for Mike because I knew he could definitely score more points on the next climb but I always struggle with my breathing when it’s raining. After some very aggressive racing, I got tailed off a bit on the descent but managed to climb my way back onto the group on the first category Col de Saises after 42km.

By then, Mike had managed to escape in a small group so I tried to just sit on the wheels and save as much energy as possible, which is almost impossible when you’re tearing uphill trying to hang on.

As a lightweight climber, I don’t have a lot of body fat and the cold and wet sucks the life out of me. I tried to compensate today with arm warmers, knee warmers and a jacket but more clothes adds more weight and sometimes it just makes it harder to climb. If you take them off though you freeze on the descents.

The concentration it takes to descend at 80kph in a peloton is amplified by rain.

Apart from the obvious dangers, there is so much spray in your face that you can’t see properly. If you take your glasses off you end up squinting or getting bits of grit in your eyes from the wheel in front and it just makes things worse.

All of the grit, sand, muck or whatever else is on the road gets sprayed into your mouth too. They call it ‘Belgian toothpaste’. The wind chill sees your fingers, hands and arms seize up. By the time we got to the Cormet du Roseland after 93km I was like my twin girls’ favourite Disney princess – Frozen!

At 2,000 metres altitude, it was only four degrees and still lashing rain so I grabbed a rain jacket from one of the team staff at the side of the road and stopped to put it on over the one I was already wearing ahead of the 20km descent.

Having dropped out of my group, I got caught by the yellow jersey group
halfway down the descent, with about 35km to go.

All motivation to follow the wheels had gone out the window with my body heat though. I was so cold I couldn’t even concentrate and they just rode straight past me.

It was a very lonely ride to the finish for me. I managed to catch up with a few guys on the 21km climb to the line, and found myself slightly envious when Sepp Kuss told me his team leader Primoz Roglic hadn’t started the stage.

About 4km from the summit, I caught up with Mike who was also suffering from the cold. Having made a huge effort to get the mountains jersey today, he missed out by eight points as Nairo Quintana took over the jersey.

Mike and I crossed the line 23 minutes behind stage winner Ben O’Connor but lived to fight another day. With the time cut set at 37’ 20” today, Andre just made it inside by 52 seconds, while the group behind him scraped inside by six. Seven others, however, missed the cut off time and are out of the Tour.

Afterwards everyone was saying it was one of the hardest stages they’ve done in a Grand Tour. The conditions, the speed of the race and what we’ve done in the last few days have really taken their toll today.

But it’s part of the sport to get through days like today. You fight to get through these days so that you can have the good days in the better weather. Hopefully there is sunshine on the horizon and we can race in the conditions we enjoy later on.