When we last caught up with Simon Gerrans he'd finished the Ardennes Classics well with a top-15 finish at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and was about to head out to the United States for a block of altitude training in Colorado.

Since then he's returned to Europe, and after putting in a solid display at the Tour of Luxembourg, he is now in action again at the Tour de Suisse.

Team Sky have yet to name their Tour de France line up but Gerrans is hoping to play a key role if he is called upon to help Bradley Wiggins's bid become the first British rider to make the podium in Paris.

June 12 2010

After the Ardennes Classics I had about five weeks between races so I took the opportunity to jump on a plane and jet off to Colorado for a good block of training and a bit of downtime.

It's my third trip there and it's always worked really well for me. The rides there are so diverse and it's also hard to replicate that sort of altitude training in Europe given the extremes in temperatures at this time of year.

I've also got some good friends out there so that was another reason why I chose that location; it's also a nice way to break up the season and cover some different ground.

Having done that block I headed back to Europe fresh, motivated and ready to go again.

The Tour of Luxembourg was first up on my return and was a good race for me. I really enjoyed the event the last time I rode it back in 2005 and it was a similar story this time around.

It's nice countryside there; the rolling terrain is very similar to what you get in the Ardennes, and it's a style of racing I obviously enjoy.

On top of that it was just great to get back into racing again and was good on so many levels.

Luxembourg was a useful stepping stone for all of us and the team worked really well together. The best thing to see was that we all improved on every stage. Everyone's condition got better and better which was the most pleasing thing about the whole tour.

That process continues now with the Tour de Suisse and we're one step closer to the Tour de France. It's another level up from Luxembourg. In the Tour de Suisse we've got a prologue as well as a time trial, plus some fairly demanding mountain stages, so it's a good opportunity to test condition ahead of the Tour de France.

Between Luxembourg and the Tour de Suisse I spent three days training in the Alps - click here for photo gallery - and had the chance to look at one or two of the Tour stages, which could really help next month. I feel like I've come out of that well and am pretty much exactly where I want to be at this moment in time.

(Simon has his own personal website at www.simongerrans.com and there are regular updates on there for viewers who would like to keep in touch with what he's been up to in between his blogs here on TeamSky.com.)