Thanks.

Hi all.

Yes, I know I've been incredibly slack on the diary updating front but the positive spin on this is that I've spent a lot of time with family and friends and have truly enjoyed my 'offie' - even if I've been struggling a wee bit to get over my injury. Something which probably few of you know about because I haven't updated you all in such a long time!

Breaking my shoulder has meant that for the first time in our children's lives, I have been able to fully enjoy Santa's visit to them and the organized chaos that pre-empts and ensues such an anticipated visit. We have been able to do some very typical kiwi holidaying with the boys which has been incredibly enriching for us all as a family unit.

Anyway, the real point of this brief update is to acknowledge and thank you all for your on-going support through my cycling endeavours.

I was presented as the People's Choice Award at the annual cycling awards last night in Christchurch. It's an award which although I was aware of my nomination, I didn't expect to win and to be honest it wasn't something I gave much thought to. I don't and never have ridden my bike to aspire to win such awards but I am humbled that I do have supporters like yourselves who enjoy what I do and more importantly, appreciate and respect what I do and how I do it. The reality is most people love winners and I generally don't win anything - instead I help others to win; something which is far less glamourous and glorified and certainly less acknowledged by those who don't understand cycling, but for me it is something just as rewarding and I am deeply proud of the professional sportsman I have evolved into over my lengthy career.

So guys, "thank you" and Carole and I wish you all a 'Happy New Year' and look forward to sharing our 2012 cycling season with you.

Julian

A Touch of Silver Fern on a GreenEDGE

Julz started to write something just now but he had a few 'technical' issues with his laptop and the laptop won. He's given up for now so I thought I'd just let those of you know who don't already know that the news is now official; Julz is off to GreenEDGE for the 2012 season.

I'll convince him to make amends with his laptop tomorrow and he'll put fingertips to keyboard himself to fill you all in on his own thoughts about heading off to GreenEDGE to ride with a bunch of ANZACS.

Carole

Better Late Than Never - Part III
Never Fails to Amaze.

While yesterday was the Queen stage, today was always going to be a difficult one for me; a short but sharp 100km with three hard climbs, Telegraph, Galibier and the infamous Alpe d’Huez.

After yesterday, I was feeling pretty confident that I’d be ok but I also knew that it wouldn’t be without its struggle. I was a bit nervous so I broke the staunch Pro-cycling norm and decided it might be best to warm up a little given that it was more or less straight into the Telegraph from the start. This year, to avoid getting out-of-the-blue crash-tackled by a random Gendarme, I thought it might be better that I do my warm-up on the home trainer - the ‘avoidance’ method.

The beginning of the Telegraph was nothing like I’ve ever seen. Because it was at the start of the stage, it was necessary to try and follow as long as possible. And by crikey did they rip it up at the bottom of the climb. Well, Alberto did. The first couple of kilometres, as we rode at 35km/hr, it was clear that he was on a mission and was not going to roll over and submit after not having hit his straps all Tour. Instantly the race was in pieces. Everyone was fighting to hang on as long as possible because of the risk of not making the time-cut. Consequently, instead of there being a series of groups, by the time we got to Galibier - which comes straight after the telegraph between which there is only a few kilometres of downhill - the race seemed to be a continuous line of riders spread for miles along the road to the summit.

By the time we had reached the top of the Galibier, I had ridden myself into a fairly sizable group. I had struggled today and certainly was well behind the climbing form that I had had the previous day. It was a subtle reminder to me that at this point in a Grand Tour it never really matters how you were the previous day, today is another day and it can be completely different. However, I felt now I was safe in the group I had rode myself into. Down we went before for the last ascent to Alpe d’Huez.

Due to the nature of the stage, short with climbs, we had to ride a good steady speed off Galibier and through the valley toward Alpe d’Huez. It certainly wasn't a day for us to sit back and take it easy now we had formed a good-sized group. And even when we hit Alpe d’Huez it was still hard yacker. But Alpe d’Huez is Alpe d’Huez and in the sport of cycling there is nothing like the hype it always manages to draw. And 2011 proved to be no different to any other year I’ve raced up it in the Tour.

