Part of me wishes I had been there helping him, but I've got plenty more Tour years left in me and the London Olympics will only come once in my lifetime. Going for a second gold on the track was what I wanted to do.

I sent Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome a few texts of congratulations during the race and also texted Brad. I didn't get one back from him, though. He is not the best with a phone.

The Team Sky boys have had many training camps over the last year and have become a close-knit team. That has certainly helped them win the Tour.

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But it is not just about them. Yes, they have to ride the miles, but there is a massive team behind them looking after their bikes, food, travel and sleeping arrangements. With that kind of support, the riders can just concentrate on racing.

Team boss Dave Brailsford and sports director Sean Yates are the brains behind the operation, but there are others who play key roles.

Three or four mechanics look after the bikes and make sure they are ready for the next day's racing. They wash and check them over every night, sorting out any adjustments a rider might want, including wheels for a particular stage.

They can also adjust the gears, putting a 27 sprocket on if there is a steep climb the next day, for example.

There are two Jaguar support cars, with spare bikes on the roof for all the riders. Brad sometimes had two. There is also plenty of space inside for all the spare wheels that we get through.

The cars also hand out food and drink to the riders mid-stage. The 'soigneurs' make up close to 100 bottles of fluid a day, plus little sandwiches and cakes for our feed bags. They wash and dry our kit for us, too, and also give us a massage at the end of every day.

We have numerous physios and doctors to help deal with the post-race aches and pains, making sure we are ready to race the next day, and also have our own chef, Soren.

He works closely with our nutritionist, Nigel, to make sure we all get the right sorts of food, including fresh bread every morning.

We normally have porridge in the mornings and perhaps an omelette. We have energy bars and gels during the race, along with rice cakes and sandwiches to keep us going.

In the evenings, we tend to have pasta, chicken and sometimes fish. Soren tries to change the menu to keep it interesting and does an amazing job!

The food is always ready for us when we come down for dinner, which is nice as we get pretty hungry.

Then there is the team bus and its driver, Claudio!

Travelling on the bus can be fun but there is not much discussion after a day's racing unless someone has done something ridiculous or something major has happened.

Sometimes a rider may head off in the team car to get to the hotel quicker for a massage. The rest chill out in the bus and chat about a load of old rubbish like any normal person.

Brad is usually good fun with his impressions of everyone, from fellow riders to the chef and even team boss Dave. Bernie Eisel is also a pretty light-hearted guy. It is important to have people like that in the team so the atmosphere is not serious all the time.

Most of the time, everyone drifts off into their own little world and it can get quite quiet, particularly when you are into the second week of a big Tour. Everyone is so tired.

I am sure there are lots of exhausted bodies today, but the team's performance has been inspirational. It has certainly motivated Great Britain's track cycling team to do well at the Olympics.

I'll be back with another blog before my race in the team pursuit to let you know how my preparations have been going.

To be honest, mountain climbs can be grim, especially if, like me, you are coming from the track - when you are a bit heavier than you would be when on the road. You are carrying a bit of extra muscle or a bit of fat.

When I'm preparing for the track I don't do any climbing during the year. I am either flat out on the track or riding fairly easy, so I never really touch my threshold power, which is what you climb at. When I'm not on the track, climbing is a lot more enjoyable. For a start I'm lighter, but I'll also will be more ready for them.

Getting into mountain-climbing shape is not nice. It takes a lot of hard training up and down mountains, but when you start to feel strong and are riding well, there's no better feeling.

Geraint Thomas was a member of the British team pursuit side that won gold at the 2012 World Championships with a new world record of three minutes 53.295 seconds. Photo: Getty

At this year's Giro d'Italia, I had to keep plugging away and slowly rode myself into it. Once in the mountains, you get used to riding in that threshold range again and you get into the rhythm of the race.

It is one of those things that definitely takes a lot of work and it is a shock to the system when you step straight off the track!

As soon as you start going uphill you know about it and struggle almost immediately. Prior to the Giro I didn't lose much weight; I could have and would probably not have struggled as much, but I wanted to stay where I was in preparation for the Olympic track races.

Mentally, I find breaking the climb up into sections helps.

For instance, if there are steeper sections, you focus on getting through that next 2km, for example. You then know if it levels off and you can recover a bit for the next 3km or so. Then you have another section.

I break down the whole climb into four or five sectors in my head - get to the next checkpoint and then on to the next one. I find it easier than counting down 12km, 500m at a time.

It's just a case of trying to keep a good cadence up the mountain but, especially in the Giro, the climbs are so steep you can end up grinding away up the mountain. For a one-off climb it wouldn't make much difference, but for a Grand Tour it's key to save as much energy as possible, and pedalling around 90-100rpm protects your legs a lot better than pedalling at 65-70.

