Our Discovery team has taken a few hits so far this season - it’s been a rough one for some riders. I hear that Hayden Roulston is very gingerly back on his bike after having a painful cyst removed. He was tentatively scheduled to start at Catalunya on the 16th, and then head for the US - I think maybe for Philly (but that is not confirmed). Doesn’t give him much training time at all before Catalunya... He’s had some bumps along the way in his short Discovery career - he celebrated his Olympics selection in the land of Oz, got too rowdy and got nailed by the long arm of the law. Johan wants his riders squeaky-clean, so I think maybe Hayden was sweating that one...

Yaroslav Popovych has had visa problems (naw - not the plastic card type) and seems that they are now straightened out, so he can get back to work. Christian Van de Velde had to go thru a whole rigmarole with the same type visa issues when he started with Liberty Seguros. Speaking of CV, I saw him at the Marriott lounge on Sunday when the Tour of Georgia ended. He gave me and big grin and a big hug... He is such a great guy. I remember training camps in Arizona, where CV rode along beside my car, chatting through the passenger window at 30 mph, then said “see ya later”, stood up on his pedals and took off like my car was standing still...

Haven’t had an update on Mike Creed and his fatigue problems for a while - hope he is doing well and recuperating. And hope that Leif Hoste is doing well, too - remember he got his knee pretty banged up at a Milan-San Remo crash. It’s real tricky to get back into training and competing with a knee injury - so easy to stress it and re-injure it.... And Michael Barry had to drop out of TdG with stomach problems, but I think he’s OK by now....

And don’t forget to cyber on over to www.amdprocycling.com to stay in the know on the latest hi-tech AMD stuff that our DC guys are using. And speaking of MB, he has a journal on the AMD site, too.