Hello Lionel Bernie here and this is my postcard from Strada Bianca. It was my first trip

to see the white roads and I had a very enjoyable couple of days travelling around Tuscany

with Simon Gill, our resident photographer. We sampled the Tuscan wines, the famous

Fadjoli and of course the Bisteka alla Fiorentina. My only regret is that I didn't have my

bike with me because although undoubtedly tough the white roads look great fun to ride.

And the countryside, well everyone knows Tuscany is absolutely beautiful but there were

moments when I looked across the landscape and I realised I was holding my breath. One

day I'll go back and I'll ride the Grand Fondo which is held the day after the races.

Anyway, this is the first of two episodes this week. We'll have race analysis and reaction

from Strada Bianca and Parry Neath with Richard Daniel and me later in the week but if you'd

like to be transported to Tuscany for an hour or so join us on the road. Because neither

Simon or I had been to Strada Bianca before we felt we had to do a full recon the day before

the race and so you join us on the outskirts of Siena trying to get ourselves organised.

We've had a hopefully got all of our mistakes out of the way the day before race day, haven't

we? What's happened so far? When we left Florence this morning we forgot the paperwork

we needed to be able to take our higher car out of the overnight parking garage so you

had to run back to our apartment to get it and then after a very pleasant pizza in the

Piazza del Campo in the centre of Siena Simon you left all of your accreditation, your

photography bib, the envelope containing basically your passport for tomorrow's races on the

table under the bill and you had to run back and get that so you're getting the steps

in this morning. I'm getting up to 12,000 already. It's the pizza, although delicious

it did make me quite tired and forgetful. You're the first time in the centre of Siena

...