I sit down most of the time as well. I think that comes from my track background because even when I am sprinting or leading out, I spend the majority of the time in the saddle.

The Tour climbs this year seem to be steeper than usual. I prefer the longer 'shallower' climbs, like the Alps that are around 7-8%, rather than the Pyreenes which tend to be steeper.

I do think about dumping my water bottles on a climb. It depends on the speed of the race at that point, how far into the day you are and how hot it is. Basically if I don't need it, I'll get rid of it because I don't want to carry any extra weight up a big climb.

In the Tour you'll have guys on the course with bottles, usually towards the top of the main climbs. This is because riders can be spread out over the course by 20 minutes so our two team cars can't feed everyone.

Team leader Bradley Wiggins is in the form of his life and he will have fellow Brit Chris Froome helping him in the mountains. Froome was amazing at the Vuelta a Espana last year when he finished second and he is coming back into that sort of form.

Michael Rogers and Richie Porte are the other main guys for the climbs while Kanstantsin Siutsou is an amazing domestique who will ride all day, carrying bottles and food.

Mark Cavendish is going to want some sort of help in trying to defend the green jersey. Edvald Boasson Hagen will probably ride to look after him at the finish and Bernie Eisel will be with him for the entire three weeks. But I can't see the team committing fully.

It's hard on riders who have missed out like Danny Pate because he has ridden strongly this season, especially in the Paris-Nice. I roomed with him in Australia and got to know him quite well, so I feel for him but it's been a difficult choice because there are a lot of strong riders.

The actual win looks like it is going to be between Brad and last year's winner Cadel Evans but with a three-week race a hell of a lot can happen. Last year Brad was in great shape and he crashed out.

Bradley Wiggins is on the hunt for the Tour de France yellow jersey. Photo: Getty

He's definitely grown into the team leadership role though. The first year the team formed it was tough for him going to races as team leader with the press talking about him going for the Tour win.

This year, whether he's just got better or worked on it, he's grown in confidence. Winning the Dauphine last year and then going to the Vuelta a Espana and finishing third, so soon after breaking his collarbone in the Tour de France, gave him a lot of confidence and the more confident he gets, the better he rides.

He also has such a strong team around him. In the Dauphine it was unbelievable how the team rode. That makes it a lot easier for him too.

This year Brad has won Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie and the Dauphine again. There is a great bond round that group, the core group around Brad, and that helps when it comes to the races.

There is definitely a perception that the peloton see Sky as the strongest team but three weeks is a lot harder to control and stay out of trouble than it is for a week-long race, like the three Brad has won. They are in the best position they can be, though. Brad is in the form of his life and so are all his team-mates.

Going into the Giro d'Italia the team went with a different approach. It was built around Cav and the sprints. We had our two Colombian guys there to go for the general classification but there was no pressure put on them. It wasn't until the final week when the GC was decided and the sprints were more or less over that we all turned our attention to them and they did a great job.

But in the Tour de France the team can't ride it like that. Brad's got to have as much support as possible, he's one of the favourites for a reason so it would be silly not to.

I'll be back with another blog - on the first rest day on Tuesday, 10 July - which will deal with riding in the mountains.

As we approach the business end of the road cycling season, it's a case of another tour, another injury for us at Team Sky.

We are all raring to go for the Giro d'Italia, which starts in Denmark on Saturday, but obviously we had some more bad luck on Thursday with Ben Swift crashing and injuring his shoulder.

It was disappointing for him more than anything because he has not had too much luck with injuries and crashes.

Geraint Thomas (centre), aims to help Mark Cavendish (left) and Bradley Wiggins (right) to glory this summer Photo: Reuters

He is a fighter though and he knows how to come back from these kind of setbacks. He'll be on the turbo as soon as he can, he's one of the hardest working guys I know! He is back in the UK now so will have a great team around him to help him back so I don't think it will affect his Olympic chances too much.

 I came here to be the lead-out man for Mark Cavendish and Swifty was going to be in front of me in the train so obviously it affects the plans slightly.

 But Jeremy Hunt has already flown out here and he is another experienced head in the team which will help a lot, especially here in Denmark where it is expected to be extremely windy. What job he will carry out in the team, I'm not quite sure yet, but it is still a strong team and we are all excited to get racing. 

 The Giro starts with a short prologue stage, so I'll just give it everything and see what happens. It is obviously a bit longer than the Tour de Romandie, which was only about three and a half minutes long, whereas Saturday will be 10 and half, 11, something around there.

 It's not as 'straight forward' either. There's also a lot more corners for the first half, here I can hopefully keep my momentum and use my track speed to accelerate back up to speed as quickly as possible. It will then be a case of hanging on to the finish.

