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I was winning enough races that the professional teams started to take notice. In my last year as a junior, I went for testing with Quick-Step at their academy, which had nurtured so much young talent over the years. I stayed at the anonymous building that could easily be mistaken for a factory or the regional office of a nondescript company, knowing that the corridors of this place had echoed with the young voices of many champions over the past 20 years or so. In the end, it was those huge numbers of young cyclists that became an obstacle in my progress. They process literally hundreds of kids through there every year and keep tabs on thousands more juniors across the globe, hoping to unearth the next Merckx, Kelly, or Indurain. Neither my race results nor the numbers I produced in their tests were enough to lift me clear of the other hopeful juniors. They told me to work hard in the Under-23 category for the next couple of seasons, and they would continue to monitor my progress.

It wasn’t meant to be negative, but it felt like it. Which is why, when the Liquigas team came along and said they’d take me on board straightaway, I couldn’t wait to say yes. They didn’t need to wait for me, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to wait for a call from Quick-Step that might never come.