After 174.83 kilometers and over 5,000 meters of climbing, Harry crossed the finish line at the summit of the Col de la Loze in 30th place, 28 minutes and 29 seconds down on the winner. If you were watching closely, you saw the tremendous job that Harry did on the road to help Ben Healy keep his top-ten position on the general classification. Harry stuck with Ben and the yellow-jersey group over the Col du Glandon and then paced Ben over the Col de la Madeleine when Ben struggled to go with the G.C. favorites’ attacks. In the valley before the Col de la Loze, he rode a time trial with Ben on his wheel to keep him close to the front of the race.

Harry’s numbers from the stage are enormous. He helped Ben stay in the top ten. This is what it takes to be a domestique at the Tour de France.

“I would say that the consistency of the effort over more than five and a half hours was what was most difficult,” Harry said. “We were pushing high power all day. I had 350 normalised for five hours and 45 minutes or something. It was a hard day out.”

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“I did about 400 for the hour up the Col de la Madeleine, but the start of it was much harder,” Harry said. “You can see in the file that Ben started to blow a bit and then we rode easier. For the most part, it was about 400 the whole way up. I think my best ever 60-minute power was at the start of a stage of the Dauphiné when we started uphill on the Col du Telegraph. This was right up there though and to do it mid stage was harder. Madeleine wasn't actually a problem for me, because I was more pacing Ben than pacing as hard as I could for myself.”

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“Coming into Loze, I did a killer pull into the bottom of the climb, and that's what really finished me off,” Harry said “When Alex came back, I just told him to sit on and save energy as much as he could, so that he could go with Ben for as long as he could on the climb. So, we did pretty much 15 kilometers full gas, between 400 and 500 watts, chasing the yellow jersey ahead. When I hit the bottom, I came to a full stop.”

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“Anytime you sprint out of a corner or anytime you pull on the front, you’re going way above threshold. Every time you hit the front, you're just drilling it basically.”

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“On days that are this hard, it's actually pretty difficult to fuel properly. I ate a lot before the stage. Getting mix and bars is difficult when the car is not there with you. I rode the Col de la Loze alone, which was actually fine. It's kind of nice every now and then to not be in the bunch for a bit. I didn't run out of energy. I still managed to eat enough and did 300 to 330 watts on the way up, just riding my own pace. At this point in the Tour, I can do 330 watts all day. Afterwards, I had to try to eat as much as I could for dinner. I think I had 700 grams of pasta and 400 grams of apple crumble. I was just cramming it in.”

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“Basically, the only things you can do for Ben on a day like Stage 18 is keep him cool and make sure you don't ride him off the wheel,” Harry said. “There were a few times where I could really see that he was overheating: his head starts to turn a bit and then he starts to crack, so I went back and got as much water as I could for him. It was interesting, actually, the higher we got up Madeleine, the higher our power got, because it was getting cooler and cooler, which is actually a bit counterintuitive with the altitude. It just goes to show how big of a difference keeping cool and hydrated makes for him.”

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