Back on Tour. I’m sitting on the bus as Superbad is playing on the TVs. It’s like the Giro bus trips all over again. I think this is the fourth, maybe even fifth time it has played on the bus entertainment system since the start of the Giro. There’s something comforting about it. We’re like moths to a flame when Superbad is playing on the bus.

It allows brains to disengage and not dwell on each of our concerns or worries.

With the Tour de France starting in three days, it is safe to say we each have our own individual concerns and worries. Over half our team is made up of Tour neophytes. Trent, Ryder, Will, Danny and Martijn are probably more nervous than Christian, Maggy, Julian and myself. Although to be honest, I think we’re all as nervous as each other. Theirs is simply based on the unknown; ours is based on what we know. I don’t know which I prefer.

This will be my seventh Tour, and each year it is the race I most look forward to.

The work I’ve done in the build up to this year’s race has been methodical and calculated and I’m feeling like I’ve done everything right. That doesn’t make it any less nerve racking. I’m not going to have a true idea of how good I am until next Tuesday, the first TT. Until then (like many others), I’m going to be fighting nerves and doing everything to make sure I roll off that start ramp in a good position on GC with as little accumulated damage as possible.

Getting through those first three days may seem a given when looking through a Tour guide or checking out the profiles, etc., but the new format makes for nervous, scary racing. There will be no order in place from a prologue, and there will be no time bonus incentives along the route. It’s essentially going to be a mad, crazy race for the finish line with everything to win, and for many, nothing to lose. This fills me with dread as I know how crazy Tour finishes are at the best of times. With no order in place, it is going to be a free for all. Add to this the 2 km climb up to the finish, and we have a wild finish that first day.

The neophytes are in for a new experience. Having so many of the world’s most talented cyclists at 100% of their fitness and motivation racing against each other is something to behold.

And that’s the biggest difference between this race and others, everybody is excellent.

Back to the bus. Superbad is finished and Wu Tang Clan Kung Fu is now playing (don’t ask…). We’ve been on the road for a few hours. We previewed the TT course in Cholet this morning so that we have it in our heads before Tuesday. It helps a lot knowing what to expect. I’ll be riding it again the morning of the big day, but at least there are no surprises in store. Then on our way to Brest, we’ve detoured so as to recon the final of stage one in Plumelec. It certainly is an interesting finish and will be a hard sprint, perfect for a Friere or Valverde. It’s likely to produce splits, which everybody is going to be nervous about and means that everybody will be trying even harder to be at the front causing more than likely crashes and bigger splits making everybody even more nervous and more crashes and ever bigger splits, etc, etc, etc.

Welcome to the first week of the Tour de France. I have a feeling Superbad will be getting a few more airings.

It’s raining outside. We were supposed to set off at nine this morning in order to beat the rain. But unfortunately it has beaten us.
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