Third race of the year done, this time the 185km long Clasica de Almeria. It's a sprinters race, as the last "climb" is far from the finish and only about a kilometer long. We did however try to drop some of the pure sprinters on one of the earlier climbs, with some success. We spent a lot of the day riding in the front, trying to at least make the race hard and not just a walk in the park. In the end our sprinter ended up second, which I feel is a good result for the team.

This morning after breakfast we headed out with the bus from Calpe to Almeria. When about 40km were remaining, we pulled over and got out and rode the last part to the hotel on our bikes. Then a late lunch, massage and some time to relax before dinner. Now a good nights sleep is what's left on todays schedule.

We have now finished our hard three day block and will now focus on recovering and traveling down to Almeria for Sunday's race. We will head down tomorrow after breakfast, then 50km before Almeria we will get out of the bus and ride the last part to the hotel. Then lunch, rest and massage and then we will hopefully be ready for Sunday.

Training conditions here in Spain are ideal at the moment. Weather is great with temperatures just below 20 degrees, the roads are still quiet as the tourist season hasn't started yet, and the group of riders here are all on a good level. Today we did some riding and race simulation on our TT bikes, both team time trial as well as a individual time trial. Then, after a change into dry clothes, we headed out several hours more on our road bikes. In the end it was a long but useful day, getting the most out of our time here in Spain.

So, I'm back in Calpe again, in the Diamante Hotel which has opened its doors again after the Legionnaires' disease shut it down after we had been here last time. We will be here until Saturday morning, when we head down to Almeria for a one-day-race there on Sunday. Then, after the race we come back here and then fly home on Monday afternoon. Today we had a good hilly ride with efforts, and tomorrow we will use half of the training to ride on our TT bikes and do some Team TT training ahead of Tirreno-Adriatico.

Have had two nights home since "Haut Var", but it's now time to head out again for the next camp/race. Will fly from Nice through Madrid to Valencia, and then about an hour with the car to Calpe where we will be staying until Friday. Had a chance to ride through Monaco today in some nice temperatures, around 16 degrees, so I'm sad to leave but it's part of the job.

Second race and the years first stage race completed. Today's 203km stage did not pass quick at all. After 3 hours of racing we had only done 100kms, but the legs felt like they had raced a full 200km stage already. As we got closer to the finish the speed increased and the adrenalin got pumping so time starting passing a lot faster. There was a lot of attacking the last 40kms, but I stayed in the main group, saving my energy to the last 1km finish climb. I entered the climb in the second group, but gave all I had and was able to finish 7th on the stage and 9th overall. Not too disappointed with that, sensations were that I have a good base but that the speed of the racing has done me well for the next races. Next race will be Almeria, on the 26th of February.

The 2012 season has officially begun. Today was the first stage (out of two) of the race Haut Var. It's only like an hour and a half's drive to the west from Monaco, so almost like a local race. Today was the flatter of the two stages, 190km long. The terrain here in never flat, so it turned out to be a hard day in the saddle. I missed a group of about twenty riders which went on the second last lap of the final circuit, but general sensations were ok. Tomorrows final has a steep climb, and the entire stage should be a lot harder than today. It's also over 200km, so I'm hoping I will have recovered well from today.

Tomorrow's schedule

Puh, after more than three weeks being away from home, I finally got back home to Monaco. My motivation was suffering a bit the last days in Tenerife as I also had to fight the cold weather, but I was able to get the job done that I had on my plan. Before heading to the airport yesterday morning, I managed to get some time on a trainer. As I sat there (I had planned to go for a ride outside, but freezing temperatures had closed the roads due to ice), the power of the hotel went down, including cell phone coverage. After a dark shower and cold breakfast me and a team mate headed down the mountain with a taxi as soon as the roads had opened and were able to start our trip back home. Shortly after midnight this night I finally set foot inside my apartment in Monaco, soaking up the great feeling of being home.

Two last photos from Teide this time around. I might come back in a couple of months before the giro though.

Weather's still not changing to the better here on Tenerife. Yesterday we had a long day on the bike but were forced to ride the last hour in temperatures just above zero degrees, with 100% humidity as we were inside the wet clouds.

Not great conditions as we passed Vilaflor, which is at about 1400 meters above sea level. Also notice (mobile camera not great in this kind of light) my team mates Silva Simi, just confirming the great safety aspect of this product as weather often changes when one least expects it.

