It’s been almost a month since I last wrote anything down. The main reason I haven’t written is because I was sick and feeling sorry for myself, which is not conducive to a public domain diary in my opinion.

The time passes by so incredibly quickly. I was discussing last night how the Tour de France is over in just three months time. That seems very strange and ALMOST depressing after all the blood, sweat, and tears (There are few moments in life that phrase is actually applicable in complete sincerity, and this is one of them.) that go into just getting there. Depressing is too strong a word really. It just all goes by so quickly, there’s hardly a moment to wallow in the moment and enjoy it. I suppose that’s life in a nutshell.

The last month has been a difficult passage for me. After coming back from California, my health and form entered, as the French like to say, ‘une spirale descendente.’ I grossly underestimated how sick I’d got myself at Paris-Nice and tried to get back in time for Criterium International. It was worth a try but probably set me back a bit further. I then flew over to Montreal for the WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) Athletes Committee Meeting. This couldn’t have come at a worse time considering how I was physically.

But I’m very glad I did go as it was productive and a good opportunity to put faces to the names I have corresponded with in the past. It’s a very forward thinking and pragmatic organization and without it the future of all sport would be in serious jeopardy. I will save my Idiots Guide to Anti-Doping for another entry. But I will definitely supply one at some point as I think there is a serious lack of understanding regards the anti-doping movement. It’s a confusing world made simple by WADA and complicated by sports governing bodies and national sports agencies. But I’ll save that lecture for another time…

So here I am now sitting in the lack-lustre town of Liege. This is a grey town. Even on a sunny day it’s grey. What was once a beautiful forested valley with a meandering river has become the industrial heartland of Belgium. I think I saw 5 km worth of Arcelor Mittal steel works along the river today, which is a contrast considering those names are associated with booming business and unimaginable amounts of money. Let me just say that is not a good representation of Liege.

It’s a great place for a bike race though. Amstel Gold Race is only 35 km from here, Fleche Wallone only 30 km, and of course, Liege-Bastogne-Liege starts and finishes here. I did Amstel yesterday. It was my comeback race after the break I had post Criterium International. I had a week completely off the bike and then a few days easy and then trained the week before coming up here.

I feel healthy again, which is such a wonderful feeling and makes me realize just how sick I was. Yesterday was close to seven hours racing and 6000kj of effort, and yet I jumped out of bed this morning (granted it was because we had a UCI blood control!) at 7:30 and didn’t even feel like I’d ridden my bike. This is more like me. Not the skulky-leg-hurting-tired me that I’d been after Paris-Nice.

So all is well. A part of me wishes I was in Georgia. My experiences of racing in the US so far have been great. But JV, the voice of reason, decided going across the Atlantic four times in three weeks wasn’t going to help my Giro build up.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the boys get on in the TTT. They will be a force to reckon with. Our lethal weapon being Christian, who in scoring our first Euro win at Sarthe, beat the course record for the TT by a sizeable margin. It’s a course that I’ve won on, as has Kloden and some other fast guys. So Christian is going supa dupa fast at the moment.

I’ll have my chance to race with them in two and a half weeks. Only two and a half weeks till the Giro… Time flies.