It had been calamitous for the team, there was no denying it. All the elite riders had fallen by the wayside – on stage 3 the sprinter had retired with tennis elbow, on stage 8 the climber had ground to a halt with housemaid’s knee and the General Classification contender for overall winner had got lost on stage 11 and ended up in Basingstoke (although to be fair many have lost their way in Basingstoke – all those roundabouts!). Morale amongst us remaining domestiques was sub optimal.
