How fantastic to be back in mid-Wales. I lived near Aberystwyth for a while and had a good time there, so I’m always pleased to come back. Having said that, we stayed in Llanidloes last night (so we can be much closer to the stages on the recce) and it’s fair to say, not much goes on there.

I know the area pretty well and a few of the stages. Obviously it’s been a while since we were on those roads in good conditions – unlike the snow and ice of last year – so doing the recce in Hafren, Sweet Lamb and Myherin was great. Sweet Lamb in particular is going to be a really good stage – there are so many spectating opportunities in the place, it’ll be rocking when we get there on Friday!

Just when we were starting to think the Indian summer might last a little bit longer, the weather reminded us we were in Wales; the rain arrived at lunchtime on Tuesday. And it poured down. And the mist came down. It was pretty miserable. In those kind of conditions you really have to focus on the notes. If the fog and the mist is around, the notes are even more important than ever – they can guide you perfectly.

One of the sections of stages I really enjoyed was the start of Myherin. The start is really wide with a series of hairpins, built for the massive trucks to take the wind turbines up to the top of the hill. Anyway, these corners are so wide, you don’t need the handbrake – we’ll just be chucking the C4 at the apex with a big Scandinavian flick and a load of second-gear throttle. It’s going to be fantastic – I can’t wait!