But surely that Alpe d’Huez stage will be the highlight?

Oh, that’ll be special; probably the best day ever to watch the Tour live. They say 800,000 people can fit on the Alpe during the Tour. Imagine that: fill the MCG, now do that eight times. Good luck getting off that mountain at the end of the day ...

What’s the atmosphere like going up Alpe d’Huez?

I’ve ridden up it twice in the Tour and the atmosphere’s absolutely unreal. I did it the year Pantani set the record for the fastest ascent. That was pretty cool because we just rode the flat all day, along the valley at 45km/h. Then we hit the climb and these blokes just went warp speed up it. I cruised up at my own pace because I wasn’t a climber, but it’s just an awesome climb. For instance, the Dutch have a “Dutch Corner” there and they spend the day having a rave. Seriously. There’s 10,000 of them going nuts to doof-doof music. And that’s just one corner! You’ve got everything going up that mountain.

Is Chris Froome your favourite for this year’s Tour?

You’d have to say he’s the favourite. The way he’s climbing at the moment ... You know, he could’ve won last year’s Tour. Wiggins was faster in the time trials, but Froome was stronger on the climbs. And I reckon this year he’s going to be let off the chain. But it’s such a shame we won’t see Wiggins. He had a chest infection, but he was still sitting fourth at the Giro. He only lost 30 seconds to the best climber in the world on some serious mountains – with a chest infection. That’s scary-good.

With Froome and Wiggins such dominant riders, could you have seen a fight over the leadership developing at Sky?

Oh yeah. Now there’s only going to be one showdown at this Tour: Tejay Van Garderen and Cadel at BMC. But that’s a good thing for a team. It means they’re in a good position; means they’ve got two arrows to fire.