Radio radio!

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Fancy a drink tonight at the bar? Nah, sorry, I can't I'm having my backside bandaged up by one of the team doctors.

Readers, I'm afraid that my saddle sore is still giving me grief and I'm not having the most comfortable time on the bike. But apart from said injury I'm coping well with everything the race is throwing at me. I rested up on the rest day and I've felt good since.

By now you've probably read a lot about the race radio situation, but in my opinion I think it was all blown out of proportion. Personally, I don't need to have a radio, I prefer to race a bit more with my head.

If it's not a big race, I race without one all the time as I much prefer it. In a race situation the only time I use it is if I get a flat or come back to the team car for water bottles, but if it's a mountain climb or sprint you just look down at the speedo or look at the race manual the night before. Of course I'm not going to be jumping in the air hoping that we race without them again, but it wouldn't be a huge problem.

It hasn't been good for us but you've got to give it to Cav, he's just really strong. I actually thought that stage 12 was going to be a lot harder than it was with the uphill finish. We came into the final straight at 65kph and from there you could pretty much roll up the hill, so in the end the Columbia train didn't have much trouble at all.

I thought it was more of a finish for Oscar Freire and Thor Hushovd but Cavendish was too good. Our tactics won't change though, as he's only seven points ahead of Thor and there are lots more hard stages to come where we can get points. I think it's fair to say that if you bring Cav to the line fresh then he's impossible to beat. It's frustrating seeing the same guy win, too. But it's a long race and I still feel good. And if we want to beat Cav we have to work together!