The main thing for me is pacing it right. It will be easy, to attack the start too much and end up slowing before the finish. The Giro is a massive race so there'll be plenty of guys capable of winning, but if I pace it well, I'm confident I'll be there or thereabouts.

As for the rest of the race I will be the lead-out man for Cav. He is in good shape after Romandie, so will be up for the sprint stages. Most of the guys are here to help Cav so that will be our main goal. We also have Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao, the Columbian mafia, who can ride well once we hit the mountains.

If Rigo can show the form he has in the past I'm confident he can be in the top 10, maybe even the top five in this Giro. He could have earned a top 10 in the Tour de France last year but he was sick in the last two days. For Rigo it will be more a case of limiting his losses until the final week, then seeing what he can do.

We will obviously help him as much as possible but to be honest once the road starts going up hill we won't be around for long. Especially with the climbs here in the Giro being so steep. Overall, there is a lot to go for, I just can't wait to get started.

Let's just hope we don't have any more injuries and keep everyone fit. It's such a big year for our team, and our sport, both on the road and track.

We are the team pursuit world champions and world record-holders again. We never thought we would go that fast here, but that could not have gone any better.

This is a massive result for us as a team. It's been a long while since we last won at the World Championships; the Aussies have had the better of us for the last few years. Even though this year is all about the Olympics and this is just a stepping-stone towards that, it's still great to have come here and won.

We now have a strategy that means it will always be touch-and-go whether we can hold it together or not for the full duration of the race. We are definitely on the edge, every time. As you saw, we came off the pace a lot in our last lap but we learnt a lot from that.

Ed and Pete Kennaugh were completely spent towards the end and I maybe should have carried on going more than I did. I thought I was dying but Ed was already dead, he had no life left. Little things like that are good to go through now, even straight after a victory like this one. But to hang on and win with a world record was extra-special.

The first time we broke that world record, at the World Championships in Manchester before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was just as amazing.

We broke our own record twice in Beijing later that year, but in Beijing we knew we were going to do it. We expected that to happen. In Manchester that wasn't the case, and definitely not here. Only in the last few days of training did we realise we were travelling well and might just get close to it.

The thing is, it had been a pretty relaxed day. With qualifying not until around 4.30pm local time, we were up at 8.30 that morning, doing a bit on the turbo, a little warm-up at around 10am, a pre-race meal and then down to the track.

Our qualifying ride was two seconds faster than we've ever qualified before - the fastest qualifying time ever - and that was great for our confidence. Even though the Australians qualified just two tenths of a second behind us, we were still confident we would deliver in the final.

It was interesting how the Australian crowd inside the Hisense Arena were pretty much non-existent during our qualifying ride. That seemed a lot different to the way it was in London at the Track World Cup two months ago, when every team seemed to get cheered. But we love that rivalry.

Having beaten us in London, they really bigged this race up in the Aussie press. We were relaxed after qualifying, though. We knew we would improve on that London performance - we said as much straight after that race in February - so we spent the next couple of hours, between qualifying and the final, chilling out.

We had a meeting where our coach Shane Sutton went through some changes, and the decision was made to bring Andy Tennant out of the line-up in favour of Steven Burke. We had seen the split times from qualifying and Andy was coming off it a bit, he could accept that and see the evidence. It was the right decision to make, but obviously hard for him: he wanted to ride in the final, as everyone did. Nobody's place in this team is secure, except Ed, because he's so good at that start.

Getting onto that start line, you block everything out. And from there, all you can hear is the crowd going nuts one lap, then dead silent the next, then nuts again, and so on. It's not hard to guess when the Aussies are up, and when you're up.

It was a good half a lap after we crossed the line that I knew the result. When we finished I couldn't see the scoreboard so I watched an Aussie rider in front of me - I don't know which one - waiting for his reaction and listening for the crowd.

When I heard that collective sigh and saw the Aussie drop his head, I knew we'd got it. What an amazing feeling it is, an excitement I haven't felt in a while. For it to be so close, then to win and to ride a world record lifts all that pressure that had been building and building since November.

London was tough, having them beat us as convincingly as they did, but we turned it around in probably the most exciting race I've ever been involved in - especially when I watched it back to see how close it was, because at the time we didn't really know. To deal with that pressure and deliver what we wanted was amazing. Doing it in Australia's back yard is the icing on the cake.

We can't wait for the Olympics now. This result has made us even hungrier. I believed we could close the gap and beat Australia, but it's one thing to believe that and another to come out and do it. Not only that, the next period is where we made a big leap forward in 2008 ahead of the Beijing Games. We have to do that again.

Winning in Melbourne reinforces the confidence and self-belief we need, and we are all gunning for London 2012. It can't come quickly enough.

Paris-Nice is a massive race and it has history. To go there as part of a British team, riding for Brad all week, and for him to finish it off in the time trial is a great feeling.

