He expected to be near the back of the field, good effort even to start:-
"Don't expect me to be anywhere other than near the back of the field, especially during the early miles of stage one. Hopefully I will be able to use my experience to work my way through. My target for CP1 will be sub 18 hours and if I get to CP2 Hawes inside of 55 hours after having some reasonable sleep, I will be going well. CP1 in more than 19 hours and CP2 Hawes outside of 56 hours and I will be struggling."