These last few days until you actually stick a number on your back and start racing in the Tour de France are the longer days of the race because all you are doing is just waiting to get up, on your bike and begin racing. Until then you are just doing all the extra stuff out of the race. And by the time you get to the first stage, it feels like you have been going for a week already. So now we are just looking forward to getting the job done. And we will do so on stage one, a 197.5km stage from Brest to the finish in Plumelec which is a popular city for cycle racing in France and where I have raced. There were one or two races I did there as an amateur. And I have  raced there twice as a professional in the Grand Prix de Plumelec. The second time - last year year - I won. I know that finish, know it well. It will be very hard to predict.

Simon has joined his Credit Agricole team in Brest for the start of the Tour de France. After a short ride this morning to get used to some new equipment, the riders headed into the centre of Brest for the Team Presentation. "The Tour de France presentation is always fantastic as it attracts a huge enthusastic crowd".

Credit Agricole's line up for the 2008 Tour de France:
Mark Renshaw, Remi Pauriol, Christophe Le Mevel, Dmitriy Fofonov, Jimmy Engoulvent, Alexandre Botcharov, William Bonnet, Thor Hushovd, and Simon Gerrans.

By Jean-François Quénet
In a strong contingent of nine riders at the start in Brest on Saturday, Simon will be one of the most experienced Australians although he’s only in his fourth year pro. But that will be his fourth Tour de France as well – just like Cadel Evans who will attract most of the media attention this year. From these nine starters, only Stuart O’Grady, Robbie McEwen and Baden Cooke have started more Tours than Evans and Gerrans. Milram’s Brett Lancaster only had a taste of it last year as he had to pull out on stage 5 because of injuries, while Adam Hansen from Team Columbia, Crédit Agricole’s Mark Renshaw and Trent Lowe of Garmin-Chipotle will be the rookies in the absence of Olympians Michael Rogers, Graeme Brown and Bradley McGee who have not been selected by their Professional teams.