29 July 2006, Amsterdam Hi, I am sitting here in Amsterdam airport having missed my connecting flight to Hamburg, were I am going for the HEW Classic, a world cup event. Its always the same when flying, everything is late, its a joke. The reason I am flying instead of driving is I only had a few days at home after the Tour, and Hamburg is a long drive. Plus I wanted to ride a 10 this morning. I did that, had an early start. Felt good but did not really go that fast, 20.13, Paul Mill beat me, he did a 19.56, Chris my brother was 3rd with a 20.37. After the race in Hamburg I go straight to the Tour of Germany which starts in Dusseldorf on Tuesday. It was a hard race last year, not sure what its like this time round, I know it goes into Austria so its bound to be pretty lumpy, we will see. Ok, back to the Tour. What a disaster. If the positive test result that Landis gave is confirmed then it will just be the worst Tour ever. What a nightmare for the biggest bike race there is. Its been all over the news, and that's just in the UK. Of course I was impressed with Floyd's riding, I thought he deserved his win. Ok, a lot of people asked questions after his fantastic ride to Morzine, especially after having such a bad day on the stage before. But for me he just ran out of gas, got dehydrated. Its not impossible to feel super after a day like that. If he is busted though for sure people will really question super rides in the future, its just bad news all round basicaly. During most of the last week of the Tour I was riding with VIP's and Lance, that was great fun, especially when he dropped me going up the Alpe, mind you I had been on my bike for six hours already, so I was excused. Lance brought along one of his friends, Jake Jillinghall, one of the cowboys from the film Brokeback Mountain, he was a great laugh, and was riding ok, I think he is going to play Lance in the movie. Lance is trying to keep in shape because he is doing the New York marathon, he seemed pretty fit to me. Re the Discovery Team. It was a tough one. But all credit to the boys, because on every stage after the Pyrenees they were in the breaks, it only paid off once, when Popo won into Carcassone. But it showed that they had character, its not easy switching roles like that, a whole different mindset. I think it was good for us in the long run to be brought down to earth and see the race from the other side of the fence. As for next year, for sure we have to be good. We have signed Leiphiemer with that in mind. With most of the rest under some sort of suspician who knows what's going to happen. We will see. Till next time. Sean Tuesday 18th July , Alpe du Huez The Tour feels like its pretty much over already, certainly for our team. Since I last wrote in its been a mixed bag. In the Pyrenees we took a right pasteing, then we had two guys stop, Noval and Salvodelli. But that bad period was followed up by a win from Popo, in fact it was on the same day that they packed. I reckon that has to be some kind of record. Anyway that was a great day for me and Craig the mechanic We had a good feeling from the start. Because the last time me and him were behind a break in the Tour in the same area we won the stage, that was in 03 on the stage from Gap to Marseille when I was with CSC and Jacob Piil outsprinted Fabio Sachi. Although it was not a sure thing that he would win because Oscar Friere was in the 4 man move as well. But Popo is such a fighter, he just kept on attacking until he got away, that was about 3 km out, it is a great feeling being behind, watching it live, on the tv, shouting down the mike, great. The boys were obviously very happy, it lifted them all. That set the scene for the next few stages, but there was not further wins, even though the guys did make the moves they came up short. By the time we hit the Alpes I had left the team and was staying at the Alpe du Huez with a few VIP's. We had some great rides, including one were I rode up the Galibier, back down, up the Alpe, back down then back up with Lance and Kevin Livingstone. That was really fun, but by that time I had been on the bike for around six hours and I really suffered trying to stay with them, I eventually got popped at about 4 to go, then I started seeing stars, and it was bloody hot. Anyway it was just fantastic to see all the fans hanging out and having a good time, its like the Daytona Beach of cycling. The amount of camper vans is amazing, all this stuff you never really see when you are racing. Ok, as I said it seems like the Tour is almost over, but I am hoping that we can get another good result before we hit Paris. Fingers crossed. Tour de France, end of week one, 9 July The first week is done and I am now on my way down to Bordeaux for the rest day tomorrow. The week has gone pretty fast. There has been a bunch finish every day except one, that was the hilltop finish in Holland were Kessler took a great solo win. Robbie Mcewen has been the man to beat here with 3 stage wins. Tom Boonen has not really been in the game and the word is out that he is not happy about it. Although he has had the yellow jersey for a few days. On the Discovery Team everything had been running very smoothly. We were keeping a very low profile, no real problems to report. So when we rolled up at the start line yesterday for the 52 km TT we thought that we would come away with some good results and therefore a few guys high up in the overall classification. Everybody did the normal ride around the course in the morning training ride and no problems were reported. In the race I followed Popovych whose form of late has been a bit suspect so we were not 100% sure that he would be good. As it turned out he was not too bad, it was a question of damage limitation really, and he managed that well. I think we all thought that George would be right up there, certainly his form in TT's this year indicated that would be the case. In the morning on the way to look at the course I asked him how he felt, I asked him if he was nervous. He said that he was a bit. Normally a TT was a rest day for him because having ridden in the wind for a week keeping Lance out of it he needed it. Now he was in Lance's place, that is quite a responsibility I think. Anyway in the race itself it just did not happen for him. He just lost time all the way round to lose around 3 minutes to the winner Honchar of the T-Mobile team who really packed them in at the top of the result board. Honchar's average speed of 50.5 was amazing for the course. The gears he was pushing, unreal. I think he must have only averaged around 65 rpm for the duration, the complete opposite style to Lance. Many of the other favourites also lost time though, so we were not the only team that came away disappointed. With the rest day in front of us hopefully we can regroup and recoup before the two hard stages in the Pyrenees happen. There we will see were we stand. I will keep you posted on how we fair. Sean Tour de France, Tuesday 4 July After the down of missing out by so little in the prologue it was fantasic for George to get his hands on that yellow jersey, even if it was only for one day. Obviously it would have been nice to keep it for a few more, but you can't have it all. The way I look at it is that it panned out the way it did because George has put in 12 years of hard graft and it was time for some reward. Anyway, the sprinters have to have some glory as well. And nobody can deny that Thor did not deserve to get it back. As for the rest of the team, it all looks good. Everything is running smoothly for the moment. We are a well drilled outfit with lots of experience and savy. We are definitely ready. The next big rendevous is the individual TT of 50 km or so which is happening this coming Sat. Then we will see who has the juice. In the meantime its let the rest take the strain, and the glory. Since the start in Strasbourg it has been really hot, and the stages have been pretty long. So although they have been pretty flat on the whole there will be guys who are starting to feel it pretty soon. Until next time. Sean Strasbourg, 1 July , Tour de France I said it was going to be rough, and it sure was. Now the race is underway though, and Rooney has just been sent off. Disaster. Sorry about that, yes the race is underway and we oh so nearly had the perfect start with George coming in 2nd, just behind Thor Hushoved of the Credit Agricole team. It was a case of so near yet so far for George. But 2nd is a fantastic result and he has shown to the team that he is ready. I said in January that he would be our best hope for the overall, and I still believe that. In fact I tried to put money on him yesterday, but all betting had been suspended, and now I bet the odds on him have gone right down. The big news is obviously the exclusion of Basso Ulrich and company. Obviously its a huge blow to cycling, and it seems that we are always taking the hits, but we have to live with that and get on with things. Its definitely changed the way the race will unfold. Hopefully it will be an exciting and action packed Tour. Fingers crossed. Back

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