Got woken up this morning at 7am to do a random blood test - what a pain in the arse.

After this we just chilled out and then made our way into Strasbourg.

I wasn't looking forward to the stage ahead because it was going to really test my knee - there were several category two and three climbs.

Once the stage got underway I actually felt quite good.

I attacked at the bottom and pulled away with Brochard and Ivanov.

We managed to get a minute on the peloton, but were pulled back just before the top.

It felt really good to be at the front for a change, but this is only the start, there is so much more I have to do.

Hanging on

After this I suffered and realised that I still had a long way to go in my recovery.

I was dropped on the second climb and fell back into a small group behind the peloton.

Then it was a case of hanging on again, and I finally came in 25 minutes back in the last group.

There is still a long way to go, but the attack today gave me new motivation to focus on the stages ahead.