It's been a bit of a rollercoaster period for Simon Gerrans since we last caught up with him in mid-March.

Back then, the Australian had just completed a successful week at Paris-Nice and was hoping to use the Critérium International as preparation for a determined assault at the Ardennes Classics.

Unfortunately though, his plans were thrown into turmoil when he suffered a bad crash on stage two in Corsica and his form suffered somewhat as a result.

But now the 29-year-old is back to full fitness and admits he has learned a lot from the ups and downs of the last five weeks.

April 29 2010

After Paris-Nice I took a few days off to rest up a bit before starting my build up for the Ardennes Classics.

I spent a couple of weeks at home in Monaco and went into the Critérium International feeling in pretty good shape, but then I had that heavy crash on stage two and that put me right back.

I was riding along in the bunch when it happened, working for Russell Downing. I was about to lead him out for the sprint finish and I hit a hole in the road which knocked my hands off the handlebar and caused me to lose control of my bike.

In the crash I lost a lot of skin down one side of my body and I was forced to stop the race there and then. Back at the team hotel I got myself patched up but the cuts were worse than anything I'd ever had before and I was pretty fortunate not to break any bones. That whole incident put me out of action for a week or so because I couldn't train properly at all.

I went into my next race at the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco covered in bandages and my wounds were still not properly healed. Being under the weather, I didn't have any expectations to get any results, all I was hoping to do was get through it as part of my preparations for the Ardennes.

I felt better and better as that race wore on though, and came out of it a lot stronger than when I started it.

From there, I headed straight up to Belgium to step up my training ahead of De Brabantse Pijl despite the fact I hadn't really recovered from Pais Vasco. Unfortunately though, that race didn't go well at all really.

I sat quietly in the bunch as we entered the finishing circuits, but at the end it came down to who had the legs, and I didn't. I survived though and was continuing to feel better and better.

In hindsight, I think I just needed those two races to get myself going again really as the crash meant I had missed a vital period in my training programme.

The Amstel Gold Race was next up and despite feeling physically stronger, I went into it feeling a little bit disheartened. The guys in the team were fantastic though and they did everything they could to give me the best opportunity in the race.

I was up with the main contenders until the last 20 kilometres, but my day ended when I got dropped there and I eventually crossed the finish line in the second group. Despite that late disappointment, I was still a lot happier than I had been beforehand.

La Flèche Wallonne was only three days later and Bradley Wiggins and Thomas Löfkvist joined up with the team for that so the leadership was spread between the three of us. Everything started really clicking well at that point and the rest of the guys helped us out brilliantly during that race.

We really worked well as a team, maybe better than any other race of the season up to that point, and we were up at the front for most of the day riding really aggressively. Unfortunately none of us had the legs to finish that hard work off and get a result, but the way we gelled was certainly a big positive.

Because of that performance, we started Liège-Bastogne-Liège feeling really upbeat and the teamwork was fantastic again. Bradley got a pretty untimely puncture but we battled on and worked well together again. There was myself, Thomas and Steven Cummings just off the back of the second group in the final stages battling for 11th place, and they helped me finish the day in 12th.

All-in-all the Ardennes got better and better for me over that two-week period, and to get 12th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège was not a bad result.

Looking ahead

There has been no let-up in my schedule since then. I flew into Manchester for a meeting at the Velodrome on Monday and then went back to Monaco to spend a day there, before going back to England to catch a flight to Colorado on Wednesday.

I'm going there to do a few weeks of altitude training. My wife is coming over with me and we'll be staying with some good friends so it should be fun. I'm really looking forward to getting out there and getting into a good routine.

This next week should be pretty light as I need to get acclimatised and recover from the Classics, but from then on I'm going to be focussing all my attentions on the summer tours.

My next race looks like it's going to be the Tour of Luxembourg at the start of June, and that throws up a bit of everything over its five stages. The area takes in some pretty rolling countryside around Liège so it should be a good little starter to get myself back up to speed.

(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.)