I've been a professional cyclist for the past six years and I've spent the last three of those on the Navigators' Insurance team. It's an American team, based out of New York, so I spend a fair amount of time over there too. There are seven on the team: two Russians, two Australians, one guy from the UK and myself and Ciaran Power from Ireland.

At the end of the year I'm joining a new Irish team called Pezula based out of Galway. At the moment it looks as if everyone on the team is Irish and we're aiming at the team pursuit event at the Olympics in Beijing and also at the individual pursuit events. The first qualifying race is in Beijing in December and there are World Cups in Los Angeles in January and Copenhagen in February, and the World Championships in Manchester in March. We'll know after that whether we've qualified.

It's a good time for cycling in Ireland, despite all the doping controversy surrounding this year's Tour de France. It's the first time in a long time there's been a big international road race here. Years ago in the days of Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly there was the Nissan Classic, and now Failte Ireland has sponsored the Tour of Ireland. It's a five-stage race covering 864km. It's getting massive television coverage . . .in Ireland and internationally.

There are 16 teams competing . . . from Germany, Denmark, Holland, Italy and the US . . . and it's a novelty for me having my own team race in Ireland . . . it's the first time it's happened.

By Saturday we had raced 235km around the Galway area so by Sunday we'll all be pretty tired. We'll get up at around eight and have a big, carbheavy breakfast of cereals, yoghurt and pasta. I'll have a good few cups of coffee too . . . at this stage in a race I need all the help I can get. Then we'll get on the bus and be driven to Athlone, which is where the stage starts at 11. It's 150km to Dublin so we'll be finishing up in Merrion Square at around 2.15pm. Everyone will be going flat out and it's likely to end up with a big bunch of people racing hard for the stage finish.

It's important to get a recovery drink into you within 15 minutes of the finish . . . it's a mix of carbs and protein in liquid form . . . and then, if we've done well, it's a matter of cleaning ourselves up and getting onto the podium. Straight afterwards there'll be anti-doping control . . . blood or urine testing . . . for the stage winner, the yellow jersey wearer and another five or six random competitors. I'm planning on taking my teammates out on the town that night and showing them around Dublin.

The first priority will be finding somewhere good to eat . . . we'll all be starving! I don't get to race here very often so it'll be chance to hang out with family and friends too.

On the rare Sundays that I'm at home in Mayo I like to have a really lazy day. I give training a miss and my wife and I sleep late, have a leisurely breakfast, read the papers and then, if the weather permits, maybe take our boat out onto Lough Corrib for some water skiing.

In conversation with Katy McGuinness