Well it sure was a shock to the system arriving back in Europe after the great weather we have had at home this summer.  On Sunday I was racing round the streets of Adelaide in 40 degree heat and by Tuesday I was out training in Paris where it wasn’t any more than about 3 degrees windy and drizzling. 

Going from one extreme to another and with a slight lack of sleep due to travel I could feel straight away I was heading down hill, and sure enough a couple days later a cold sets in.  So it’s onto the vit c and garlic to try and brush it of before the next race. 

Thursday morning we had team presentation before I was on the plane back to Albi to make home again for the year at 16 rue d’empeyralots.  The presentation is the like the official start to the teams year and with a huge room mainly full of journalists it got underway with Christophe Blanchard-Dignac the President-Directeur Général of la Française des Jeux explaining the history of the team, its successes in 2007 and what it aims to achieve in 2008.  He also mentioned that La Francaise de Jeux has the youngest average age in the Pro Tour, something Director Sportif Marc Madiot is very proud of.   Madiot was introduced, as us the riders waited back stage in casual style chatting and pretending to read newspapers.  I was quite cool really, a formal introduction but in a relaxed style.    A day earlier Madiot had asked if you would do the haka at the end of the presentation of all the riders, I was quite reserved about doing in the tight white lycra but when he put me on the spot after introducing the riders I didn’t have much choice.  So I explained to the room this haka is to set the challenge to the other teams of the professional peloton in 2008, and so it was I ripped into a haka to finish proceedings and entertain the audience.   I will post some photos asap though you may have already seen them. Back soon   Tim 

This years Tour Down Under like last years edition came down to the wire with the overall, points jersey and teams classification all still up for grabs.   For La Francaise des Jeux we were leading the team’s classification and were dead keen to hold onto it for one last day.  With four teams actually on the same time it was finish positions in the final sprint that would count, so at least three of us had to fight till the end. 

It was a furious 90km around the streets of Adelaide as the race averaged 48kph, and no break away was able to get to far as the bonus seconds at primes and the finish would decide the races overall winner.   The final sprint was absolute chaos really riders going left and right though somehow there were no crashes.  We managed to get three of us in the top 25 and that was enough to secure the teams classification, which really toped of a great week and a great way to start the season.  Phil Gilbert also took home the King of the Mountains jersey which added to the success.  Having Mum and Dad there too, to see me in the podium with the team made it that little more special as they hadn’t even seen me race professional before and here I was on a Pro Tour podium. 

Next up for me was is Tour of Mallorca so will report on that soon and add some photos to these posts Thanks for reading 

Tim