Cycling is a funny old game. Ordinarily 2014 would have been about the worst injury and two of the biggest disappointments in my career, namely crashing on the last corner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège when on course for a second consecutive victory, and then crashing out and bringing most of my team-mates down with me during the TTT stage 1 of the Giro in Belfast.
This testing fortnight in my life and career is almost erased when I think of 2014 as the year I met my wife, finished second at Flèche Wallonne, got my first top 10 in a grand tour at the Vuelta and then topped it off with my second monument, the Giro di Lombardia and second at the Tour of Beijing. It was a rollercoaster. The win in Lombardia will stick with me forever as I was not the strongest and the course wasn’t the same as the hilly final into Lecco that I enjoyed so much before. But I outsmarted the elite group, saw an opportunity in the final km and never looked back. Full commitment and I got the reward.