It’s good to be able to afford to do things like that.” And what if his his kids wanted to go into cycling? He smiles wryly and leaves a measured pause. “I would advise them to do something else.”With a distribution company importing Adidas products, and other investments in the pipeline, Boardman is preparing for the day when he will be doing something else.”Hopefully by the time I finish my career I’ll have, say, five different interests That’s the plan. They don’t wait for me to come home to grow up.”And even when he is there, he is still a monomaniac “I’m only physically there – mentally I’m somewhere else. Luckily I have a very good wife who accepts the way I am, and I make an effort to do things with the kids, spend some time with my wife – and I’m better at it now.”My son Edward is dyslexic, though it’s not a massive problem these days.

In fact, he does not regard himself as the sanest person around.”I’m fanatical about trying to be the best. I think you’ll find that other riders may be mentally more healthy than me. I’m very intense about what I do, it absorbs all my thinking time, and my family pay the price.”For many riders, the only way forward is to head for the Continent, eke out a living as an amateur and hope to get spotted. Boardman turned pro relatively late, by which time he was already a family man, and it grieves him greatly to leave his wife Sally-Anne and four children on the Wirral.”For months of the year I spend two days at home, then go away for nine days, two days at home, go away for 10 days The children are growing up and I’m not there. I’ve done seven days, nearly a thousand kilometres – not necessarily all of every stage, but all the mountains.”Though he comes across as eminently well-balanced, it’s clear that Boardman has the same kind of “tunnel vision” that Linford Christie has spoken of. I’ve climbed all the mountains on this year’s Tour and made notes on each climb – where it’s hard, where there’s a false climb. I have a terrible memory generally, but I know each bend and I can picture how I’m going to ride it.

Does Boardman do anything similar?”For something as intense as a Prologue, yes. If you use your team early, chasing small breakaways and so on, just having the strongest legs won’t be enough. If you don’t have the head you waste the legs.”David Hemery has famously spoken of having run the Olympic 400 metres hurdles final in his head hundreds of times beforehand. It’s all on feel.”In fact, though any sporting activity requires a baseline of physical fitness, in the end, isn’t winning all in the head?”Yeah, absolutely The first ingredient you have to have is legs And after that you have to know how to use them.