DRUG cheats don't realise the impact of their actions on the many people involved in a sport we all love. Our situation at Credit Agricole is an example. Despite recording nearly 20 wins this season, our future sponsorship is uncertain.

Team manager Roger Legeay says we have a potential new sponsor, but I am worried the organisation now won't put pen to paper as a result of the doping fiasco. Roger says he will let us know by the start of August. We don't know more than that.

When Italian Riccardo Ricco was busted and his team, Saunier Duval, pulled out of the Tour, I was rolling to the start line of stage 12. There was a bit of a sombre mood as everyone realised there was another huge scandal in the race. But once the flag dropped, I had to think about the job at hand.

As for the race itself, I feel like a mile away, condition-wise, from where I have been in the past, but I am improving each day.

It's been frustrating not being able to get into the break of the day. Now I have decided to give up thinking too much about it: I am simply going to stay up there and hope that sooner or later I manage to join a winning breakaway.