'Dario slid off the road, landing flat on his back beside a tree'

Philip Deignan's Vuelta a Espana diary - Stage 19: Salvaterra de Miño - Cangas de Morrazo (180.5km)

Adam Hansen breaks away from the peloton in the closing kilometres to take stage 19 of the Vuelta a espana. Photo: JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images

Philip Deignan

After three weeks on a Grand Tour, meal times can sometimes become as much a chore as the stages themselves.

Even though we have a team chef on the race with us and our food is always freshly cooked and well presented, it gets to the stage where you are really just eating for the sake of eating, stuffing your face to get enough fuel into you for the day, and there's no enjoyment in it any more.