For the first time, I took on the role of road captain, calling any shots if we needed to ride or if something went wrong. My job meant being near Brad the whole week, protecting him, sheltering him from the wind and keeping him near the front, out of the way of any crashes.

There were a few days when the wind and crashes played quite a crucial part - fortunately we were at the front and pretty vigilant the whole time. Once we got into the high mountains, that was my job done and the climbers in the team looked after him towards the end. I enjoyed having that extra responsibility and it couldn't have gone better.

But I left before Sunday's time trial so I could recover in time to start training on the track for London 2012 this week and it felt strange leaving everyone behind.

I was road captain for Paris-Nice, protecting Bradley Wiggins, who went on to win. Photo: Getty Images

I'd like to have stayed on and been a part of it, especially with Brad winning. It's never nice leaving before the end of a race anyway.

But in a home Olympic year I have to look at the bigger picture: the coaches and staff told me that's what they wanted me to do and that coming back would be best for me on the track. The call was made and it's the right thing to do. If I'd raced on Sunday it would have prolonged my recovery from Paris-Nice.

That big picture is sometimes hard to keep in mind. Being a part of the Paris-Nice win was a taste of things to come for Team Sky, I'm sure, and I feel the same about not riding the Tour de France this summer. Riding Paris-Nice made me realise how much I actually miss, and enjoy, riding the road and the day-in, day-out battles that come with it.

It can be hard to see that leaving it behind is the right thing to do, but when I talk to the coaches I know they're correct. There will be more Tours, and I'm sure Brad will be battling for the win for years to come. It's still disappointing, and I wish I was riding, but - as I've been saying for four years now - the Games are a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me. If only they were at a different time of year.

Brad still has as good a chance of winning the Tour without me there. The team has moved on so much since we started: the squad has been strengthened massively since 2010, there are plenty of good riders around now, and it'll be a fight to get into the line-up for the Tour. There will be great support around both Brad and Mark Cavendish.

Brad has his quiet days when he keeps himself to himself and doesn't say a lot, but mostly he has his usual days as one of the lads, joking around and doing his impressions of people. You wouldn't think he's this big superstar. Ever since he got that fourth place in the Tour and came to Sky, he's grown in confidence and grown into his new role. You can see from Paris-Nice that his belief in himself is growing.

Everyone at Team Sky is similarly confident and relaxed. It's taken a year or so for everything to gel, to get to know how everyone rides on the bike, but now people know what they are doing and the new guys coming into the team have slotted straight in.

Moving from there to the velodrome will be massively different for me. The road is more freestyle, it relies a lot more on feel and road racing has plenty of variables.The track is scrutinised 100%, every effort, every lap. You have your graph and if you've slowed up by 0.1 seconds, you can see it. It's a lot more regimented and controlled.

I still enjoy it - I wouldn't be trying to win the gold medal in London if I didn't - but they are very different disciplines now, especially with the track being so fast. You need to respect the event and give it a lot of time, which is what I'm trying to do.

At last month's World Cup, in London's Olympic Velodrome, we lost the team pursuit final to Australia and that wasn't nice. There were quite a few minor mistakes in there, but not enough that we would have won, even if the margin could have been a lot smaller.

We have taken a lot from that. Since November we have moved on with what is really a new squad. I've been away for so long, three years or more since Beijing, that it's taken me a while to get back up to speed. I feel like I'm getting there now.

Losing at home gives us motivation to push forward and turn it around for the Games. People talk about the battle between us and Australia in terms of who's chasing and who's being chased, but I never see it like that. Whether you're chasing the Aussies or they're chasing you, does it make much difference? You get on with it, you race as hard as you can.

What does make a difference is Jack Bobridge. He was the strongest Australian rider by far and he is a massive talent. He was going well in London and if we overtake the Aussies come August, the track time we get between now and then will be key to that.

I haven't had a lot, maybe two-and-a-half weeks before London plus a few weeks in November, and that's why I'm back on the track now. There is a lot to come from me there and I still believe we have a great chance of doing something.

The World Championships are in Melbourne in a few weeks' time and we definitely want to go faster there than we did in London. But how much the Aussies will improve in front of their home crowd, I don't know. We have to focus on ourselves and work as hard as we can, because we can't affect anything they do - unless we go up and punch them in the face.

(Which we're not going to do.)

A track is a track, and as a team pursuit rider I'm on the track a lot. But the London Olympic Velodrome is special.

From the outside, driving in, it looks good. The track feels good, too. It's similar to Newport's velodrome, which is handy as we'll have a holding camp there before the Olympics.

Each track is built slightly differently - longer straights maybe, or bigger bends - and the Olympic Velodrome is like Newport in that it has the same shape, except perhaps not as steep and a little more round.

With Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Pete Kennaugh in the Olympic Velodrome. Photo: Getty Images

We had our first training session a few days ago ahead of this week's Track World Cup, which is also the Olympic test event. We got there early so we would have time to soak things up, see the building and take a look at the scenery.

But this week is hard. It's the Olympic track and everyone wants to ride it, and that means so many teams have come to the World Cup that things can get quite busy, especially in the team pursuit. 

It's exciting to see everyone here, but hard to get that feel for it when you have to keep your wits about you. If you go ploughing into the back of somebody, with more guys behind you, it can be dangerous.

Some things here could improve. The hotel, if we're honest, does a job but could be a lot better. It's little things. Sometimes I feel as though everything here is broken - the internet, the sauna - and you wouldn't expect that from London.

Those little things can make a difference. If you have the internet then you have a way to kill 15 minutes, replying to emails to take your mind off things, reminding you that you have a life and it's not all about one race.

And I find the sauna really helps me. I tend to bloat up sometimes, so before Beijing we got these electrode things which measure fluid retention in your body. If I had a sauna and a good sweat, the figures stayed down and my track performances reflected that.

That makes the sauna useful for me, so I've even got a portable one in my house. It's a small tent with a kettle-type thing and a pipe that my girlfriend bought me for Christmas. That was a hell of a present. Now, I wish I'd brought it with me.

My track legs are coming back and it's good to start going quick again, but I still have a lot more to come. As I do more on the road and start racing, my form is going to come up and up. I have a lot more track time ahead of me, too - I've only really had two weeks up until now. Even though we had a boot camp over the winter, I was ill for half of it.

But racing-wise there are potentially only four flat-out rides in competition, with a number on my back, remaining before the Olympics: two here at the World Cup, and two at the World Championships.

That's why so much emphasis is placed on this event. All the good teams are here and this is important for every one of them; we all want to do well and, psychologically, it feels great to beat other teams.

Throughout the winter we saw good team pursuit times posted by the Aussies, the Kiwis and the Russians, but they were always on their own without there being another good teams up against them. It will be good to get a sense of each other now.

We have talked about 2012 for ages but, beyond this weekend, I have the Paris-Nice road race, the track World Championships in Melbourne, the Giro d'Italia and then it's the end of May. Two months, and we're there.

Even in November the Olympics seemed far away. Now it's 2012 and I've started racing, it feels so much closer. 

This is my sixth year as a pro and it feels like I've only just started, it is crazy how quick the time goes. Before you know it, we're at the Games and it's all over.

I'm going to be 26 come the Games and in my prime on the track. Between now and then, it's worth giving it everything.

Most of us on the team, the Brits anyway, knew Cav wanted to come and it was just a matter of his representatives agreeing a deal. As far as I'm aware, it wasn't about Cav trying to get a load of money, which seems to be the opinion of some.

Of course, Cav will change the dynamic of the team. He is a strong character, as I'm sure you are all aware, but he is also a great leader. Sometimes he comes across as arrogant but he is a nice guy and certainly appreciates all the help and sacrifices his team-mates make for him.

However, having the fastest man in the world in the team will put more pressure on us to make an impact at the start of stages now. This year, we lent a hand to the chase at times but we didn't take a lead because we did not have an out-and-out favourite for the sprint. That changes now!

Cavendish shows off the rainbow jersey after his men's road race win at the World Championships. Photo: PA

Cav's presence will also affect the way we approach theTour de France. In the last couple of years, we built the team around Bradley Wiggins and focused on winning the General Classification. Now we need a lead-out man or two for the sprints.

I think we can accommodate Brad and Cav in our Tour de France team as a lot of our riders can do a mixture of jobs. For instance, this year's Tour line-up included myself and Edvard Boasson Hagen. We can lead out Cav at the finish and we can also climb to help Brad.

Christian Knees and Juan Antonio Flecha can ride all day on the flat or climbs, too, so I don't think we need to take too many out-and-out climbers. As long as Brad is protected until the final climb, there is not a lot we can do after that.

It is definitely going to be a challenge with both Brad and Cav in the team but one I think we can meet. And if Cav wins two or three stages, it will take a lot of pressure off.

There is that old cliché that success breeds success. I'm a firm believer that if Cav is winning the biggest races on the calendar, then confidence will spread through the team.

Just look at how the team has grown over the last couple of years. Cav's arrival, along with a host of other strong riders, is only going to build on that.

One of the other new signings is Cav's best mate, Bernie Eisel. He is a great rider and 'road captain' and will add to the experience in the team, which will be vital given that race radios are not allowed next year.

All in all, these are very exciting times for Team Sky and I can't wait until next year!

