Organising all the staff food takes until 8.30am, and then it’s onto the slightly easier task of preparing the musettes for the riders that will be taken to the feed station. That takes about 30 minutes and once done I can finally get my own breakfast. The riders start filing down into the breakfast room at the same time.

While we just eat whatever the hotel normally provides guests for breakfast, the riders’ breakfast is prepared separately by the team’s cook. They need bigger tables than us, because they have so much food.

This the point when I usually get my first coffee of the day – although if we have had a later night I’ll need one before I do anything in the morning. Coffee is really important to me, without it I struggle to function.

It is just myself and fellow soigneur Blache that drive to the feed zone. He can’t stand the slow drive on the course, so I’ll drive that bit. Then afterwards, when we are allowed to go hors course (off-course) Blache takes over and puts his foot down.

Then it’s off to the start in convoy with the team bus. We’ll get there about an hour before the race start and while the riders warm-up and sign on, we prepare all the bottles for the day. We have to buy in the water instead of using the Vittel water [who sponsor the Tour] that is available, because the Vittel bottles are so small – if it is a hot day we might need to prepare 150 bottles, so it would take ages. Sometimes we may need to prepare more bottles when we get to the feed zone.

And once we have finished all the bottles, we head straight off to the feed zone – we need to leave at least 30 minutes before the race itself starts. The drive to the feed zone can be quite daunting as there are a lot of people lining the roads, and in the larger races like the Tour de France, we have to stay on the course all the way to the feed zone.

Once the riders have filed through and we have handed out the musettes, the next focus for us is to get to the finish line before the riders – I like to get there at least 40 minutes before they turn up.

We will have prepared two things for when the riders finish the night before. First is whatever drink each rider prefers to have as soon as they cross the line. Each rider has their own preference on this, but usually it’s a sugary drink like coke, lemonade or ice-tea. Our job is to know where each rider is as they cross the line and make sure that they get that drink as soon as possible.

The other thing we have previously prepared is a finish bag for each rider – these are a really important if the rider has to go to either doping control or to the podium, so are delayed getting to the bus.

The bags are left in the team cars and handed to the riders as soon as they are directed by the representatives to go for testing. Inside, there is food (usually fruit), fresh clothes, a towel and some water to wash their skin with while they wait.

As soon as we get to the hotel we start the massages. Three of us do these, so we have three riders each. Their slots are about 45 minutes each and the riders organise themselves as to who goes when and whether they eat before or afterwards.

Usually I will start the massages around 7.30pm. This means that I finish up around 10pm, and it is only then that I get to have my dinner at the hotel. I like to try and go to bed around 11pm if I can, but sometimes there will be extra tasks that need to be sorted in preparation for the next day.

After dinner, some of the team will have a glass of wine if the hotel bar is open. If I join in, then I definitely need my coffee before anything else the next morning!