When I first rode the 'new' Tour of Britain in 2004 (pictured) it was a great experience.

I was in my first year as a professional in Europe, and I got to come back and race against the pros on my home roads, in front of my home crowds. It was a pretty unique opportunity, I thought, riding for the national team alongside another continental-based professional Charly Wegelius.

I thought it was great at the time, but looking back, it really wasn't. In that one edition riders were sent into oncoming traffic, the first part of the bunch was sent off down a back alley inside the last three

Some finish
lines are just better than others. Some are located in places that seem to be
destined to be the point at which a bike race concludes, but some are just
weird.

I watched
the final minute of J.J. Haedo's stage win in the Vuelta with amazement. Not to
take anything away from the man with one of the coolest names in pro cycling,
but I would suggest that having a large roundabout within a few hundred metres
of the finish of a grand tour stage was a strange decision on the part of the
organisers.

On occasion
I have thought about the finish line of a race: it is such an important place

Some things really shouldn't be messed with. I know that cycling, like everything, needs to change to evolve.

Lately I have even rethought my opinion on the radio issue, as I have started to see that it is careful management of the application of modern technology, instead of banning it, that will help maintain cycling's balance between its traditions and its place in the modern sporting arena.

However, I really do think that race leader's jerseys should be left well alone. I'm not saying that they should be made of wool or anything, make them as aero as you like, but I'm just not so sure

I stumbled through a
Greek restaurant the other night, in search of a bathroom to relieve the
pressure that the mounting beers had begun to apply to my bladder.

After finally
translating the waitress's hand gestures and passing through the the cavernous
and sweaty expanse of kitchens to my destination, I found another part of the
puzzle of my cycling career, in the least likely of places.

As I focused down on
the toilet, something caught my eye on the cistern. A logo, a brand name, that
was all too familiar, yet in this setting seemingly completely out of context.

I had been so used to
the

Going away in the middle of a cycling season can be a
tricky thing to pull off. It can, however be as important as any other aspect
of training or racing.

A clear and healthy mind is the key to making a bike
go fast in my opinion, so what the mind needs, it should get. Unfortunately, this
does often mean that a rider needs a break at a moment that doesn't fit in with
the requirements of the team.

In these instances, sometimes a rider will just have
to hold his edges together for a little while longer and push through to a time
when a break can be worked in.

Sometimes a rider might just try

By all accounts, apart from that of Eamonn Holmes - who was so tragically made late for an appearance at a dog show - the Olympic games test event on Sunday was a huge success.

Putting a road race on in one of the most crowded and sizeable cities in Europe is no small feat. It was great to hear then from my team-mates who rode the race, that it was up to scratch, and not just by UK standards, but by the standards of the top continental professionals who came over to compete in it.

Cycling in Britain has come a long, long way, in a short space of time. At the moment as the world sees it,

I was explaining to my
mate as we dropped down off a climb the other day, just how fast and how
difficult it can really be descending in pro races.

I think I blame TV and
an uncertainty in the road closure system in amateur events for no one
(including my 21-year-old self) really understanding just how hard going down
could be. I mean, in an amateur race, you can never really, really trust that
the roads are completely closed; there is that slight lack of faith that, like
in training, slows things down.

Pro racing takes
competition cycling to its absolute limit. It simply requires another

After what seemed like
an extraordinarily long time away from the front lines, I finally returned to
race action on the weekend.

I had decided in my
infinite wisdom that a holiday in Italy would be a much better option for July than
slogging it out in the Czech Tour, and as such I hadn't actually turned a pedal
in anger since the National Road Race Championships, one whole Tour de France
ago.

It was good then to
throw myself back into the sharp end at the National Criterium Championships on
Friday night. The 'Crit' champs are a little bit of a quirky anomaly in the
grand world scheme of