A battle is only lost - if you start to believe it's lost.
If it was WW2 Sergent Dries would had 'purple heart' and 'Iron Cross' from Panzerkommandant Von Alfonso.
I picked something out, a good book to read during the Tour. You know, it was quite relaxing. I like history. I don't read things on the internet and look at, you know, the papers because if you read the same thing in the morning, some of it negative, you get angry and upset.
I say what I think so for the race, I really don't bother reading about it after. I read a very good book in the evening, about history or something. I really like it. About the war, with the riders, they start a race they have to be gentlemen. I like how riders, they have to dress well, do a little dance for the ladies. But at kilometer zero, they push a button and they turn into 50 soldiers. No gentlemen's agreement anymore. I think for the riders, it is a battlefield out there. The riders can see all these pictures of you know, people who've broken their hands. It's hard in the morning. somebody is crying, but we have to move and never give up. Keep on fighting. We go to war, we go to attack mode.
I am probably the only one who likes long transfers. The mechanic is driving, and I can read my book. Everybody is whining about the long transfers but say, a 150km transfer, a book like the one I am reading is almost a thousand pages. So, I don't have too much free time, so I might have maybe 1 or 2 hours reading. I have a goal myself to write a book every four years. I am a writer. I wrote four books now. There's another book coming out after I quit cycling. I'll actually stick to it, every four or five years. I will give as gift my next book to Wilfried and Brama. Maybe they don't like it but...they can always have a look at the photos!