These are the moments which make me truly appreciate that I am a part of something very special and just how monumental the Tour de France is. Such unique and poignant ingredients like Alpe d’Huez are what set this sporting event apart from so many others. Certainly they couldn’t have celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Alps in the Tour without including the 21 bends that snake up toward the village of Alpe d’Huez. It is a climb that always excites and affects me as I ride up it and the people it pulls is always phenomenal in number and in spirit. From the first time I did the TT up there in 2004, this climb impressed something indescribable upon me and it will always be remembered as something incredibly special - even for a non-climber like me.

Better Late Than Never Part II

Stage 18: The Big One

The queen stage of this year Tour was going to be more of the same for us. Having successfully defended the teams GC lead yesterday, we all had to be back on deck again today. The advantage of today was that it was a much more difficult stage with the three Hor category climbs (out of category) coming in succession at the end of the 200 km stage. Meaning that if there was a break, there was much less chance that it would survive to the finish. So today we had to turn to the three riders on our team who are capable of finishing up there in such stages; Danielson, Hesjedal and Van de Velde.

After some early jumping around - of which I was a part of - Ramunas, our neo pro and first time Tour rider, found himself in the early move saving the day for the rest of us. It then became about looking after our three climber guys until we got into the mountains in the last part of the stage. It was good to see Rumunas back from the death bed he looked like he was on a few days ago. He is an exceptionally talented and humble kid and a very gutsy bike rider with a big future. It’s always a pleasure to have young guys like him around; the ones with big talent yet small egos. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there are many of them like him around these days.

Unbeknown to me, I was to find myself on one of my best days ever in the mountains at the Tour de France. We had done a similar stage to this one in the Giro 2007 although not that I could remember. Actually that always seems to be my problem; I never seem to retain much about any of the race stages or mountains I climb. I wish I was better at remembering them as when you’ve been around as long as I have and have done the same climbs or parcours several times over, a good memory of such experiences would be a distinct advantage. But alas, my memory sucks.

It’s a bit of a shame really that I never seem to remember much to share with anyone. In fact I think that my recollection is so poor that I’m sure the boys will question whether I really did ride pro for so long. Luckily I will have Carole and the archived race diaries to back me up once I start waffling on piecing together jagged memories. Who knows, maybe one day when life slows down and I am bending over my beer gut as I work away in my veggie garden, it will all start to come back to me.

From the start today I felt like I was on a good one. In the beginning of the stage I had no problems trying to follow moves and place myself in breakaways. The usual struggle that I have getting going at the start of the day didn’t happen at all today and this generally means that I am going to have a pretty comfortable day.

After having missed the move that stuck, my focus turned to looking out for the three guys who were going to save our team GC for the day; Danielson, Hesjedal and Van de Velde.

I managed to make it pretty comfortably through the first climb of the day, Col de Angel. The peak of which was more than 2700m and one of the highest we do. At the top we crossed the border back into France. It was a little difficult, to say the least, at the top with the altitude and thin air but I seemed to be able to handle this better than most which is a bit unusual for a big unit like me.

After getting some bottles and riding to the front to hand them off to the guys and of course to show off to everyone that a fatty was still here, my day of riding in the front group in the Tour was soon to be over. At the bottom of Col de Izord, the Leopard team started their show as they began to light it up for Andy's attempt at winning the Tour. I managed to hang on long enough to watch him launch his attack then I found a group of a dozen or so to shepherd me to the Galibier. It was the first time the Tour has ever finished on the Galibier and it was also the highest stage finish ever of the Tour de France. So all was well and it was nice for once in my career not to have to fight ‘til the death in a mountain stage just to make it to the finish. The team’s trio did top job and secured more time for us in the teams GC. It was a great day in the office all round.

Better Late Than Never???

Stage 17 Gap - Pinerolo

Today we took the only turn out of France in this year’s Tour as we headed for a stage finish and an overnight in Italy.

After the double representation in the breakaway yesterday, we now have a very serious chance of standing on the podium in Paris on Sunday as overall winners of the teams’ classification. So starting today this became a number one priority for us.

Once you make the decision to commit to the teams’ classification, it becomes a very difficult horse to hold on to and although it is one of the least known or acknowledged classifications in the Tour, it still commands a lot of respect amongst the riders, teams and sponsors. It really shows the depth of the team.

To give a quick explanation of how it works, it’s the aggregate time of the best three riders from a team each day. So what happens is you have to have someone in every breakaway move and if there is a team with two in there we also have to have two in there. We have to be all over everything. And when you have guys like myself and Ty who are not breakaway specialists and are normally just used to surviving the mountains stage like today, we have to dig deeper to help out when and wherever we can.

