It’s a fight for the riders to arrive at the bottom with the vanguard and, short of the final 10km of a Tour sprint stage, this is where cycling is a contact sport where only those with the fiercest determination survive.

The TV motorbikes do a great job bringing this action to the screen as the approaches to the climbs are often along narrow country lanes, twisting and impacted with
clods of earth from tractors.

The camera bikes, if they have got through the peloton after the previous climb, race to the
hill and then stop wherever there’s a gap in the crowd, pulling the bike into the verge as tight
as possible.

The Tiger is tall and heavy, it’s impossible to push more than a couple of metres up an incline and you cannot lean it against you too far as it will win a gravity contest hands down and pin you to the ground. You have to lean it over because if the peloton can ride up the shallow concrete gutters at the very edge of the cobbles they will and they don’t appreciate having to dodge wing mirrors and panniers. That is one of the reasons why the photo motos never use wide touring panniers or fairing mounted mirrors.

After the race has hammered through with the team cars hot in pursuit it’s crucial to get going as quickly as possible, picking up the photographer and working your way back though the cars to the rear of the race as soon as possible. Only then can you plan another overtake to continue leap-frogging the bunch to the next climb.

I am having to slip the clutch a lot on the hills as we crawl up with the team cars behind riders who are dropped, punctured or just in the way. The BMW’s can be ridden smoothly on trickle of throttle but not the British bike, and it’s chain drive makes it jerkier too.

When the road opens up and we have to pass groups of riders as quickly as possible the Tiger’s superior power makes overtakes a lot less of a gamble and even through corners with the field just behind it really hauls from the apex.

We get shots of Gilbert’s escape from the bunch and after he bridges to the break, of his attack on a flat section of cobbles as he continued his epic solo to bag a Merckx-style victory in Ghent. All told it’s a fun first day back on the bike and great to play a small part in a good days work for the governor. I am on the road to Calais and home for supper by 8pm UK time.