When we last caught up with Simon Gerrans he was about to start the Tour de Suisse and waiting for the announcement of Team Sky's Tour de France squad.

Three top 10 finishes in Switzerland underlined his form and he is one of the nine men who is now about to represent Team Sky this month in their debut at the world's greatest bike race.

July 1 2010

"I did a pretty heavy training block with the Tour of Luxembourg and Tour recon in the Alps before the Tour de Suisse so I really wasn't sure how I was going to perform in the race itself but it all worked out pretty well for me.

"It turned out for the first few days that I was really on top of things and my ninth place in the prologue was probably the most promising result.

"It's pretty much the best time trial result I've had in Europe and to do it in a quality field at the Tour de Suisse was really good.

"The only thing that was slightly unfortunate was I got a little bit sick when it got very cold and wet towards the end of the race. So I stopped with one day left to head home and recover. That took me a couple of days but then I came out of it fairly well, freshened up and I'm feeling really good now.

"It was fantastic when I was confirmed in the Tour de France squad. There are a lot of good strong guys in the team all wanting to race so to be in the nine was really good.

"The focus will clearly be on Brad over the next three weeks and he's obviously got the full support of the team. We know he's got a real chance so it's really motivating to have a guy like him driving us.

"I won't be doing anything at all to inhibit my chances of helping Brad. There'll be no silly energy wasted spending all day long in a breakaway because you could potentially need that energy in the following days.

"However there might be an advantage in some of the middle mountain days to get in a break if that takes the pressure off the guys in the peloton. If that's the case and I get the opportunity up the road and the team want me there then I'll be going for it but my main goal is to get Brad up there in the GC.

"We've been busy doing recon this week - it was the stage three cobbles on Wednesday and then today (Thursday) we're going to focus on a few of the tricky parts on stage one. Potentially there could be quite a lot of crosswinds so it's important to know as much as we can in advance. Then we'll be having a good look at the prologue circuit and getting ready for Saturday.

"I'm really looking forward to the race as a whole but a couple of days in particular have caught my eye starting with the Chambéry to Gap route on stage 10. I think that's going to be a great stage and one where I can show up well. And stage two into Spa will be interesting as there a couple of climbs I like and know well from Liège-Bastogne-Liège."

(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.)