I just got back from the tour in France. The first 2 days I was only a passenger in what I reckon was the Concorde... man, there is a lot of fellas without a contract for next season so there were so many attacks and the speed was so high. I knew that the first couple of days I would be in trouble and I kept telling myself just to hang in there and use it for training for Sept.

The second stage rocked�. not only did I get some of my bonus from last season. Robert Sassone from Cofidis also won the stage. Now this guy is a hammer. He said to me the day before that tomorrow he is on and that he will win. We were in the last group at 20mins so we could laugh!

The 3rd stage I felt like I was back on top of things. This time having great legs�. flying. I was active right throughout the whole 180km stage. I tried so hard, went with so many attacks but nothing stuck, and it came down to a sprint. I tried to lead out my sprinter. Well with a km to go, I was in 3rd position but then as per normal the jostling started and I didn't have the balls to stay up the front. Neither did my sprinter, he was complaining about how dangerous it was and he is a madman!

We had a tt the next day. Hard 20km course. I had a solid ride. Well I wasn't exactly 100% motivated for it but I gave it a nudge. I finished in 30th position, actually felt not bad�but a tt is a tt and if you feel 'not bad' then you haven't gone hard enough. Ha!

Last stage was a 100km road stage. Pretty easy stage apart from the last 30km where the pace was full tit. I felt super strong again and as we had a local boy going well (even though he cracks me) our team decided to set him up for a last min attack up the finishing climb. So I led him out and rode my ass off for him�.he had a dig but got swamped�ha. But then our other sprinter/strongman finished 3rd so that was a nice way to finish off the tour.

Now I am off to Poland for a 7 day tour. Feeling good, hoping to ride well�.we'll see.