Today was a long stage but relatively flat.

I didn't feel too bad this morning when I got up - I just hung around the village and felt quite relaxed.

My leg is still screwed though.

The doctor says I have bruised the tendon and combined with the road burns it is causing a lot of pain.

The cuts are starting to dry up as well so they are beginning to crack as I am pedalling. To treat it, all I can do is have the leg bandaged and cleaned twice a day.

The first 80km went okay - I just sat at the back and kept my head down.

After this I deteriorated rapidly - very rapidly - and in the last 80km I was hanging on for dear life.

To make matters worse, I got caught up in a crash 20km from the finish. This I really didn't need.

Fortunately, it all happened in front of me so I slowed down quite a lot before I hit the guys in front.

I came off but didn't do any more damage.

Only survival

I'm sitting in my hotel room now, chilling out just hoping things are going to get better.

All I am aiming for tomorrow is survival.

The stages are going to get harder now and a bit more hilly so I'm just going to hang in there and wait until I start feeling stronger.