best year ever, yet it is proving to be the most difficult to get a contract.

Anyway, I've tried not to think about it too much and have been concentrating on having a good Vuelta.   I honestly don't know how the form is.   I know that I was very good in August but I don't know if I'm at the level now that I was then.   You can't hold on to it forever.   Getting crook during
Denmark really knocked the stuffing out of me and it has taken me a while to get over that.   This is pretty normal though after such a hard and long season.   My immunity system isn't bouncing me back as quickly as it normally does.  

Since being well enough to train properly, I've been doing really good quality training and I even went to the
Pyrenees to do some training in the mountains.   Although I'm not a mountain climber, I really enjoyed it.   The air was a lot cooler and the riding was awesome.   More than anything, it was mentally refreshing to train somewhere different for a while.    I trained hard that week and hope that it will enable me to survive the very difficult mountain stages included in this year's Vuelta.

We have a few sprint stages and some of the best sprinters here - which I'm happy about.   I look forward to the chance to race and sprint against them.   I know that I have the ability to beat them - I just hope I have the condition for it.   At least with them being here the race will be controlled a bit to set up the field sprints.   I hope I can benefit from this.   

I don't have any riders of my own here to support me in the sprints but I'm sure that I can fight enough in the sprints to do it myself.   I just have to be a little smarter, plus more aggressive and decisive than the others.   I've done it many times before solo and I can do it again.   I can't wait.   When I think about it, that is what I love.   Being up against it.   Being the underdog.   That's what you have your whole career in a sport like cycling when you are from NZ and that's what I have always had to battle against.

So guys, cross all your appendages for me.   I'll be out there giving it my best...

Julian Dean
Team CSC

For more background info on Julian, check out our  wait a minute interview with him.