I receive lots of mail from fans who tell me how lucky I am to be around the team, and how much they envy me. Well, I am darn lucky to be considered “one of the guys” by the Discovery Team. I’ve been around the team for five years now, and it has been a process of earning their trust and confidence. The guys like and trust me, Lance likes and trusts me, and Johan likes and trusts me.

They know that I am not going to pester them for stuff, that I will stay out from under their feet (or should I say wheels) and that I am going to respect what they do and say behind the scenes. Their private life is private to me, and they know that I am not going to try to run out and make money from photos or quotes. For example, at the Tour where George met his podium girl, Melanie, I was there for their first kiss and took pics. I sent them to George and that was it... I didn’t publish them anywhere, even on my site.

George told me he was OK with making them public, but it just didn’t feel right to me. They were just the sweetest photos you could ever see - but those shots are for their private photo album. The shots are theirs, not mine.... So when little Julia Paris Hincapie was born, George sent me the address and password so that I could see the first pic of Julia on the hospital website. He knew without even saying that I was not gonna pass it around to everyone. It is just a part of the private life of a famous rider that needs to stay private. True for George, for Lance or for any of the guys....

Email addresses? Yeah, I have them all - I’ve had Lance’s for years and have never given it to a soul. Not one person: my best friends, my family or even the guy in Belgium that offered me 100 euros for Lance’s email. The very first time that I met Lance was when he invited me into the team bus in Antwerp, Belgium. What he said about me then is still true now, “She is the only fan who doesn’t want a piece of me”. It's really Trust, not luck - that’s why you see me around the team...