We made it to the first rest day, yet it feels like the Grand Départ in Barcelona was only yesterday. Even though this is my eighth appearance at the Tour de France, it still feels just as special as the first time.

For me, there’s no better feeling than the excitement of knowing that, for almost a month, you get to live the dream of racing the biggest bike race in the world. The fact that I now know more or less what to expect makes it even better for me.

I love the speed and the adrenaline of this race. I know I’ll remember these moments for the rest of my life, and if I could go back in time and show this experience to my 12-year-old self, when I first started racing bikes, I would have been massively proud.

The race started with a team time trial this time around. It’s probably the most complicated discipline in cycling, especially from the team’s perspective. Everyone really needs to do their part for the riders to even make it to the start ramp on time, and then it takes a complete team effort to perform well all the way to the finish line.

We were going really well on the flat part of the course, and everything went exactly to plan until we hit the roundabout just before the first of the two uphill sections in the final. This was my final pull, and I was completely at my limit. I had been trusted with this part because it was full of corners and normally I’m quite good at taking the right lines, but this time I got it completely wrong and entered the roundabout way too far on the inside. Luckily, I had made the same mistake in the recon, so my Bahrain-Victorious teammates behind me saw it coming and didn’t follow me.

Otherwise, it could have been a disaster. I ended up in the fence but somehow didn’t hurt myself at all. It was really embarrassing, but at least we got some material to joke about for the rest of the race. And I’m sure I’ll be reminded about it any time I come close to Barcelona again.

The race went on and very quickly started to reveal itself. UAE Team Emirates-XRG showed that they have the best team in the race, and Tadej Pogačar showed that he’s still the best rider in the world when he rode away from everyone on the Tourmalet. This wasn’t really a surprise to me. I feel that when conditions are this extreme, the differences in level become even more obvious. There’s less room to hide.

Handling the Tour’s relentless heat

Heat is almost like altitude in that sense: some riders adapt better and feel less uncomfortable than others, and once the race has started, there’s not much more you can do beyond the heat training and preparation you’ve done beforehand.

To be able to race in these temperatures, with the last 10 days ranging between 35°C and 47°C measured on our cycling computers, we go through incredible quantities of bottles and ice.

I start every day by wearing a cooling vest to the team presentation, then putting two ice socks down my back and sometimes another one on my chest, alongside some extra ice cubes tucked under my arm sleeves.

During the race, I pour cold water over myself every 20 to 30 minutes, allowing it to evaporate and cool my skin.

When the air temperature is higher than body temperature, the breeze we get from the speed literally feels like a warm hairdryer blowing on our skin. You can imagine how quickly the water evaporates and how fast you start to overheat if you run out of fresh, cold water because you missed a bottle in the feed zone. In these conditions, the bottles become more important than almost anything else in the race.

I asked our sports director how many bottles we go through in a stage. For a four-hour stage, we use around 80 bottles of water and 40 bottles of our carbohydrate drink, as well as somewhere between 60 and 80 ice socks, all in an attempt to keep cool.

I’ve definitely raced in similar conditions before, but never for so many days in a row. We’ll see how it affects us during the rest of the race. The doctors constantly monitor our hydration status, and I feel we’re doing everything we can, but I still think we’ll end up more tired than in previous years simply because of all the extra effort required to manage the heat.

I’m now thinking about the second week and the opportunities it might present. Lenny [Martinez] has the goal of going for the polka-dot jersey, so we’re always making sure he has everything he needs and helping him stay cool for as long as we can. There are also a few sprint stages, and I still believe Phil [Bauhaus] can at least get a podium in one of them, so we’ll fight for that.

Personally, on paper, I can only see one real opportunity for myself. Friday’s stage is quite long and comes after two consecutive days of the same riders having to control the breakaway.

I would guess they’ll be a little tired by that point, and with a climb in the final, there might be an opportunity for a strong breakaway to form – either from the start or later in the final – and try to stay away from the sprinters. I think the stages over the weekend are more suited to the pure climbers, and it will be challenging to get involved in the fight for the stage there, especially if the heat persists.

Anyway, I’ll make the most of today, get some extra sleep and make sure I stay focused and ready to race. There are always opportunities at the Tour, but you have to be ready to take them when they come!