the Australian National Champions jersey on your back all season?  Does wearing the jersey command any additional respect from your peers?

MW: It's felt great. It's definitely raised my profile and made me a lot more recognizable in the peloton. I don't know about it commanding any additional respect?! It's just a race like any other. I think how you go about your job and your life is what commands respect.

IM: When you look back a few years to around the time you were sick, did you ever imagine that within only a few years, you would have competed in two TDF's and won the National Champs?

MW: Never in my most wild and far off fantasies! And if someone would have suggested it to me I would have thought they were taking the piss out of me and probably would have got up them.

IM: Given a carte blanche to ride the season of your choice, which races would you choose to focus on and which would you avoid?

MW: I pretty much have a carte blanche in Fdjeux! That's one of the great things about our team. Within limits we are allowed to decide our own program and the team does all the major races that I would want to be involved in. So I would stick with a Grand tour or two and most of the World Cups (except the really hilly ones of course) which is what I'm lucky enough to do!

IM: If your career were to end tomorrow, which race would you have to win today?

MW: Paris-Roubaix... but it's not on today dammit???

IM: Your team mate, Brad McGee, has been very outspoken on the hot topic of the season: doping. 
Baden Cooke was caught up in his own ?scandal? in the French press and, besides the recent Cofidis affair, there have been several other riders caught.  In your opinion, do you believe that the sport is doing enough to combat the problem?  Is there an answer out there?

MW: The sport is definitely doing enough, no sport gets tested like we do and cycling is implementing new measures constantly.  As for there being an answer out there, I couldn't say. I seriously doubt it.  Cheating has been around for as long as sport has and nothing short of a lie detector that's 100% accurate or a crystal ball will ever stop it.

IM: During the season, you?re based down in Nice along with Brad,
Baden and a few of the other FDJeux.com guys.  Do you tend to socialize as a group away from the bike?  How do you relax after training and between racing?

MW: Myself,
Baden and Brad are best friends on and off the bike. If bike racing didn't exist I think somehow we would still have been best friends and I think that's what makes us strong. We do everything together from kicking around down at the beach to going out for dinner on regular occasions. There always seems to be something going on down