May 27 Giro 07 , Giro d'Italia Well. What can I say. You can't win them all I guess would be a good place to start. Here I am heading up to the start of stage 15 which goes from Trento to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, it looks like its the toughest so far, and with the race far from over its going to be a war out there. One things for sure, it should make for good tv viewing. Its going to be tough for our guys. We are without a GC riders since the stage to Briancon when Poppo went home. He was suffering from both a sore knee and a sore back after crashing at the finish of stage 11. That was when half of the bunch came down on the finish line, because it had started to rain and there was some kind of plastic on the road, not really a clever move by the organisers. Chechu also had a bad day on the stage to Briancon, I had thought he was able to make a top 10 GC placing, I was wrong. So, from here to Milan its a question of surviving, a rest day tomorrow should help. I have not ruled out a stage win yet though. Simply because you never know what's round the corner in this game. If you have been following the race on tv you will have seen that the contenders are flying, flying. When I watch the highlights in the evenings I wonder if they are riding on the same roads. Because it all looks flat the speed they are going. Charly Wegelius has been riding superbly for his team leader Di Luca, and Steve Cummings is still hanging tough. The revelation of the race has been Andy Schleck, it seems like only yesterday that I was out riding with him. I stayed at his parents home a few times when I was on CSC and looking after his brother Frank. He seemed like a schoolboy at the time, here he is a few years later living with the worlds best. Classy. Ok. Its tipping down at the moment. I am glad I am not a rider any more today, that's for damm sure. Here's to an exciting last week of the Giro. May 23 Giro 07 , Giro d'Italia After a flat stage and a bunch gallop into Lido di Camaiore which Danilo Napolitano won it was time for a serious days bike racing and yesterdays 250 km stage from Camaiore to Santuario Nostra Signora della Guarda, which is a monastry on top of a hill just outside Genova was just that. They went out of the blocks and didn't let up till the finish some 7 hrs later. I asked Steve Cummings how he felt after a proper days racing, he replied "that was hard" enough said I think. Steve has really settled in well and is iwell liked by everybody. He is definitely cutting it in the big time. George was once again the star of the show as far as I am concerned, talking of good bike riders, look no further than him. He was away most of the day, and the jersey holder on the road for a long time. I said in my last entry I felt we had an ouside chance of getting the jersey, that did not happen. Chechu was not at his best and suffered badly on the finishing climb. On the other hand Popo put up a good fight and was up there right until the final metres, which showed to me he has got a lot better since the start, that has to be a good sign. The Italian teams Liquigas and Lampre along with Saunier Duval showed that they are at another level by setting tempo all day and destroying the asperations of most ev e rybody, its going to be fun when we hit the real mountains, not. The stage winner Leonardo Piepoli notched up another win to add to a fantastic palmeres, at 36 years of age, the tiny climber from Puglia rode a great race, class. An easy day today before heading north to the serious stuff. Carnage I think will be the headline of my next entry. 21 May 2007 , Tour of Italy A few more stages have gone by since my last entry, the pink jersey has changed hands, the weather is great, so what's new? Yesterday saw the first proper days racing as far as I am concerned, with the strong men going to the fore from the start. With 13 kms uphill from the gun, it was an ideal day to get rid of the sprinters. Bettini in particular is desperate for a win here. It seems that as world champion he has not had much luck this year, the curse of the rainbow jersey strikes again. At the end of the day he was to lose out again, much to his disgust. He is of course a fantastic rider, who has had many great wins. But his continual showing off winds me and a lot of others up, surely he does not have to resort to stuff like that to gain media coverage. Back to the race. We had George and Chechu up there which was great, although we did not win the stage we were present when it counted and we put Chechu in a good position on GC. Who knows with tomorrows hilltop finish we could be in pink, its definately a possibility. It could have been better though, but Saunier Duval chased all day along with T-Mobile, for what reason I am not sure. Ricco was in the break to begin with, then it went to his head and there was a incnident involving himself and the stage winner Kurt Asle Arveson, which resulted in him losing contact with the break. I will not go into any more details, other than sometimes these young guys need to be taught a lesson once in a while, and yesterdays lesson was a long one, 120 kms worth. I expect today to be a bunch finish, with Pettachi notching up win number 3 in this years Giro. He is from the area and the finish suits him down to the ground. We will be staying quiet and saving ourselves for tomorrow. 