I was lucky enough to spend 10 days back home after a quick visit to Beijing for the Olympic Games. It is great to finally be in the one place for a while...and even better that it is at home. You tend to get used to living out of a suitcase but it is always nice to come home and pack the suitcase away. After nearly 4 weeks at the Tour de France, I raced a couple of criteriums before going into an Olympic camp in Italy. We were not there for long before heading to Beijing. It was awesome to go to the Games and the whole size of the event blew me away. The village was exceptional…there were athletes of all shapes and sizes; from tiny gymnasts to the USA basketball team…it was crazy!! The food hall was another sight. You wouldn’t want to be looking for someone in there as it would take you all day. The road race was on the 9th of August, which was the first day of competition. There was no hanging around for Matty Lloyd and myself…we were on the first plane back to Europe the next day. It would have been nice to stay a couple of days but there are still some important races back in Europe so it was best we head home.

I’ve been feeling pretty good, especially on the bike. I guess having some time at home to recover from the past 6 weeks has done me the world of good. There is not a lot of racing on the calendar until the end of the season so I’m staying focused and trying to do the best I can. I'm now at my last tour of the season, the Eneco Tour. After that I have about 5 one day races then the World Championships in Varese, Italy.

We have just completed stage 4 of the Eneco Tour and I am feeling quite good. I'm being very realistic about my chances for a result this week as the race is more suited to bunch finishes, as we have seen in the past 3 days. I knew that this race wasn't going to be one with many opportunities for me personally however it should be a good solid week on the bike and will hopefully help my form for the remainder of the season. Yesterdays race was fast...we averaged 53km per hour in the first 50 minutes until a break formed. It has also been tough with the rain and the cooler weather. After being down in the south of France for 10 days leading up to this race, I wasn't prepared for the rain...but that's racing. We have got another 2 stages to get through until the final time trial into Mechelen. After Eneco, I'm heading home for another 10 days before Classic Hambourg. 

I've raced Hambourg before and it is a good race. The only negative factor is that it is quite a way from my closest airport in Nice. Last year we spent the whole day just getting to the race. Hopefully our team will fly us there 2 days before so that we can get the long traveling out of the way 2 days before the race. There are some great races after Hambourg. I placed 5th in Fourmies last year so I will be hoping for a result there before heading to the World Road Championships at the end of September. 

I hear that Buller still has a lot of snow...it would be kind of nice if there was still snow when I arrive back to Australia on the 8th of October...I might even dig the ski's out.