The pre-everything is finally over.

As of Friday evening, there had been little biking, a ton of bus riding, two press conferences, health controls, team presentations, sponsors... enough! So today getting ready for the race was a nice change.

But before we go into any of these bike related things, I have something much bigger in my life than the Tour de France: I became a father last week. Leah gave birth to Uma last Wednesday night. Both girls are great and I am more than proud of my wife and the fact that I am now a father!

So, the last week was a bit crazy at home and not your typical week of prep for the tour. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world. Missing my daughter during the first month of her life is not easy, but the opp’ to ride the Tour with the team that we have, and of course the fact that I don't have a choice, helped me get on the plane.

So fast forward to Saturday night and I am on the bus and - surprise, surprise - on the way back to the hotel. The mood is now calm after everyone freaked out watching Fabian smoke the entire peloton.

It was insane. I am still in shock as to how fast he went. We all were expecting him to win but like that? Damn! I think that I spent just as much energy watching him as I did racing. Truly, I am in awe.

I started my ‘07 campaign pretty poorly. I felt okay but I wasn’t so sharp. Mostly on the mental side, but I am happy to be done with today and get on with the race.

Fabian will be in yellow tomorrow and, of course, that means we will be on the front protecting him. I don’t know why. He’s obviously strong enough to ride for himself.

The front isn't always best way to start off the tour but on roads that we will race on tomorrow, it could be a blessing in disguise. We will waste some energy to be sure, but we will hopefully stay out of trouble.

See you on the front tomorrow morning.