Can you just give us an outline of something you might do at something like that, when it’s closing in on the end of May and you’ve got a big priority that starts on the first of July? Can you give us an idea of your training workload?

“Yeah, I think it’s almost six weeks until the Tour starts so last week in Monaco I did a week of 20,000 metres of climbing.

“The week before that it was 17,000.

“I’ll probably get up around 17,000 for this week – metres of climbing – so it’s really starting to happen now. It’s sort of when you, I guess, put the after-burners on and you think about what you’re eating a little bit more and are getting the weight down – because, six weeks out, it’s quite a long time. Plus we’ve also got the [Criterium du] Dauphiné starting in a couple of weeks.

“But it really feels like now is the ‘Go Time’ for the season.”

It’s funny how you talk about metres climbed. You don’t give a damn about distance or hours on the bike? How are you measuring your efforts?

“I guess it’s also time but, up here, if you look at distance [it’s different]. You know, we’re not doing massive amounts of distance. I mean, last week I did 820km which is still quite a big week but not when you’re looking at it from doing 35 hours on the bike perspective – but I guess it’s all about just quality as well.

“We’re doing some good efforts up here, a little bit at threshold, and through the zones.

“I don’t really want to bore you with all that stuff because if you’re looking at your power meter all the time I think it’s probably one of the worst mistakes you can do.”

You say it would “bore us” but I know most people who would be tuning into this interview would be really keen to hear some numbers. We know a lot of people are spending some time on their home trainer, they understand what power is all about now. It’s different to what it was 10 years ago even. When you’re doing these efforts… what kind of wattage are you doing? Is there some sort of little insight that you can offer that people can relate to?

“For me, my threshold is just over 400 watts at about 59kg. But on the home trainer I find it’s so hard; I can’t do threshold on the home trainer so it’s all about trying to make the time pass, for me.

“I don’t like Zwift that much either. I tried that but when I was getting a minute and a half ridden into me up Box Hill, I kind of thought, ‘It’s probably not the best thing for me…’

“But I think it’s all about throwing in different efforts, some 30/30s – stuff like that, you know: 30 seconds hard and 30 seconds off. Just blocks of that. Anything to make the time go by as quickly as possible.”

Okay. It’s interesting to hear what you say about Zwift. So you think that the actual dynamic of how you ride a bike on the home trainer versus out on the road, is entirely different? That’s why you can’t hit your 400 watts?

“Yeah, perhaps. When you’re out on the road, it’s probably easier to suffer – when you’re actually moving somewhere. But when you’re strapped to… I refer to the ergo as a ‘torture device’ – I find that a little bit hard.

“But I know there are some people who can do it. And I can do it when I really need to but for the moment I’d rather do my quality efforts out on the road. It’s just a little bit mentally easier.”