Firstly, may I apologise for a severe lack of ‘correspondance’ since the start of the Giro.  Whilst I felt fresh and mentally alert at the start of those three weeks, those senses quickly turned into tiredness which affected my ability to do any imaginative writing.  Soon after (six days, to be precise), I was at the Criterium du Dauphine, so as you can imagine, it’s taken a reasonable time for me to engage brain!

Well, engaged it is again now.  I write this from Rotterdam, on the eve of my first Tour de France.  Even writing that now, I still can’t quite believe it, that I’m here.  The Tour has always been a bit of a pipe dream for me, as it is for 99.99% of cyclists out there, and I never really expected it to become a reality.
Of course, when Cervelo signed me, my dream did become a big step closer – finally I was in a team which would actually take part in the Tour, a vital step for anyone with aspirations to ride it!  

That said, this year it has still very much come as a surprise, not least because I wasn’t in the original nine-man line up.  However, Heinrich’s bad run of luck this year shows no sign of letting up, with a knee injury that has plagued him all season returning after ‘that’ crash in the Tour de Swiss – it’s almost like he has the curse of the rainbow jersey, only without the privilege of being world champion.  That said, I’d like to have a terrible season like his, and still win a stage of the Tour de Suisse, and finish second in Het Volk, as Heinrich has.

So here I am.  I don’t pretend that I could ever be a ‘replacement’ for someone with Heinrich’s class, but I shall work as hard as I can over the next three weeks in the service of both Thor and Carlos, and of course soak up the ambiance and and everything else which makes Le Tour so special.

If I have the energy, I’ll try to write another update soon, but I’m certainly not going to guarantee it!
Daniel