I have now been away from home for 2 months. I have lived in 2 countries and ridden for French, English and now an Australian team. I have been given a ride on cyclingnews-jako with Nico Mattan (2005 Gent – Wevelgem winner) as sports director. I’m living in a team house, currently with 7 guys; soon we lose one and gain another. There’s currently, 4 aussies, 1 kiwi, 2 brits, 3 Belgians, 1 American, 1 Canadian, and 1 Dutch guy (in the team not the house). The town is called Booischot and it is very little and about 40km away from Brussels.

It was Christmas time when I arrived as we were given team bikes (black fuga’s with Dura-ace) and armfuls of new cycling kit and team leisure wear. I got every form of cycling kit going and the same applied for leisure wear...name it and I’ve got it, in purple, black and white for the cycling kit and black and white for the leisure wear. We are just one massive walking advertisement board. As far as transport goes, well, we have 3 cars, 1 people carrier, and 1 truck (which we just spent 4 hours re-stickering). So, it’s easy for us to get around. Also, for the riders use, we have a house car which is fantastically useful for shopping. If we did not have it, it would be a 5 km walk to the shops and 5km back – hands full of shopping.

Training here is good, use can use the back roads and they are fairly quiet. Already this year we have trained on the liege-Bastogne-liege and tour of Flanders courses. It’s really good to finally see them and it made me realise just how much I want the opportunity to race them soon. So far I have done a handful of professional races and all has gone well. It’s a good job they have gone well really because I’m going to need to be good this year for racing in Serbia, Russia, Belgium, France, Holland, Germany, Australia, and Britain (tour of Britain – if we get a start). Therefore it’s a long, hard season.

That’s all for the moment because it will just get boring, I will now promise to write more often so I can say more things so........I PROMISE!

I still love you all...............

Matt