Saturday July 10, Stage 14: Carcassonne to Quillan (185km) 

As we were back in our more favoured terrain of the mountains, myself and my Canadian team-mate Mike Woods were designated to try and get into the breakaway by our team this morning.

Having begun the day in third place in the King of the Mountains classification, just eight points off Nairo Quintana’s polka-dot jersey, we knew that, with a maximum of 19 points on offer over the day’s five climbs, there could be an opportunity to move Mike into the lead in that competition.

As dozens of groups jumped up the road and came back as if they were attached to the peloton by an invisible elastic band, I had an horrific first hour, one of those days where my legs were really heavy and I couldn’t get out of my own way.

I was trying to be in the front to help out Mike but just couldn’t quite get there. After 50km, we hit the first climb, and, for some reason, I started to feel better. A small group had taken the points on offer at the top but were reeled in by the intermediate sprint in Lavelanet after 77km.

After that I was able to be at the front and could follow some moves. Wide roads and a strong headwind soon persuaded me there wasn’t much point unless the group was big enough to have the firepower to go clear from a marauding peloton.

The first group to break the elastic to the peloton, Wout Poels, Matteo Cattaneo and Jakob Fuglsang went clear at the bottom of the second category Col Du Montsegur after 89km.

Mike counter-attacked and went in pursuit of the trio, while I monitored the situation behind and told him what was happening in my radio, that Quintana wasn’t able to follow.

Mike made contact with the lead trio 2km from the summit but lost out to Poels in the sprint for maximum points at the top. When the break swelled to 10 riders on the descent, they began to open a gap, not because they were allowed to but because the guys up front were strong enough to ride away.

Mike had a ding-dong battle with Poels for mountain points on the next two climbs, winning one and taking second in the other. The Dutchman had begun the day fourth in the competition, just three points behind Mike, so now he had a new rival for the jersey.

Back in the whittled-down peloton, today was another brutal day.

It was so hot on the last climb, the second category Col du Saint-Louis, that the tar had melted on the road. For 6km, I was literally stuck to the road as I climbed. I could hear the suction noise of the rubber slurping the road surface and, every so often, bits of gravel would be sucked up by my tyres and pinged off my bike.  

With another tough mountain stage tomorrow, and three more days in the Pyrenees to come after Monday’s rest day, I decided to let go and sat up when the pace began to get uncomfortable on the ascent.

With four more days of climbing, there was no point in digging any holes for myself today. It was better to ease to the line in a small group, eating and drinking as much as I could on the way to try and recover for tomorrow, which is going to be another big day.

Up front, Mike had a great day in the breakaway, even if his hopes of a stage win came a cropper when he crashed on a left hander on a rippled descent with 50km to go.

He remounted to chase in his ripped shorts and jersey but didn’t regain contact for another 4km, by which time another Dutchman, Bauke Mollema, was on the way to stage glory.

As well as taking fifth on the stage, Mike scored enough points to take over the lead in the mountains classification today, which is a big thing for the team, the first jersey we’ve held in the Tour de France.

It’s nice to have a bit of success in the team and we will try to keep it until Paris. With just a five-point lead at the moment, though, that’s going to be easier said than done.

Although we’ve only been on the same team since the start of this year, I’ve known Mike for a long time. He lives near me in Andorra and we’ve had the same coach for the last two years, so we get on really well. I’m delighted to see him in the polka-dot jersey going on to our home roads tomorrow.

While tomorrow’s stage doesn’t suit me, the descent off the last climb is less than 2km from my house in Andorra, so it’ll be both exciting and weird to be racing past there. Before all that, we have a two-hour drive to our hotel this evening.