TOUR DIARY:  After all the bad luck and frustrations we've had to date, yesterday lifted the pressure – and our spirits, writes DANIEL MARTIN

AFTER THE crashes and the setbacks for our team, after the withdrawals of our team leader Ryder Hesjedal and last year’s top 10 finisher Tom Danielson, yesterday was finally a bit of a breakthrough for our Garmin-Sharp team. The sun finally came out from behind the cloud for us, with David Millar making it into the day’s early break, then getting his strategy just right in the end before winning a two-man sprint to the line.

David is one of the most tactically-aware guys in the bunch and as soon as we had him in the early break, I had a feeling that he was going to win. He is such an experienced rider and the fact that he was still there after the two really hard climbs, staying with some strong climbers in the break, showed that he was on a really good day.

There were five of them still together towards the end, going for the stage win. Inside the last couple of kilometres David slipped clear with the Frenchman Jean-Christophe Péraud, who is the team-mate of my cousin Nicolas Roche. He did things perfectly before the line, doing just enough work to keep them away but not so much as to tire himself out, and he won the sprint to take the stage. David is such a classy rider and he definitely showed the younger guys how to do it.

The stage win was an incredible moment for the team, particularly after all the hardships that we have been through. We’ve had a load of bad luck in this race but we never let the morale die; we are always laughing and joking and keeping our spirits up, despite the adversity.

We’ve also been working hard to turn things around. After all the riders tried to get in the winning move in the past few days, David pulled it off yesterday. Hopefully that will get the ball rolling now and we’ll all take inspiration from that.

The team was under a lot of pressure to have a good Tour. This was partly because we won the Giro d’Italia and also because we had such a good Tour last year, and expectations were high coming into the race. There was also a lot of pressure as our new sponsor Sharp came on board just before the start of the Tour.

We all wanted to ride well, yet the first week was a bit of a disaster because of the crashes.

Every team is here to try to win a stage, but the fact is that not every team can do that. That said, we were confident that we had a good group of riders who were capable of winning, so we just kept working hard with that goal in mind.

Obviously once you break the duck, it does take the pressure off and can make the next win easier to get. With one under our belts now, we are in a really good situation. There are still eight days to go and we still have opportunities to get another one. We are just going to enjoy this one for now.

So, given that we are on a race like the Tour, you might wonder what we do to celebrate when we take a stage? We can’t go too wild as there’s a stage the next day, so normally we will just have a bottle of champagne. It is important to celebrate, so we’ll have that treat. We get a quick drink, then we get focused on being ready for the next day.

Today’s stage looks like it could well come down to a sprint. It’s much flatter than the previous days and while our sprinter Tyler Farrar had a really tough day yesterday, he’s feeling a bit better after his crashes and might look at going for it today. For me, the priority is to relax as much as possible, conserve energy and get ready for tomorrow’s stage. It’ll be similar to yesterday, with the profile of the stage suggesting that a breakaway will make it to the finish.

We’ll see how I feel for that one. Unfortunately my health still isn’t right and after feeling a bit better on Thursday’s stage and getting in the big break, things were a step back again yesterday. My chest was tight again and it was pretty hard to breathe. The start of the stage was horrifically hard, the bunch averaging 56 kilometres per hour in the first 20 kilometres, and it was a question of surviving as well as possible.

Towards the end, the run-in to the finish was really dangerous with all the roundabouts and road furniture. I eased back as there was no reason to dig in and suffer just to hold a few minutes. I was still recovering after being in the break the day before so it was all about conserving energy.

We’ll see how tomorrow goes; if I’m feeling better, I’ll aim to get into the break and try again to do something on a stage. After David’s success, the pressure has lifted and we are all motivated to do what we can.

Twitter: @DanMartin86