17 May 2007 , Tour of Italy We have just finished stage 5 of the Giro and are on another one of many transfers to the hotel. All part and parcel of a Grand Tour day. Actually this year there are not to many long ones, unlike last year when it was beyond a joke. So, four road stages have gone, three of them have been bunch finishes. McEwen won the first. Petacchi the second and today it was the turn of Robert Forster to come out on top. He won the last stage here last year, he surprised a few people then and did the same again today. The one stage that did not finish in a sprint was yesterday. That was the stage that took us from Salerno to Montevergine di Mercogliano. At 153 kms long it was always going to be a nervous one, although it could have been a lot harder than it was. Because for the first 50 kms the race took the Amalfi coastal road. Its an amazing road, not a metre of flat or straight road for 50 kms. I said it could have been harder because the riders decided to take it relativly easy, if they had decided to race it would have been ugly I think. Anyway, it ended up not to fast on that section and we were able to take in the views a bit more. Once the riders had tackled that section they headed towards Naples, there it started raining and there were a few nasty crashes, real Giro ones, 50 guys down. Luckily nobody from us was caught up in those too bad. After that we headed off to the 15 km summit finish. It was the first test for the contenders. Some passed with flying colours, others struggled. Our boys were in the latter group. Although they did ok they were not there fighting with Di Luca Cunago and Ricci who are really flying at the moment. Of course it was a little setback mentally I think but the reality is, its a long way to Milan. And there is plenty of time to make up lost ground, if you have it in your legs that is. Ok. A tough day tomorrow, the plan? Send George up the road. I hope he likes that idea. Ok. Fingers crossed. Sunday 13 May , Sardinia, Giro d'Italia Another day in Paradise, ok, I know the weather is bad back home, but job is job as the Belgiums say. Yesterday, stage 1, the TTT. 25.6 kms of hardcore suffering for the boys. The result, 5th, did not reflect our physical performance, we should have been third, but lost that placing because Popo crashed on the last descent. If you managed to watch it on TV you would have seen that it was a very hard course. Certainly the hardest one I have ever seen. We had high hopes of winning, but at the end of the day you can't just turn up and win at will. So I think we have to be happy with the result. Although Popo was not like he should have been, which is not what you want when you are team leader, on top of that he crashed, the two being linked for sure must have dented his pride. But sometimes its good to get a wake up call. Steve Cummings did great, he was nervous before the start, normal. But he came up with the goods, well done Steve. I can't sign off without mentioning Charly Wegelius, to the best of my knowledge, him being part of a winning team in a Grand Tour TTT was a first for a brit. We have got a couple more stages here in Sardignia before we head back to the mainland and the first rest day. George is going very well, watch out for him in the next couple of days. Wednesday, May 9 2007, Rome airport I am sitting outside of the airport terminal in Rome in the baking hot sun waiting for my connection to the island of Sardinia. That is were the start of the 07 Giro is. I am listening to my Oakley Thumps, given to me by Steve Blick, the Oakley rep in the US, thanks Blick. The song at this moment is U2“ One Love“ Superb. Back to biking. Yes, we all know what's been happening re Ivan Basso and all that. Of course I wish he was here with me and the Discovery Team to defend his Giro title. But no. Its all gone pear shaped as they say. I am not going to dwell much longer on this subject. Because it makes me feel bad. I think Ivan is a super guy, and that he will come out of this a better person. Its been one of those nightmares that won't go away situations for him. He has a long life ahead of him. And I hope that his family stick by him and support him, and that he finds new challenges in life. Whether that includes riding his bike again in anger time will tell. I should have been in Romandie last week but I have had another health scare-warning which meant I have been spending time in hospital and seeing specialists etc. The verdict. My heart is worn out and I need to take things a lot easier than I have been up until now unless I want to jeopardise my long term health. It was my third warning, and this time I think I should sit up and take note. So, what does that mean? It means no biking for two months, go for another check up and if things have settled down I will be able to partake in gentle riding, nothing above 30mph. So that means come Aug-Sept I should be doing my day rides again. Most of you are probably thinking it must be bloody hard to stop just like that, I guess it is in a way. On the other hand I know I have had a fantastic run, and have achieved a lot. And that I should be more than happy with that. Which I am. Giro. Plan B. Popo is now sole leader. With a good back up team I think we are capable of getting some good results. George Hincapie has come in and will be a valuable member of the team. I know he is already going well so I expect him to be trying to grab something. And we also have Steve Cummings doing his first Grand Tour. Steve has done great for the team and himself so far this year and I expect him to be a great asset to the team, starting on Saturday when we have the prologue which is a 24 km team time trial. That's going to be pretty stressy as my sons put it. I will keep you updated on our progress. On a regular basis, that's my intention anyway. Later Sean

 

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