I never felt good from the start today and heading out of Gap in crosswinds I actually found myself detached from the peloton with a group of 30 in the first 5 km. After a wee chase we were soon back in the peloton by which time a break of 10 had gone off the front and one rider from Leopard was in there.

Leopard were the closest team to us on GC so we couldn't let it go. So just after fighting to get back on, it was chase time. We started hard but man it was proving difficult to neutralize. The group of 10 was slowly pulling time on us. We chased for 20-odd km till we hit a small climb and tried to launch someone across. Nope, didn't make it. Back to chasing. By this time, me Tyler and Rumanas were swinging off the back where we would stay pinned for 20 more kilometres. I was beginning to think that my Tour de France was over. Somehow the rest of the boys managed to get on the front up through the next slight uphill drag and bring it back. I don't how they did it but believe me it was a super human effort and the race was on the ropes.

By this time Garmin-Cervelo had effectively demoralized everyone with their showing even though we were all at our limits, it sort of became understood that for everyone’s benefit, only certain teams could be represented in the break that weren't a threat to us on Team GC. So immediately another group went which had no riders in it from teams who were a threat to us. Thankfully.

From then on it was a much more controlled ride into Italy and up Sestrieres. Still, the day had been taxing from the earlier efforts we had to put out and unfortunately my drama didn't finish there. I barely escaped messing myself up we went through a roundabout on the run in to the category 2 climb just before the finish. I just managed to do a full break grab, lock and release before I launched myself over a traffic island to avoid guys who had miss-calculated before me. During my sudden trajectory skyward, I managed to get the front wheel over the curb but destroyed the rear wheel as I clipped it on the way down. It was a case of heart-in-mouth and a huge sigh of relief at my well-timed luck.

A wheel change and tap out behind the car, where I hit a 100km/hr, to come back to the grupetto at the base of the climb was what ensued before sitting up to womble my way up the final ascent to the finish. Oh the things you do to clock up another stage of the Tour de France.

They're On Their Way...

Hi people, Carole here.

Just wanna apologize for the HUGE delay in posting Julian's final TdF updates. The truth is we've spent the last 3 wks up in the Pyrenees having some ace-quality family time. It was bloody awesome and well-needed but now we're back home and getting back into business so stay tuned. I'll get on to editing Julian's remaining updates and post them as soon as I can...

Cheers for your patience guys,

C

Stage 16: Saint Paul Trois Chateaux to Gap

Into the Alps - 102km in 2hrs

Today was hellish. Two hours of the seat being stuck up my arse and biting the handle bar stem. In between a couple of feeble attempts to make breakaway groups it was merely just a case of trying to hang on as I tried to recover from each effort.

Luckily for me, the stage, although a slight drag uphill most of the day, only had a climb at the end. Somehow we managed to pop two riders from our team into the break as the race was about to explode. Ryder and Thor were the lads.

So those guys and their eight co-breakaway riders marched into Gap then up the last category two climb before looping back to the finish in Gap. The weather gods punished us again today after turning on a summer’s day for the rest day in Orange. Once against we were lumped with 13 degrees and rain as we ventured into the heart of the French Alps.

In the end, the day couldn’t have worked out better for the team. Ryder and Thor were 2 of only 3 breakaway guys as they came back into Gap so from there on it became an easy win for them. They just ‘one-two’d’ the third rider, Boasson Hagan from Team Sky. The ‘one-two’ strategy means team-mates attack alternately.

As Ryder is of Norwegian heritage it was claimed by the Norwegians as a Norwegian triple - certainly a double for Garmin-Cervelo and a remarkable achievement for Norway, a country of only 4 million. Without a doubt it was a great day for the team. It’s nice to continue the run of success. I can't imagine what our team’s tour must look like to other teams when it’s often so difficult to win just one stage.

Whats Chef Sean Up To?

Stage 15: Limoux - Montpellier

Rain + Small Roads + Wind = Tough Day at the Office

Stage 15 was another tough one, taking us back to conditions similar to what dominated the first week. Although we are now well in the south of France the weather is proving to be not so typical for the area at this time of year.

