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Lots of people say, “sleep high, train low,” but I think the second bit is less important. As long as it’s training, I don’t mind too much if it’s up at the top or down at the bottom. In Spain, we sleep high and train low most days as it’s bloody freezing up high with icy roads, and it gets pretty busy with skiing traffic on the roads at the weekends. The shape of the Sierra Nevada lends itself to it as well: It’s just a huge great lump rising out of the plain. So we hop in the cars in the morning and drive down to Granada to ride. We do a bit of team time trial training with new bikes too, so the quiet roads and warm weather are very handy as there is technical riding to be done, but a fair bit of hanging around too. If it’s a nice day, after the session we ride back up to get some climbing in the legs too. It’s a 30-kilometer drag, and the road can be pretty busy on Saturdays and Sundays. When you can be on the beach at Motril in 20 degrees Celsius and skiing in reliable powder within a couple of hours, that’s not surprising. When it’s grim in the mountains, we can usually persuade Patxi that the road along the beach would be the best place to head. As he’s a member of the new generation of DSs that like to ride with their teams rather than sit in the car barking out instructions, he’s very much up for that kind of training. A coffee. A beer. Why so serious?