Sorry that I have not written sooner, but things have been a little crazy here lately. First of all the tour of Pay Basque was a nightmare! The race was very hard and the conditions made it even more difficult. I wish that I had a dollar for every time I put on and took off my rain jacket during those 5 days!!

I started the race with a bad stomach and really suffered the first 2 days. I had no power in my legs and even had cramps. I started to feel a little better after the 3rd stage, but the hard roads, bad weather, and declining morale, made it quite a challenge to give 100%. It quickly became clear that I was going to have to use this race for training, because after those 2 days of stomach problems, I was not recovering like usual. I focused on taking care of Casagrande as much as I could, but when the race got real tough, he was on his own. It was the first time all year that I felt tired and unable to follow the wheels. I suffered through it and just tried to think positive. I kept telling myself that this was part of “paying the dues” and that I would be laughing about this in a few weeks. That thinking worked and I finished the race with a descent preformance in the final T.T. I had very little morale and did not warm up or look at the course before hand, so I was pleased with 11th place.

The whole Once Team were incredible all week and I was happy to see that my friend Inigo Cuesta won the race overall. Inigo is one of the nicest guys in the peloton and does little else but work for Jalabert all the time, so I was happy to see him get some recognition for the great rider that he is.

My flight back to Nice was cancelled when I went to the airport in the morning and that was the first sign that it was not going to be a great day. I spent the whole day in transit and that night came down with a bad sore throat. I wasn’t all that worried because I thought that it may be due to breathing recirculated air all day. When I awoke Sunday morning, I could barely move and did nothing but lay on the couch and watch Paris-Roubaix on T.V. I tried to relax and drink plenty of fluids, but I have to say that I am officially sick for the first time this year.

This spoils my main objective for the spring, but I want to make sure that it doesn’t disturb my plan for the season. It is a shame that this had to happen now, but it is part of the sport. I am on a 3 day cycle of anti-biotics and will see in a few days if I feel good enough to start Liege. I was always planning on coming home on the 20th for my scheduled break, but if I don’t feel better soon, it may be even sooner. My morale is down, but I will be back, and hopefully better than ever in May to start getting ready for the Tour …