When we last caught up with Simon Gerrans he was about to start the Tour de France. It's something of an understatement to say things didn't exactly go to plan - hear his take on it below.

But the good news is that he's now back to full fitness and about to focus on building up to the final Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta a España.

August 12, 2010

The Tour de France was a bit of a disaster for me really; anything that could go wrong seemed to do so. Right from the very start I did my prologue in the pouring rain and then kept getting tied up in crashes, three very heavy ones in that first week.

And then came stage eight where I got tangled up in a big fall at the beginning and broke my arm - that was the end of my Tour de France.

It hurt like hell. The crash came after only 7km of an 189km stage and as soon as I got back on my bike I realised I couldn't put any weight on my left arm. I had a sort of shooting pain up into my elbow. And that only got worse and worse during the day but I did what I had to do to finish the stage. I knew there was going to be a grupetto because there were a couple of fairly nasty mountains but by the end I needed to be helped off my bike. There was no way I was going to abandon though in case I'd maybe just torn a muscle or strained it or done something that could allow me to continue after the rest day.

However I went to the hospital the next morning to have it X-rayed and sure enough I had a double fracture. I was obviously disappointed with that news but the way I felt during that stage I pretty much knew myself that my Tour de France was over.

I went home on the rest day, straight back to Monaco. I was a bit beaten up with my arm in plaster, a big black eye and skin almost hanging off my body - basically I looked like I'd been run over by a bus.

I had a couple of really easy days and put my feet up but after that the focus was all about my recovery and getting back into shape.

I had about two weeks where I was riding on the home trainer every day as well as going to the gym. The first week of that was with my arm in plaster and then in the second week even though I was out of plaster I couldn't really ride on the road so stuck with the home trainer. The problem with that is you can't spend hours on end on there as you'd go insane!

As soon as I got the green light to go back out on the road I've been doing some long miles and getting the endurance back in my legs - I had 10 days or so working really hard.

And then the past few days and this week it's about sharpening up again before I get back into racing at the Tour du Limousin next week.

As soon as I crashed in the Tour de France I thought it's going to be pretty vital that I do a Grand Tour and I was really fortunate that the team put me back in the Vuelta squad. It's a big race and it's given me a real focus for the last part of the year - to race in that and then hopefully go back to Australia for the World Championships.

My season has been a bit up and down this year with a heavy crash just before the Ardennes Classics early on and then having to abandon the Tour de France so this is a great opportunity to try and make amends.

I head off in just under a week's time from here for Limousin, followed by the GP Ouest France-Plouay and then the Vuelta. I'll be on the road for about five weeks as those races are all pretty close together.

Looking towards the Vuelta we've got a good all-round team. We've got Thomas Löfkvist on the GC but have also got a strong team to go for stage wins and get in those crucial breaks. Pretty much everyone on that team is capable of doing that if and when the opportunity arises.

I'd also just like to mention the Sky Ride I went to in Manchester - it was fantastic. I've been hearing a lot about the Sky Rides since the team got up and running but this was my first experience of it in the flesh. It was terrific being part of it and I was really impressed by how many people turned out to ride their bikes, it was incredible to see.

It was also good to get all the feedback and enthusiasm from people there who had watched us in the Tour de France - either going out there themselves or on the TV. I was obviously only at the Tour for the first week or so but it was clear the whole team had fantastic support out on the road which is great to see in our very first year.

(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.)