So given the conditions it was another stressful day where no-one would give anyone space in the battle to be at the front of the peloton and where everyone was afraid of the race splitting in the crosswind. The onus of the day fell on Cavendish's HTC team and it was left to them to control the day, given that Cavendish has won all the sprints bar one.

An early break went that wasn’t too significant and the cross/tailwinds blew us quickly toward Montpellier. Although we hadn't given ourselves much opportunity in the sprints up to this point, I still had confidence that Tyler was riding well and sprinting well. He had been looking very strong on the bike.

With a couple of the boys down from expending energy in breaks the days before we were a little down on numbers to help set up the sprint. Fighting for position as we do, I managed to get Ty one place behind the HTC boys going into the last 500m. I slotted back onto the back of their train hoping that I could take a quick breather and hit it again to give Ty the little extra he needed to start the sprint. But unfortunately I couldn't come off them and was just stuck in the line. I had already used too much energy fighting for position. Ty, although leaving it a little too late, still did a good sprint coming in 2nd by a few centimetres. After watching the reply later that evening, I reckon if he had started his sprint a fraction earlier or I had been able to get him right on the back of Cavendish’s wheel, he may have wrapped it up. He was certainly sprinting faster.

On a non-stage overview note, we’re all noticing that we’re getting our way through the race; it’s becoming plain to see that the boys are entering that mind-numbed, brain-dead, complete auto-pilot phase of a 3 week stage race. There is a wave of absentmindedness that is starting to wash over us all and it certainly makes for some funny stories.

A classic example of this phase was what happened to my room-mate this morning. I better not name names! After breakfast he went back up to our room to prepare his suitcase. Of course, often with the metabolism in overdrive the first port of call after breakfast is a visit to the loo to shift a load to make way for the next. This morning, completely in his zone, my roomie barrelled into the room and made a beeline straight to the toilet. When he had done his business he came out of the bathroom to organize his bits and pieces for the race and prepare his suitcase to be taken away by the soon-to-arrive soigneur. But to his utter confusion he found that not only was I missing from the picture, but so was my suitcase and his. He scanned the room more closely and realised that he didn’t actually recognise any belongings to be his, nor mine for that matter. Suddenly the penny dropped. He had dumped his load in someone else’s loo.

That’s the kind of state we find ourselves in this far into the race.

Stage 14: Saint Gaudens-Plateau de Beille

It often seems difficult to find anything to write about on mountain days as the routine so much of the time is so monotonous for us non-climbers. Besides, of all the people in the world who have an interest in cycling, we probably know the least about what went on in the front of the race.

However as always, and as I have written many times before, the fans made it a memorable experience for us back in gruppetto. For me it started with a collection of kiwis who were gathered outside the bus before the start. When some of the boys started to sling off at them, asking for the haka, the reply came in the form of “Pokarekare Ana” (For non-kiwis, google this iconic NZ song). It was enough to delay the team meeting we were about to start and the moment left my team-mates somewhat mystified. I just sat back and smiled, proud as punch. I can honestly say the kiwi fans are adored by the guys and I was feeling proud to be a Kiwi myself, doing my thing on the other side of the world. And that’s saying something as I’m not known for being overly nationalistic.

So now thanks to my supporters not only do we have our resident soft toy kiwi in the bus window wearing a pounamu (greenstone) tiki around its neck, we also now have an inflatable rugby ball that is getting bounced around by the boys on our stage transfers. And let’s not forget our trustee kiwi mechanic, Grom. I think we might be able to turn it into the Garmin Cervelo New Zealand bus if we keep going at this rate.

So off we went on the march to Plateau de Beille - a hike that included six categorized climbs. Ouch.

As with all the Pyrenees stages the Basque fans supporting the Euskatel team are the rowdiest and most enthusiastic of them all - except for those who have gone too hard too soon and ended up passed out on the side of the road. There are always a more than a few of them. Generally the Basques are decked out in their orange clothing frantically waving their green, red and white flags and handing off cans of coke to the riders. It’s always such a nice experience. I can't imagine how manic it must’ve been for the Euskatel rider, Samuel Sanchez, on Luz Ardiden as he pedalled his way to victory there on the stage a couple of days ago. They must have gone bananas.

They were mad enough for me today and I am nobody; there I was all by myself, 26 minutes out the arse, in between the second-to-last and last groups. They were fizzing to give me there frenzied cheers, fizzed up cokes and unparalleled madness. Priceless.