September is also the final month of being a 'true' road rider as as such because, come October, I will be back on the track. That is when the whole build-up and training for the Olympics really begins. I have the track Euros first, at the end of October, then a 'boot camp' style block of six weeks' training in Manchester with the track squad. I'm really looking forward to it, and seeing how this last year has gone, I'm sure the Olympics will be on us before we know it.

So with just over a week to go until the Tour of Britain, I am putting the finishing touches to my preparation. Just sitting here writing about the race makes me excited!

I am mainly resting up now with a few long rides to keep the body ticking over. I can definitely feel the racing I have done this year. If it was any other race at the end of the year, I’m sure I would have let myself go.

But the Tour of Britain and World Champs (a week later) are always big, well they are if you’re a Brit.

Saying that, the Tour of Britain has grown in stature since I first did it in 2005.  A lot of guys now use it as their final prep for the worlds, if they aren’t riding the Vuelta obviously.

The race route has also improved. There are some hard stages that are constantly up and down, which are the worst, and also some exciting finishes like into Stoke-on-Trent and Caerphilly.

The stages are shorter than most races in Europe but I don’t think this matters too much (with regards to the worlds that are 260km long). If anything it makes the racing harder and after such a long season we already have the endurance and kilometres in us.

I can't wait for it to begin! It is not often we get to race on home roads, in front of a home crowd. One of the stages finishes is in Caerphilly, which isn’t far from where I grew up.

With the success of the Olympic track team and Cav/Brad etc the crowds have grown in recent years. Swansea was the stand out stage of last year, Constitution Hill could have been in Belgium.

I’ve been named as one of the leaders of the team, which is always nice. But to be honest it is a similar situation to Bayern Rundfahrt, where I won my first pro stage race this year. We have such a strong team that any of us stand a shout of winning. The 10km TT helps myself along with Alex Dowset and of course Mick Rogers, who has won the world TT title a few times! 


As most of you are probably aware, there is usually a break that decides the General Classification (GC) in the Tour of Britain so it will be up to one of us to be in it. Once the GC has formed some shape we will have more an idea of the true team leader. Hopefully that will be me, I would love to go for the GC win.

The Tour of Britain also marks the start of the Rugby World Cup. Wales kick off their campaign against South Africa on the day we have the first stage of the Tour of Britain.

As I’m sure you know it’s taking place in New Zealand so I’m not sure if we will get to watch it live but hopefully we can record all the games on the bus. It will make the long transfers a lot more interesting!

Wales’ captain, Sam Warburton, also went to the same high school as me, Whitchurch High. They haven’t done too bad on the sporting front with Gareth Bale also coming from Whitchurch. Being the biggest school in Wales probably helped probability wise, but to be fair, the games department were really passionate.

They really tried to encourage us to get involved in sport whilst at school. However, once I started cycling a bit more seriously I managed to avoid the rugby teacher, daily… Where Wales will finish is hard to say. A potential quarter-final clash with an in-form Aussie team could be the game to cause an upset. It would also provide me some bragging rights in the team! Time will tell…

Every day on the Tour we would wake up, wee into a pot for the doc to check our hydration, weigh ourselves, then head down to breakfast.

We'd then be told when our suitcases needed to be ready for one of the carers to come and pick them up. Then, onto the bus to the start the stage.

It's nice now to just roll out of bed whenever and wander down to the local cafe in the piazza and just sit and watch the world go by.

Overall the Tour was a success for the team, although we definitely had our ups and downs! I think we coped really well with losing our leader Bradley Wiggins. He crashed out on stage 7 breaking his collarbone. In stage 8, we went on the attack and took the race on.

This set the scene for the rest of the race. The main thing was to keep the morale high and the confidence we had in the team from Bayern in May through the Dauphine before heading to the Tour.

I was happy with my tour. The best part I think was in the mountains - my breakaway day up the Tourmalet and then the day I was climbing at the front with Rigo [Rigoberto Uran] to the Galibier. It was a new experience for me, but a good one! It gives me something to build on in the future now and really look to progress.

My next race is the Tour of Eneco which takes place from the 8th-14th of August. Bring it on!

We wanted to get in the breakaways as it was highly likely the break would stay away to the finish, so me and Eddie were in the first break initially.

But there's so many different competitions going on, it's not just the overall - the yellow jersey. There's the team classement, the young rider, the points, the king of the mountains.

There was a guy from Leopard in the break with me and Eddie and there wasn't a Garmin rider.

Garmin are the leaders of the team classement and they ended up chasing, and there was about 45 minutes of just going off and trying to get that 'elastic' to snap but it never quite did and we got brought back.

Then Eddie got in the next break, so it was a bit disappointing on my front that I didn't, but we still had Eddie up there and when I heard on the radio that he'd won it was a great day.

I've been rooming with him throughout this race and there's no better guy, so if it's not me on the podium he's my first choice to be up there.

