March 29 2006, Forest Row, Sussex Sussex CA Two-up 25.8 march 11th - the day that I took a right pasting from Richard Prebble. It was the first time since I started cycling (that's a long time ago) that I have not been able to pull my weight in this type of event, indeed in the past it has always been my favourite discipline, whether it be the Team Time Trial in the TDF handing out the pain to Lance and the rest of the team or the local chipper. Not on this day though. Part of my problem was that I had been playing with my position, I think most of you will have seen pictures of Floyd Landis recently in his TT position, he has used it to good effect in the races he has ridden this year. I believe they call it the preying mantis position. Anyway, after studying the pictures on the Internet it was obvious that it is extremely aero. So what do I do, yes I go and try it. Although it was nowhere as extreme as the original it still felt pretty strange. And I had reservations about using it in the two-up with Richard, but I figured, what the hell, a little bit of extra pain never hurt anybody. If I had known just how much extra pain it would cause me then I would definitely not have used it, because I am telling you, I was deep in the chamber of hurt (as a TV commentator in the US would describe riders who were suffering in the Tour of California) for 58 minutes and 21 seconds. That was the time it took us to set a new course record and win the event by nearly six minutes. I had plenty of time while sat on Richard's back wheel to be impressed by his good form, he has trained hard for this upcoming season, and I predict that he will win a few medals at various national championships this year. Another thing I was thinking was, blow that Tour of the Reservoir race that I am supposed to be riding the following weekend, I should just give it a miss and play football instead. Talking of which, every Saturday I am free there is no game, its infuriating. But, as I thought that most of my problem in the two-up was the fact that I thought I could be Floyd Landis, I wanted to prove to myself that I was better than that. So, on the Monday it was a seven hour ride. I felt good. Back in the game. Tour of the Reservoir. Edmundbyers, Co Durham march 24th, my first big road race in the UK since I rode the National RR champs in 02. I travelled up on the Friday to give myself plenty of time to recover from what was a bit of a nightmare drive on the M1. I had a nice ride with the very kind people that I was staying with to a local cafe on Saturday morning, then put my feet up in the afternoon, just like a real pro. The race itself was a hard one for me, there was to be no hiding in the bunch, it was balls to the wall from the get go. I really wanted to finish this one so I had to be careful not to go too deep to early, which meant by the time I wanted to start hurting myself the race had disappeared up the road. Not to worry, I got in a good group and managed to make it in the end, with my placing of 29th reflecting my capabilities at this level. I was happy with that. The winner was Ben Greenwood from the Recycling.co.uk squad. He looks like a rider who could go places. With that type of race out of my system for a while its back to TT's in the southeast. This coming weekend I have a three-up TT with my brother and my former hero Eddie Atkins, in fact he is still my hero, volunteering himself at 57 years of age for that kind of punishment, he must be mad. Having suffered at the hands of Richard will definitely make me be sympathetic to them if they are hurting. My next trip with the Discovery boys will be down to the Tour of Pays Basque, from there it will be on to Paris-Roubaix. The news regarding the team is good, with Leif Hoste taking the first stage of the Three days of De Panne yesterday, he is in the leaders jersey as well. And the team having won this race for the last two years will want to go for the the repeat. So with Flanders and Roubaix looming things are shaping up. Roger Hammond is having some good rides, George is looking good and motivated. Popo won the TT in Castille Leon, where we also won the team classification, we are leading the team classification in the Pro Tour. So, all in all things are looking good. OK, until next time. Sean Wednesday March 15, Forest Row, Sussex It's Wednesday the 15th and I am back in the UK. My last diary entry took you up to the stage in Paris-Nice where we arrived in Saint Etienne. On that day the race was virtually decided with Floyd Landis stamping his authority on the race. He had just come over from the States were he had done the same in the Tour of California, so him and his team knew what they had to do. The next stage that took us down from Saint Etienne to Orange turned out to be another Boonen benefit, according to the team masseur who was watching the race at the hotel. Tom dropped his chain, stopped to put it back on and still managed to win by five lengths, I have told him a million times not to exaggerate, but there you go. The next stage promised to be a bit more exciting, and it was. Flat out from the start, a strong tailwind making everybody feel like supermen. Phonak were happy to let the breaks go providing there was no one who was dangerous there. Eventually the right combination formed and they were allowed to go, with Joaquim Rodriguez from Caisse d' Epargne-Illes Balears soloing away over the last climb into Digne les Baines to victory, behind in the bunch CSC tried to tear it up, with Frank Schleck looking really strong, but unable to worry Landis. On this stage we lost Benjamin Noval with a torn muscle in his thigh, not good, but he will get back on the road soon, because we need him. We have already lost Jurgen van Goolen and Billy Bileka for the first half of the year, we don't want any more absentees. We were getting nearer to the Cote, and the weather was looking up. Saturdays stage took us to Cannes over roads that I knew like the back of my hand. I actually got to go up front to follow what turned out to be the stage winning break, we had Popo in there, but he is a long way from his top form, especially as after the training camp he had a knee problem which meant he had to have some time off. But he gave it his best shot, and hung on until the last climb of the day the Tanneron where Liberty's new signing Andrei Kashechkin took off to take a well earned win. Our boys hung on well with Roger Hammond riding really well and earning the praise of the boss Johan Bruyneel. The Phonak team of Landis were never in any trouble, and rode, despite having lost a couple of riders on the stage to Saint Etienne. Which just leaves the last stage, at this point we