Pre Tour Down Under: My last diary instalment told of the joys of meeting my new team mates and how we all get along just fine, talking different languages, drinking coffee and soaking up the Aussie sun and atmosphere. Well, I came perilously close to shattering this tranquil harmony when on one fateful training ride it was yours truly who was 'capitain sur route'. (The map reader basically). I'd carefully, over a honeyed muffin or two, planned a ride of between 4 to 5 hours, covering some of the race route we were due to ride in a week or so. For the pleasure of my multinational compatriots I tried to ensure upon a balanced route, with a mix of climbs and long flat straight bits.

The ride started well, with banter aplenty and only one or two u-turns. After about 4 hours of riding a rather sizeable and probably rusty spanner was thrown into the works. A key road on my map turned out to be just a dirt track in reality. This meant an extra hours riding at least- no problem, or so I thought.

After 8 hours, yes, 8 hours, we finally arrived back. It was lucky we had Eddie Wegelius following us in the van with drinks, of which we drank completely dry. We'd endured a day of 40 degree heat, a hairdryer headwind all the way back, the useless directions of various roadside workmen, numerous dead end roads, a track made up solely of loose stones capped off by a 1 in 5 climb and a rather annoyed Olympic Champion riding the last hour as if it was the last lap of the world road title. We were all in various states of dehydration and knackeredness- only one bloke was smiling at the end of all this. Yes, it was Yatesey. No more map reading for ol' Matty boy that's for sure. The miles in the legs should set us all up nicely for the Tour Down Under though. We all made up over a Pizza at our local that night, marvelling over our tussle with the Australian elements.

On a personal note, things are going well. (Apart from some nasty facial sunburn that kept me out of action for a day or so.) I feel pretty fit, my bike is an absolute dream and the tan is slowly improving. I'm feeling ready for my first professional challenge. Tune in, or should I say log on, for the next relatively exiting instalment of Matts' Web Diary.