The TOURist, Simon Clarke's diary. Ep. 8

Today was definitely even less stressful than yesterday mainly due to a fact that there was a headwind and not a sidewind. Headwind all day meant that there was no danger of being split in the crosswinds. At the same time, it felt like everyone is just waiting for tomorrow. We have such a big challenge coming up. I think that was on everyone’s mind.

There was a big crash with 17km to go. I was involved. I crashed quite hard. I hit my head quite hard. Didn’t have any concussion but did have a bit of whiplash, so I was a bit slow to get up due to the fact that I wanted to make sure I was ok, but I made it to the finish without any problems. I’m fine. No serious damage. I’ll be fine to start tomorrow.

In terms of our gorals and everything, it all remains all changed.

Fresher legs tomorrow. It’s all hands on deck. It’s going to be a big battle from kilometer zero so it will be, I suppose, the highlight of the Tour for the people watching on TV. It will definitely be a good stage to watch on TV. How it turns out for us, we’ll have to wait and see.

SIMON