Dust, motor bikes, car horns, rubbish bags, mountainous rolling country, all sites and sounds of Palermo, Sicily. The host city of the start of this years Giro d’Italia.

Arriving at Palermo airport on Wednesday brought back all the same feelings of nerves, excitement, anticipation, and the unknown that I felt last year when I arrive at the start of my first Grand Tour. There is a special feeling in air that is hard to explain at the depart of such an enormous event, where you do battle for an entire three weeks with 200 of the world best cyclists. There will be friendships and companions made as you fight for survival in the unforgiving Dolomite’s, and team mates you will have to be prepared to defend and support when things aren’t going so well. They are all just parts of a Grand Tour.

Over the next three weeks I will do my best let you know the news from the peloton and how it feels to be part of it. Some days could well be breif as the fatigue sets in but will see how go.

From a fitness point of view I am feeling pretty good and hope the form will continue to improve. My leg injury from last years race is still plaguing me a bit, and I have had countless acupuncture needles, massages and stretching sessions to counter it but who knows how it will react to the racing ahead. Fingers x’d it won’t flare up but we will take it day by day.

Yesterday we had the team presentation in the centre of Palermo, crowed with passionate Italian fans waiting to see their heroes on stage. The noise as Paolo Bettini descended from his team bus was quite something, you realise this is a big deal here.

Ok I am off to recharge my batteries with a good nights sleep before kick off tomorrow. I hope enjoy the next few weeks reading as I venture into unknown territory of a three weeks bike.

Tim

Pics below, team out training, Palermo center, heading to presentation stage, my room mate Jussi with an excited Italian fan

The final two days definitely brought the toughest parcours of the race, even though the distances weren’t too long.  Along with the first real heat of the season it made the giant Swiss cols even more difficult.

 Stage five was shortened from 122km to 112km due a landslide on the 3rd category 1 climb of the day.  When I first heard this I thought it would be quite nice missing out another 5km of climbing, but in reality it just made time cut at the end of the day shorter, damm it.

 Anyway the stage was as hard if not harder than expected, as I found myself along with quite a few others off the back after only 3km, now this doesn’t help the head when you know there are still four mountain passes to go.  It ended up being a very long day though over a relatively short distance.  I rolled across the line almost half an hour behind the winner, completely exhausted with sweaty salt crystals all over my face as the heat of the day had really taken its toll and sensations of cramp weren’t far away.

The final day have one really difficult obstacle early on which came in the form of the Col de moss.  A 20km col after just 10km of racing and as we hit the climb the previous days racing hadn’t seem to dampen the legs of the climbers at all.  Though for me my day was to be cut quite short when one of my team mates and strong climber, Remi Di Gregorio broke a spoke in his back wheel I pulled to give him my wheel as the team car was already along way behind as the not quite so strong climbers were already well behind.  So Remi got on his way I waited for a wheel and then took off in chase of the last group on the road, but this would become a tougher task than I had imagined and I was a long way behind as the front of the race attacked the mountain at a frantic pace.  I ended up getting in the team car after only 28kph of racing though this had taken me a whole hour due to vicous gradient of the climb.

 So it wasn’t the best end to the tour for me but with what I have ahead of me in the next month with the Giro, its not really a big loss.  By 9pm last night I was back home in Albi to grab a quick pizza with Pete and Sally before my bed was calling my name for a good night shut eye.  With just two days at home before leaving first thing on Wednesday morning for Sicily I am in full recovery mode to try prepare the body for the next month of intensity, suffering, battling, sweating, and hopefully at the same time enjoying racing around Italy.

Ok I’m off for an easy hour ride before hitting the couch for the afternoon.

 Back soon, cheers

 Tim

Today I am writing from Seil, a small city perched in a valley of the Swiss Alps which tower above it on either side. Four days into the Tour de Roamandie and the real GC contenders are starting to appear at the front of the race after today’s 18km time trial. With a different format to last year it looks like the race will decided tomorrow on a short but super difficult mountain stage.

I started the tour hoping to gain some good form for the Giro, and so far the mountainous Swiss roads have definitely been helping that goal. I have spent most of my time here so far protecting and helping where I can my teams two leaders for the race, Sandy Carsar and Jussi Veikkanen. Who are both riding really well and sitting in the top 20 after the TT today. Though tomorrow with surely bring the biggest test of the race.

Day one here really took its toll on me, with an average of 5degress, rain for 4 1/2 of the 5hrs and numerous short steep cols my body really had to find some reserves just to finish the day. Wrapped in a rain coat all day long your body has to work a lot harder just keep turning. Today I really felt those heavy legs in the time trial, though a 5km climb with sections of 17% didn’t help either. So it was more of a procession for me today than a race, but a good exercise at the same time.

To another story that is forever plauging cycling these days, doping. I was thinking to myself a couple of days ago that we are really starting to see a change here in professional cycling. They are all sorts of changes though, as we seem to be coming out of the gloomy days of the past few years, the peloton of today is sure paying the price in a way for what some have done to the sport in the past.

What I mean by this is things like the ADAMS Whereabouts program which the pro peloton is obliged to fill in 365days of the year so they can located and tested wherever they may be. I am all for it, if it is what it takes clear out the cheaters, but many of us do the slight imprisonment it gives us in our daily lives.

After finishing my prologue on Tuesday night at 6.50pm, I rode back to the hotel, had a massage, ate dinner and then put my feet up to rest at around 10pm. Though not feeling like sleeping after such a late race didn’t turn out the light until 12pm. Not to worry though as Wednesdays stage wouldn’t start until 1pm, so a sleep in was possible. Well so I thought. Not today, as a knock on my door at 7am by my director saying the drug testers were down stairs and it was our turn. Once again this can only be a good thing, but in a way I did feel like I was paying for what others had done before me.

Today we did here some interesting new though, as the UCI announced they have done over 2000 drug test on the professional peloton already this year, and only have 5 under question. As a percentage this has to be a good sign, and real proof they are fighting this problem head on.

Ok well its time for me to go and get some well needed rest and hopefully I nice wee sleep in as we have another 1pm kick off from just outside our hotel tomorrow.

Below are a few pics, the scenic Swiss country side, heading off for a little TT reconnaissance, and me warming up for today’s TT.

Back soon

Tim