So it's good to see him win and it was a great victory for the team.

I think Sky were quite careful when choosing the character of the team and obviously there's a lot of good riders out there.

But I think it works better if maybe you don't have the very best but if there's somebody who works well in the team and morale's high and confidence is high, then that's as powerful as somebody who is really strong.

We have got strong riders, don't get me wrong, but from last year our bond has really grown. Last year we were still a bit new to each other but now we've made that step forward and it shows in the results.

I've improved nicely from last year on the road and it seems to be the coaching staff and all the support we get is second to none really.

So it's great to stay with that by signing a new contract and with the other riders, we're genuinely good mates.

People like Swifty (Ben Swift) and Ian Stannard and I grew up with racing around in the UK and then obviously people like Eddie I've got to really know, and get on with really well.

So that was one of the major factors behind my decision to re-sign with Sky.
It's something that's been up in the air the last couple of months really, then all of a sudden word got out that my contract was up and a few teams showed interest.

I thought it would be wrong to discredit them by not listening to what they had to say and there's still a lot of good teams out there.

But at the back of my mind Sky is home with the British set-up and the guys in the team.

I definitely had a few good offers and it wasn't an easy decision but it was still what I wanted to do, and with the Olympics and things it is definitely the right place for me and just continuing that progression.

It wasn't like I was worried that I wouldn't get a contract, like some guys start stressing that they're not going to have a team.

For me it was the other way around really, I had too many teams!

It played on my mind for sure but at the end of the day I was in the Tour de France and the better I did, the more teams showed their interest.

That was good for the confidence and the morale, but once I'd shaken Dave Brailsford's hand and the deal was done I could forget about that.

The next three years are sorted and I can just get out there and enjoy the racing.

It's only two real tough days now, the time trial is tough but it's only an hour maximum of real hard work compared to five hours.

So we've got a few big climbs on Thursday, we go over 2,000 metres of altitude three times - they're high mountains and tough going.

Then we've got the legendary Alpe d'Huez on Friday, I raced it in the Dauphine last year and it was pretty special but I think doing it in the Tour is going to be another level.

It's one of those climbs, everybody knows it, it's got so much history and it'll be a real special day racing up that.

The buzz from the crowd was unbelievable. There was so many GB and Welsh flags out there, I’d just like to say thanks for the support. It really means a lot to the whole team.

Today is a lot shorter with only the one HC climb. A breakaway is likely to succeed so we will hopefully get Eddie or Gerro up there.

I will be there along with Flecha and Swift, at the front to help them out. Basically, if the break looks to be going, I will attack to keep the bunch moving and the attacks flowing. Or just try and ride the group back up. It helps having everyone there to help the guys make the break but it is still hard. Especially on a day like today when everybody knows it is likely to succeed.

Once the break is gone, we will ‘chill’ as much as possible a save our energy for the climb. By ‘chilling’ we will still be concentrating.

The only time we would be able to switch off totally is at the end of the stage when in the gruppetto.

Even then, we are tired and just looking at the wheel in front, not much sightseeing. The rest of the time, we have to be alert.

This is one of the most tiring aspects of the Tour, in the first week especially. With so many crashes and wind changes etc we constantly have to be aware of what is happening and ‘switched on’. Cav has said this is the most tiring part of the race and I’d have to agree!

Speaking of Cav, he is having another amazing tour. It's crazy the situation he is in now. If he wins by a wheel, "Oh, Cav is struggling". Or even worse, if he gets beaten: "Oh, what’s wrong with Cav?".

I guess that’s the price you pay for being the fastest guy in the world. It's good to see him winning though, albeit in a rival team. We’re good mates at the end of the day, and both British.

There are also a lot of rumours and stories of whether I will miss the Tour next year because of the Olympics.

The way the Team Pursuit is these days, I think you need a lot more time on the track to adapt and really get up to speed.

There’s talk of me doing a few tests after the Tour to see how I have coped.

At the minute, I am unsure of what I will do. Obviously I love racing here at the Tour and would love to do it again. But on the other hand I don’t want to risk losing at the Olympics, especially in London. For now though I have stage 13 of this year's race to worry about.

As I have already said, it was a great team effort and Eddie finished it off perfectly.

On Wednesday, we weren’t quite together at the finish and Eddie went for a long one. I wasn’t actually supposed to be right up there. I was keeping Brad well positioned, out of trouble, and in front of any splits.

We went through the 2km to go banner in the top 10 and I couldn’t help myself… why not!! But yesterday it came together perfectly.

It’s been a great week for the team and of course myself on a personal level. Wearing the white jersey has been a great honour and morale boost. I’ve been loving this first week.

The racing has suited me well, obviously I would love a stage win and have been asked many times when it’s coming… Well hopefully I will get an opportunity at some point during the race and I’ll try to make the most of it.

