My rest day started on Sunday, as I turned onto the final climb of the day up Plateau de Solaison. The racing on stage 15 of the Tour de France was fast and furious; the speed was incredible, exactly what you’d expect from the best riders in the world battling it out. There was a huge fight to get into the breakaway, and I was also interested because our strategy was to have a rider up the road to get over the steep climb after 130 kilometres and then help Lenny [Martinez] on the approach to the final climb.
I was having a good day and managed to sneak into the breakaway. There weren’t many riders left up ahead by the time the yellow jersey group caught me. Visma-Lease a Bike had set a really high pace on the steep climb, keeping the breakaway within reach to give Jonas [Vingegaard] a chance to fight for the stage. I had just made my way back to the group after collecting fresh bottles and ice from the team car when I saw the chaos at a roundabout. Jonas, Isaac [Del Toro] and a few other riders were on the ground, and it didn’t look good.
