You take good news whenever it comes, especially on the Tour de France when the timing of it can help a lot.

I can vouch for that, having finally gotten on top of the bronchial illness I had coming into the Tour, just as the race is about to hit the first mountain stage in the Pyrénées.

I had been suffering and felt it going into the time trial, but now I feel ready to do what I came here to do and help Christophe Moreau as much as I can for the next big days.

The team is looking forward to what’s ahead, and the stage win by Sylvain Calzati on stage eight at Lorient has given us the boost we needed as we go into the Pyrénées.

My role will depend on how I feel and how long I can go on the first mountains. But we have a bunch of great climbers in the team like Frenchmen Calzati and Cyril Desall and Spaniard Jose Luis Arrieta who will be pumped, racing near his homeland.

As we head into the Pyrénées, a lot of people are talking about Thursday’s 11th stage from Tarbes to Val-d’Aran-Pla de Beret being the big one. But I don’t think that because it is the “big” one that that takes away the danger of tomorrow’s 10th stage from Cambo-les-bais to Paul. There may be a affair way from the last climb, the Cold e Marie Blanque, but with the race so open and relatively little time between the so many contenders on overall classification that there is, keeping tabs on who is in what break will be vital. Make no mistake, we – and every team in it – will have to be alert.

Christophe Moreau is feeling good. And who knows, may produce the goods? Many people are trying to figure out why a French rider has been unable to win the Tour for 21 years. And that has led to a lot of criticism of French riders in recent years.

Saying that, you can’t ignore the fact that in this year’s Tour, two French riders have already won stages in this year’s Tour, firstly Jimmy Casper on stage 1 at Strasbourg and Calzati on stage 8 to Lorient. Two wins from nine stages … that’s not a bad result.

Still, it’s hard to say why a French rider hasn’t won the Tour overall since 1985 when Bernard Hinault took his fifth title. I don’t why they haven’t come up with a big hitter to win the Tour overall. And at Ag2r, I am on a French team and race with French riders.

I know from amateur racing I have done, that the level is much higher outside of France. From juniors to Under 23, the standard of each other country is a step higher than France.

My teammates hate racing outside of France because they basically get their arses put on a platter. But I am more of the mindset that ‘out of France’ is where we have to race because that is the level we have to step up to to get into these ProTour races. If you are not used to racing the best guys you are not going to be competitive against the best guys. That is like stepping out from A and B grade (Cat I and II). If you stay in B grade you are not going to be competitive in A grade.

Maybe it is because the French guys are content with what they got. They do quite well racing in France, making a living out of that. They are in their comfort zone a little bit.

It probably helps that we have a few nationalities in our Tour team – well, the number depends on who you talk to. If you count Basque as a nationality – as that is what Spaniard Mikel Astarloza is – we have four nationalities. Everyone else says we have three. Either way, it opens everyone’s eyes up a bit. We’ve done more racing in Spain. It has lifted the team to a higher leave. But then, our number one rider – Moreau - is French.