2011 has been the second year I have come within a few seconds of taking the yellow jersey. It’s been a dream of mine since I can remember. I’m sure if I keep putting myself in the mix, it will happen one day.

With regards to the mountains, like I said in my previous blog, I will do my bit and sit up and save as much energy as possible for the next day. This first week has taken a lot of effort, as you can imagine, so by the time I get to the final week I will have to look after myself as best as possible.

In the future, is it something I want to go for?? Of course I would love to be able to climb with the best in the tour. In the meantime I just want to continue to improve as a bike rider, and if I think I can target a race like the Tour, then 100% I will try!

 This first week, although its been very enjoyable, its also been marred by a lot of crashes. But that’s the Tour. It’s not nice to see fellow riders fall and break bones.

But, at the Tour, everyone is nervous, everyone wants to be at the front and everyone wants to win. As a result we stress, get too close and crash.

Everyone complains, yet everyone still stresses and fights for position. It is just one of those things I guess.

Is the route more dangerous than normal? I don’t really know, it’s my third tour, but in the first I could barely see as I was hurting so much!!

Guys don’t complain at the Classics… but then again they are different races. The weather doesn’t exactly help matters either.

Your vision is obviously impaired and braking is a lot different. A lot comes down to us the riders to ride safely. There’s definitely a few guys out there renowned for riding like ‘desperate fools’ but I’m not going to name any names here… Sorry!!

 Finally, the icing on the cake this week must be sharing my ‘podium experiences’ with my girlfriend Sara. The team carer has managed to smuggle her behind the podium most days.

She has been out here since the TTT and it’s been great having her here watching. Sa and my family/friends give me heaps of support and it is great to share it with them. I’m certainly looking forward to a ‘few’ beers with the boys back in Cardiff come August!! Thanks to everyone for the support and good luck messages – it really means a lot.

 G

 I’m really looking forward to the racing now though. There’s been a lot of talk and build-up to this year’s race and so it will be great to just get going.

For me, the Team Time Trial is the stage I am most excited about. I love them, they are very similar to the Team Pursuit on the track, albeit quite a bit longer.  Obviously the TTT is a ‘big hit’ for a lot of teams as the yellow jersey could be on the line.

Basically, if there is a bunch sprint the day before (stage 1) then most of the riders will be on the same time.

This means whichever team wins the TTT will also take the jersey. Exciting stuff, no?!

Especially because we are in with a real chance. Usually the team leader would cross the line first, so wear the yellow jersey.

 I am still young enough to qualify for the young rider's jersey which I wore last year. It isn’t something that I’m thinking about though. I will have the same approach as last year, if it happens, it will be great and a massive bonus. It was amazing wearing that white jersey last year! Stepping onto the podium after each stage was something I had only dreamt of before. Just putting the jersey on in  the morning would make me feel good. Then I’d start each stage at the front next to Fabien who was in yellow as we rolled away.

As I said though, I am not thinking of myself. The team has a massive opportunity to do great things in the overall competition so I will be saving all my energy to help achieve this. At the start of each stage we will all have our individual jobs. On the flat days I will probably have to sit with Brad all day, probably with one other.

I will be there to shelter him from the wind and keep him in a good position, in case the race splits in crosswinds. I will also stop when he stops, ie, with a puncture or a ‘call of nature’. Other guys will then be on bottle runs to and from the car. Others will be on ‘early doors’, which means they will either be trying to get in the breakaway or making sure the ‘right’ break goes with only a couple of riders there. It all depends on the tactics for the day i.e. if a sprint is likely or not. Basically we want to get Brad to the finish as fresh as possible, so he saves himself for the selection in the mountains.

 I’m actually kind of looking forward to the mountains as well. There’s always a great atmosphere, and a few crazy outfits to keep the gruppetto amused. The Dutch and the Basques stand out as being the loudest and most enthusiastic, or maybe just the most drunk. However, the Brits and Norwegians are catching up!

There’s a different approach to mountain stages. Each rider will have their own ‘finish line’ on the stage. Basically, we take turns to set the pace for Brad up the hill - then drop back when we've reached our personal 'finish line.'

The better the climber, the longer they will have to stay near Brad. Once we’ve completed our job, we’ll find a group to ride with and take it as easy as possible. Conserving energy is important, especially over a 3 week race around France!

I also enjoy the time trial days. They usually start later in the afternoon than the normal road stages meaning a bit of a lie-in which is always nice. A lot of guys use it as a rest day and ride around making sure they make the time cut, which is usually around 15% of the winner's time. Time trialling  is something that I want to continue to improve in, so the more I do ‘flat out’ the better, no rest day for me then…

Although it's going to be a busy few weeks, I'll do my best to answer as many of your comments and questions as possible.