were still leading the team classification by 15 seconds from Lampre, and our goal was to keep it like that, but on the day we had to settle for second, just 3 seconds behind winners, Lampre. They had Eugeni Petrov in a move which we could not bring back, the stage went to Marcus Zberg from the Gerolsteiner team, it was exciting stuff, apparently the TV coverage has been good back in the UK, so if you have been watching you have probably seen more than me, although I did drive the first car on the last stage, Johan said he felt a bit cream crackered. The weather back here seems ok, I am looking forward to my next race, a two-up with Richard Prebble this coming Sunday. Although I am not really sure what my form will be like. Because at this time of year it does not get light until around 7 in the morning out in France so my rides have been pretty short, that and the bad weather have not helped. I have been running a few times as well, in the full Gunners kit, some people have looked at me as if asking themselves "do I know that player" I wish. OK, keep pedaling Saturday, March 11, Paris-Nice Sorry for the delay on this entry, it's taken three days for the race to liven up, and therefore inspire me to get my act together. First off, the weather has been totally crap, freezing, wet and miserable. This has not really helped, but we are moving slowly south, so hopefully things will look up. Ok. The prologue was won by Bobby Julich who did not get to Europe until the Thursday from the USA and the Tour of California. He really came out with a ride. Bradley Wiggins did a good ride coming in seventh at five seconds, his mechanic said that he was hurting on the climb, otherwise he was really good. I took the prize for the cock up of the day. We had made quite a few reference spots on the course so that we could give time checks. Up until Roger Hammond went the best time from a rider from Discovery was from Jose (the Ace) Azevedo. So off we went. Roger really went out of the blocks, two seconds up at the first check, he looked like he was flying. Three seconds at the second check, he just kept on gaining, we were getting excited, he was on for a new best time. I had told him when he was on the start ramp his mission for the day was to get the prize for the first Brit, and the way he was riding it looked like he would take that prize, into the last km, sprinting out of the corners, he looked good. Finish line and the time went up, shock horror, the time given was about 25 seconds slower than we thought he was on, but my watch also said the same, after scratching my head for a minute or so I realised I had been referring to the time of Jason McCartney who went off before Roger, and whose split times were directly above those of Roger. Jason was sick, so had not posted a good time. Embarrassing or what. Johan was taking the mick for the next six hours. I won't make that mistake again in a hurry. The first two stages were taken by Tom Boonen who without Pettachi here is in another league when it comes to bunch finishes, his team are really on the ball and know what they have to do, impressive. Stage three which finished in Saint Etienne was the first sort-out stage, the weather was really bad at the start, around four degrees and wet. I went out in the morning for 1.5 hours and got frozen, I climbed a bit and there was snow everywhere. Luckily the route was fairly flat at the beginning, and as they headed south it cleared up a bit. but they really went from the gun, there were guys throwing in the towel left right and centre. All our guys were looking good, it all came down to a showdown on the last climb of the day, the Col de la Croix, at 15km long it really sorted out the men from the boys. Floyd Landis confirmed the good form he showed in California and took off some 4km from the top, in the company of a Lampre rider, Patxi Villa - never heard of him. Villa took the stage win and Floyd the jersey, they finished a minute-thirty up on the nearest chasers, we had the Ace there in 11th and Jose (Chechu) Rubiera 7th Vladimir (the Goose) Gusev was not far behind in 15th place. This strong team performance meant we took the lead in the team classification, it showed that on the whole we are in good shape. We have got a few more stages before we get to my old stomping ground Nice, I think we would all like to get a stage win, it will not be easy, but we will certainly be trying. PS. A note to all those who have mailed me saying how much they are liking my site, many thanks. Sean March 1st, Forest Row, Sussex It's Wednesday, I got back from the Tour of California yesterday. It's a little bit colder here than it was out there. I got a four hour ride in today, I figured it's better to get straight back into it. I felt pretty rough, this going backwards and forwards across the Atlantic is not good for the body, mind you, getting a bit worse for wear on Sunday night probably did not help, especially as we had to get up at 6 am on the Monday to do some filming with the Discovery Channel. Looking back at the race it turned out well for us with the two stage wins and the jersey for a day. It's not only the results that we are happy about, it's the fact that everybody was in good shape, for example, the day that George won into Santa Barbara we had seven riders in the front group of thirty, it means that everybody has put the work in this winter. There was not a lot to report regarding the last two stages, they were both bunch finishes with the T-Mobile rider Pollack coming out on top . I did not go in the car on Saturday because Lance turned up and wanted to follow the race, so I rode the stage instead, it was good, there was quite a steep climb that we did not know about, so I was able to phone up Johan and warn him about it. It was the first time that Lance had been in a team car in a race and by all accounts he was a bit shocked by how dangerous it feels back behind the bunch - you can probably imagine he would not make the best passenger. Next up is Paris-Nice, I leave Friday early because all the teams are meeting with the TDF organization to discuss stuff about this years Tour, then in the afternoon we meet amongst ourselves. I am taking my bike on this trip and hope to get a few rides in. As for the race I think everybody is hoping that the weather will be kinder than it was last year. They have changed the route so we skip out the massif centrale, that is were we had the problems last year, because it's all 1000 meters plus it gets pretty damn cold, and any snow that falls settles. The team will be hoping to continue as they have started, I will let you know how we get on. 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