Is it July already?

After writing a load of previews and guides to the Tour de France the first week can be a bit of an anti-climax, but not this year. And it’s not just the hype surrounding Lance Armstrong’s comeback. He seems to have slipped in and just become another dynamic in the race, although that may change depending on how well he does.

The organisers have been inspired with their choice of route so far. The Monaco start, the crosswinds in the Camargue and along the Perpignan coast. Let’s hope the rest of it will be as good. I’ll be dropping into and out of the race as I’ve got to do some interviews for my upcoming book about the Tour. There will also be some regular Tour rider reactions and stories on www.crazyaboutbelgium.co.uk

It’s a shame Ireland’s Dan Martin didn’t get to ride. He will be a star of future Tours; something, without making him sound big headed, he’s known since he started racing. Let’s face it, if your uncle is Stephen Roche and your dad was a good pro rider, you aren’t going to be
slow on a bike.

I visited Dan at his home in Girona recently to ask him about his speciality, climbing, and wrote about it for the Cycle Sport August issue (out now) in a piece called The Anatomy of a Climber.

What amazed me most was that although there have been huge advances in training and understanding how the body gets fitter, a lot of what Dan told me about climbing was exactly what six times Tour de France King of the Mountains, Lucien Van Impe told me in an interview when I first started writing about cycling six years ago.

Another big talking point at the Tour is who will be in Team Sky, the British team that will take part in the 2010 Tour de France. There are plenty of rumours, some definites, which I’m sworn not to reveal yet, but the important news for me is the latest signing by Team Sidwells. He’s called Jack, an eight week old Weimaraner and, as you can see, cute as a button.