Back at the Team Sky hotel in Embrun, Brailsford slept through most of the time trial, waking in time to watch the finish on television. ‘Chris has always been a good time-triallist,’ he said afterwards, ‘that’s where I first saw him, in Melbourne in the Commonwealth Games in 2006, first time I set eyes on him. Nathan O’Neill won that time trial, we had Steve Cummings and the usual suspects. I was there with Doug Dailey and Shane [Sutton]. Shane’s saying [in Brailsford’s best Australian twang], “You’re not going to believe this, some bloke’s turned up in sand shoes, jumped on his bike and look what he’s done. In a pair of ****ing sand shoes!” ‘We all looked and thought bloody hell that guy is impressive. He wasn’t up there, but it was impressive, you know, he caught the eye. And he was completely unknown. And then Doug, being Doug, said, “Ah, I might have a word with him, lads,” they got in touch, and the rest . . . was history really.'.