The leg still hurts like a bitch - it is now starting to bruise really badly around the knee.

It's like all black and blue and gross.

Generally, I felt better this morning. The climbs yesterday had gone okay so I thought I was beginning to recover.

Sat around for a bit with James and Tom (official photographer) in the village. James was being a "liability" as Tom put it - he lost his mobile within five minutes of being there.

Also spoke to Stuey (Stuart O'Grady) who is well chuffed as you can imagine.

The first half of the race went fine. I was positioned in the middle of the peloton with Brad staying out of trouble.

However, things got much worse - towards the end it was really hard and really painful so I just tried to hold out to the end.

Most of my Cofidis team mates suffered too. We all fell back in the group that came 18 minutes down. I'm completely screwed now. Not much else I can say - just got to stick in there.