Yesterday was the first time I had rain here on Tenerife. Already when leaving the hotel we had to change our original plans due to snow on the north side, which is where we were planning to go. As we descended on the south side into the clouds, we felt it was colder than usual, but continued down and then headed east. We soon realized we were riding into some rain, so we dropped down to the coast hoping to avoid it, but we weren't so lucky. About 30 minutes of riding in pouring rain, looking up towards Teide and seeing how rain was pouring on the entire climb back up again, we seriously doubted we would be able to get back up on our bikes. We decided to go west along the south coast, and luckily enough, we managed to ride out of the rain and around the clouds, climbing back up on the west side, in dry but cold air. All in all a good day, but not what you expect on the Canary Islands.

There have been a lot of clouds here over Tenerife the last couple of days. Luckily for us, we're above the clouds, so we at least we get to leave the hotel up here with clear skies and decent temperatures. Once we descend a couple of hundred vertical meters or so, it's a different story. Yesterday morning the roads were frozen and a section of the plateau up here was closed. They're expecting this cool air to stay for another couple of days or so, but hopefully already tomorrow things will start getting better.

You can't really tell by this foto, but there's a thick layer of clouds covering the lower parts of the island.

There's not much to do here than to train. In some ways it's a great life, getting to travel the world and staying at nice hotels. In other ways it's nothing but suffering, being away from family and friends, and doing nothing than being on the bike or in a hotel room. Although I at times want nothing than to puke on my bike and life, I at the moment quite enjoy it.

There have been a few race changes for me and the team during the first part of the new race season. I was to start off with Volta Algarve, but then we weren't doing it, so instead I will be doing the two day race Haut Var, in southern France. And, just recently both Giro del Sardegna and Giro del Friuli have been canceled, leaving several riders without races before Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice. As a plan-B, I will be part of a 8 man team to do the race Almeria, in Spain on the 26th of February. But we will leave already 6 days before the race from home to Spain, to take part in a miniature training/racing camp to prepare for Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice. Another camp, fine with me.

Just wanted to show you guys my new 2012 Ergo 3 Sidi Astana edition shoes I'll be using this year. Sidi supplies me with shoes, and to me they have always been one of the best looking shoes on the market. White is always the best looking color if you ask me, and adding some Astana colors just makes them fit even better with the team clothing.

One of the things that I really like about Teide is the crystal clear air and bright light we get most days up here. Having spent several weeks this fall/winter in Sweden, where daylight is almost a luxury, I really appreciate the light up here.

Just another example of the bright light we get up here. And, the good thing is it's from 7.30 in the morning until 7 in the evening.

So apparently as almost the entire team left Calpe on Friday, we were told that the hotel would be closing for a couple of weeks due to insufficient guests. Yesterday morning I received an e-mail from our team doctor saying there was another reason to the closing of the hotel... Have a look at the print screen below to find out why. The incubation time for Legionnaires' disease is up to 10 days, so I need to be cautious until the 14th of February. Not so good...

First training ride on Tenerife this time around went well. Getting the hours but keeping the intensity low was the plan and was also how it went down. Tomorrow will be a similar ride, but slowly I will start integrating some intensity during the training. Staying in altitude is stressful to the body, thus important not to stress the body too hard with the training before being acclimatized.

It's cool to look down over the clouds, knowing that's where I'm heading.

I am now back down on Tenerife, up on Teide. Again the motive is to get good weather and to get the benefits of staying and training in altitude. The weather is good, but the only thing that worries me at the moment are the strong winds, today being forecasted to 80km/h, and tomorrow up to 100km/h. Training on the south west side of the island should help me stay out of the worst winds though.

It is now the last night here in Calpe before heading to Tenerife again. I have a direct flight from here, so the trip should be quite relaxed, without the normal stress of having to change flights. And, best part is that my training bike is already there, as I left it there last time I left. Today we had planned to do some Team Time Trial ahead of Tirreno-Adriatico, where there is such a stage, but this was not possible today. The bad weather which seems to have hit most of Europe the last 24 hours finally made it here as well, whitening the tops here with snow and dropping temperatures down to 2 degrees even down by the coast where we are staying. I managed to get a couple of hours of training done, but I am now trying to recover a few days ahead of another good block of training on Tenerife.

This Calpe camp is slowly coming to an end. Only a full day here tomorrow and then the day after it's time to move along. In the beginning, I didn't really like it here in Calpe. It felt like we were always doing the same loops and that the roads were boring. The more I am here however, the more I like it. Not just the roads and climbs, but the whole setup we have here, the rooms, the food and the tranquility of the entire area. I'll be sad to go, but there are other roads to be ridden and other climbs to be conquered. Tomorrow might offer some rain again, so we made sure we used the day to get a lot of hours on the bikes.