Jack Haig rang his wife Anna from the hospital, his Tour de France mission as broken as his collarbone, and apologised.
Asked what it takes to become an overall contender in the Tour, the Australian cyclist replies "a lot".
"It was also my family as well. When I was in the hospital, when I crashed in the Tour, I called my wife and all I did was apologise to her," Haig tells AAP.
"I knew how much she'd also sacrificed for me to prepare for the Tour."
Haig, 30, will start his fifth Tour on Sunday (AEST) as a key support rider for Santiago Buitrago in the Bahrain-Victorious team.
Three years ago, he started the race with realistic ambitions of a solid overall result, only to break his collarbone in the stage-three crash that prompted his call from the hospital to Anna.
The following year he crashed out in stage five with wrist fractures - the Tour has not been kind to him - before he finished 2023's edition.
But in the midst of those struggles, he also finished third at the 2021 Vuelta a Espana - the Tour of Spain.
Along with the Tour and the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta is one of cycling's three-week Grand Tours.
Haig, Cadel Evans, Jai Hindley and Richie Porte are the only Australians to have made the overall podium at a Grand Tour.
"It might have been bigger if, say, I was Spanish, but it was still a very big personal achievement and something that I can now look back on my cycling career and say not many people manage to achieve that," Haig says.
"It's pretty close to the pinnacle of the sport.
"I reflect on it with a lot of fond memories, because I also put a lot of effort into that year."
It remains to be seen whether Haig's days as a Grand Tour contender are behind him, but he remains a crucial member of the Bahrain-Victorious lineup.
Haig is also that rarest of beasts - a top-level sports star with perspective.
He had a different upbringing in Australia, living in several places as he grew up, and is a man of the world.
Unlike many Australian pro cyclists, he rarely heads Down Under in the off-season.
He and Anna have a young boy, Liam, and a settled life in the tiny European principality of Andorra, where several pro cyclists are based.
"I've maybe lived a lot of lives in the short space of time I've been alive, if that makes sense," he says.
"I've seen a lot of things around the world, I've travelled quite a lot, I was quite independent from a young age and I grew up quite fast.
"I maybe have a bit more of a perspective on the world outside of cycling than some people."
So while Haig is prepared to make sacrifices in his career, it is not to the point of compromising his health.
"Something recently that randomly came up was bone density ... someone said, 'I guess if you had lighter bones, you'd also be lighter going up a hill'," he says of cycling's eternal obsession with power-to-weight ratio.
"Yes, of course, you would be - (but) I also value doing things with my kid when he's older, to be a healthy person.
"I try to make all the sacrifices that I think are necessary. Maybe they're not as many as some other people.
"Long story short, it's bloody hard work."
Porte would talk about the dinner at team training camps when he raced - while the classic specialists might enjoy a steak, he and the other Tour riders would look on with envy as they ate their blueberries and plain yoghurt.
Haig, months out from the Tour, returned in a team car from a stage finish at Adelaide's Tour Down Under. His recovery meal? Plain white rice.
And that's what was also on the menu for dinner. In January.
