“Strategy, for us, is analysing the demands of the event. Truly taking the time to really figure out what it will take to win,” he starts out. “Then it’s relatively simple to work back from that. A lot of people think strategy is a bit of a plan. People talk about the goal: we want to win the Tour de France, we want to win the World Cup, we want to win an Olympic medal. Really it’s not about the end point. It’s actually ‘what does it take, what sacrifice does it take?’ If you really understand that bit – the demands of what it takes to win – then you can develop a really good strategy. People can see it. That’s where the excitement comes in. The emotion.”