A few days after the Tour de Ski's end, everyone has gone home and has begun to recover from these 12 full days.

It is the first real rest day today without any driving and running.

Four days before the top of Alpe Cermis, the question of the final victory has become clearer.

We again saw exciting races yesterday, especially in the men's race because all competitors came together quite early on in the race.

For France, it was a good start for us into the Tour with three ladies and three men in the top thirty.

The first world cup period is already over and it?s time for this year?s first major event, the Tour de Ski. The first part of the season was riveting. While Peter Northug clearly dominated the men?s field, the French team had its best ever group result in the Davos 15 km Freestyle.

Dusseldorf, an unusual World Cup event, marks a transition, and an easy one at that, between the first two Scandinavian stages and the later middle Europe ones. Just like most distance specialists, I skipped this stage in order to better prepare the rest of the season.

It’s wintertime again. As usual at this time of the year, TV cameras are once again turning to winter sports. Being an Olympic year, everyone’s attention is already focused on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Both the media and the general public are impatiently awaiting the start of the Games in Vancouver.