Saturday 11 August. Germany Welcome to the morgue, that's how one of the members of staff greeted me yesterday when I turned up at the team hotel here in Germany. It was then that the news I had received the previous evening really started to sink in. It was not just a bad dream, it was reality. The Team was finished, how is that possible were the words coming out of most peoples mouths. Shock. Panic etc was the mood of the day. I am sure it will sink in soon enough though, and everybody will try and move on. I for one really want to stay in this line of work as you can all imagine, and have contacted a few teams with that in mind. I am hoping that in the next ten days oe so I will have a good idea if that is possible or not. Until then its knuckle down to it here in Germany, it would be nice to get a result. Later Monday 6 August. Forest Row Its been a week now since the peloton swept onto the Champs Elysees in Paris with Alberto in yellow and the Discovery team on the front with George leading the way. I am pretty sure that George has the record for being on the winning side, this was his 8th, he is some bike rider that's for sure. Of course it has not been all plain sailing. There has been a fair amount of controversy this year, in fact I would say its been the worst ever. Bloody awful. And in the end I think everybody was happy to get out of there. Alberto sealed his win with a great Time Trial ride on the Sat, Cadel pushed him all the way though, and it sure made the rest of the team pretty nervous, not least Lance and Johan who followed him. Lance said that he was "sweating profusely" his words. At around the halfway mark turned to Johan and asked him, "when is he going to start going all out" "he has been from the start" was th reply . Looking back over the three weeks you can see that every second does count, like the day over the Peyresourde when Alberto attacked and dropped Cadel, and as if perfectly planned, latched onto George's back wheel to fly down the descent and take 50 seconds out of Evans. Of course it was the plan to have someone in the break that day, that man was George, and as I said you can always count on him, it was a simular tactic to the one we used when Alberto latched onto Poppo over the top of the Galibier, where there it was also timed to perfection. Yes, we are good, but not that good, then again when you try something it sometimes comes off, and this year the dice rolled in our favour more than once. Maybe I am being to modest. Because this team under the guidance of Johan has won 10 Grand Tours since 99, that also has to be a record. Now all we need is a new sponsor. The word is that it's looking good but until the ink is on the paper its never sure. We had a great party that went on into the early hours, my sore head was testimony to that. Back home in the UK now, next stop Tour of Germany, I leave on Wed for that. So, looking back we had a superb Tour, achieved all our goals and a lot more. I have to mention that great win by Levi in the TT, his first ever Tour stage win, and almost snatching second on GC in the process, in fact he would have been second had it not been for a 10 second penalty he picked up one day for taking a bit of a sling of the team car after a mechanical. Highlights for me? Being out front on the Galibier when Alberto flew by having dropped Evans etc, the look in his eyes then said a lot. Also doing the TT courses on the mornings off. Especially the last and decisive one. It was a hell of a lot of pressure on Alberto's shoulders, but I could see he was very focused and determined, I mean he is just a kid at 24, I know, I am showing my age but he is, and to be out there in the rain riding the course with everything that surrounds a rider in that position, I would not have liked to have been in his shoes. But he did it, and now is riding round Holland at 30G a pop. I would def like that, but you cannot have one without the other. I could go on for hours about how good the boys were. Popo, he was superb, after his poor showing in the Giro he came bouncing back, and was only 30 odd seconds of 6th in GC by the time the race hit Paris. After all the work he had done. I think its a case of Chapeau as the say in France to everybody involved. I just hope that I will be there again next year.

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Professional cyclist for 15 years
12 Tours de France
Tour de France yellow jersey
Tour de France stage winner
Fifth in Paris-Roubaix
Tour of Belgium winner
UK pro road race champion
UK 25 and 50-mile TT champion