You don’t even start to think about doing the hour record unless you’re prepared to really put yourself through the ringer.

You’ll wake up on the morning of the hour record knowing it’s the hardest thing you’re going to do, because you’re going to make it that hard, and there’s no possibility of it being an easy cruise day. Riders self-select themselves for the hour record.

Often riders will have mental techniques they can use to go elsewhere during the ride and the body has a way of going into auto-pilot and self-monitoring, so you can almost drift off and occasionally just come back and check in. I was the same and I didn’t realise that wasn’t the way that everybody did it. I’d start a time trial, settle in and start to think about shopping or something, so you could just get on and do it.

It’s head for three quarters, and heart for the last quarter. If you put that the other way around then you’re doomed, look at Jack Bobridge’s attempt. You really have to have your emotions in check at the start. In Bradley’s case, apart from the 2016 Olympic Games it’s one of the very last big events that he will do, so he’s going to need to keep on top of that.

Physcological and physiological barriers come and go, so the first ten minutes or so of the hour is free. That’s a little bit tongue in cheek but you’re full of adrenaline so it feels free. Twenty minutes is a bit scary because you’re starting to feel it and you’ve still got most of the hour ahead of you. After half-an-hour you start to feel like you’re on the way home, then five minutes later you begin to realise there’s still a hell of a long way to go and you’re up shit creek. With 15 minutes to go you either know that you’re doing it, and it all begins to get quite euphoric, or it’s quite depressing I suppose. I never had the depressing bit.

Chris Boardman was speaking to RoadCyclingUK at the launch of Aviva’s sponsorship of the Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour