So just who the heck is "JB Junior?" Team Astana fans have no problem quickly shouting out that 'JB' would of course be Team Manager Johan Bruyneel. But who does the team call 'JB Junior'? A correct guess would be former Slovenian and U23 World Time Trial Champion (2004) Jani Brajkovic.

A pro since 2005, Jani wore the gold jersey for two stages in the 2006 Vuelta a Espana. He was also the overall winner in the 2007 Tour de Georgia and Best Young Rider at that same race in 2006. Jani has agreed to write a personal blog for Team Astana fans reading enjoyment. He will share with us what goes on behind the scenes, his thoughts about racing and teammates, and in general let you take a peek into the life of a professional cyclist. And Jani speaks perfect English so when you run into him at a race this season, be sure to say "Hi!" and thanks for sharing his world.

It’s been a long time since my last post. Honestly, I don’t even remember when that was, but I surely remember this patch I’ve been through since. It has been pure hell. The past couple of months every day I would wake up, hoping to have better legs, but as soon as I clipped in the pedals, I knew it was the same: sh...y legs and no power...

Now I’m feeling much better and I want to thank everyone for their support over the last few months. Family, friends, and fans – everyone has been great. It’s a really nice feeling to be back on the right track and racing, doing better and better every day. Though I’m still suffering quite a bit and having poor recovery, I’m so motivated and ready to race. One cannot imagine how much I’ve missed racing and being with the team, the staff and all the teammates.

I have to say I was really surprised with my Catalunya performance. It gave me so much motivation. Now I’m training in part of the Slovenian mountains, where we have some amazing climbs. Training's been great and so has the weather, not to mention the scenery is just awesome.

The other day I did a climb to the highest paved road in Slovenia. It goes from 600m to 2000m in just 16km (1968ft to 6560ft in 10 miles). I was stopped by snow on the road with just 2km (1.2mi) to the top and in a few places I had to walk over the snow. All in all, it was worth it. Just pure solitude and amazing views.

Yesterday I did a race in the city nearby. It was a 90 km circuit race on the streets with quite a few corners and some paves. Really fast, with a lot of accelerations and rhythm changes. That’s what I’m really lacking so it was good training. Also my legs were good.

My next race will be the Dauphiné in France. I’m hoping to do well there by helping the big guns on our team.

That’s it for now. I'll post again soon...Here are some pictures of the 2000m climb.

- Jani

Finally, I would say! After a long time abroad, Gran Canaria and USA, I'm finally at home. I was only 3 days in Slovenia this year to be correct.

Well, after coming back, I was hit hard with jet lag. First night I didn't sleep even a minute, so I snuck out of the bedroom and started assembling my bike. I have to say it wasn't getting better all week, actually training was getting worse each day...wow I'd say.

So, I mentally prepared for suffering at next race, at the Vuelta a Murcia...and it happened. First day I couldn't even think, it was so bad. But actually I think I was lucky because Alain [Gallopin] and the guys really understood my problem and supported me big time.

As the race went on I started to feel better and better, and finally I was able to finish it. It was a good race for our team. Conta proved his potential, Toni, Chechu, Dani, Sérgio and Maxim were also super good. And our team spirit was awesome.

The "Mafia Espanola" was once again at work hitting each other with garbage bins full of water. Actually they did something every day. But the most dangerous guy is Sérgio, he looks so nice and quiet, but he is NOT! He's a "terrorist" as they call him. Watch out for him!

What follows? Actually rest, loads of rest. With the mistake I made after coming back from the USA with not resting enough and training too hard, I need to take it easy and let my body recover. To be honest, for me, making myself rest is harder than a block of hard training.

Till the next time, Jb Junior.

Today I decided to write about our staff on the team. I think many times we riders don't appreciate their work enough. I mean, these guys work hard, super hard. Its not that they do 2-3 massages a day and that's it; oh no! They've got to wake up early in the morning to prepare everything for the race: bottles and race food, then they set everything we need out at the breakfast table (which is a lot by the way!).

They treat us like kings I would say. We've got everything we want.... (well, at least on Discovery and now Astana it is like that.) After the race starts 2 guys usually go to the feed zone and the rest of them go to the next hotel to fix everything that has to be set up: from rooms to food to preparing massage tables to washing the bikes etc.

After the race finish usually things get pretty nervous because everyone has his own wishes. Each wants a different recovery drink, someone wants this, other one that.... Once we get cleaned these guys then take all our dirty clothing and wash it. After that they start with massage and I mean really good massage.

I'm a "patient" of Richey. He's one of the most hard-working if not No.1 soigneurs in the pro peloton. When I say that I really mean it. He's incredible. He works at least 18 hours a day non-stop and the other 6 hours he's thinking how's he's going to work again. And he's super reliable. I can simply say he's THE BEST. He's always in a good mood, happy, ready for some jokes.... he's incredible!

Ok let's get back to the routine. When they finish with massage, they again have to take care of dinner, wash more dirty clothing etc. Sometimes when we would have one washing machine and plenty of stuff to wash, these guys had to stay awake till late at night to get things done and dry. In the morning they would take all our suitcases to the truck to be transferred to the next hotel. And that's only one day in life of soigneur at Team Astana.

Now I hope you can imagine how much effort these guys put in to make us happy, fit and ready to roll... I would like to say: Thank you guys! I admire your work. Without your help racing would be so much harder

After a prologue and one stage at the Amgen Tour of California, I can say I still love it. Even though I'm not in top shape, I still love to race and suffer on the bike. It's the best sport in the world.

Yesterday's prologue was super hard for me. Yeah, it was only 3.4km and flat, but for a diesel engine like me it's the worst combination I could imagine. Levi did super good, finishing 4th, proving that he's ready to take the jersey in the next days.

Today, well, today wasn't easy by any means. After an easy start and a break, some teams started to chase, and we were going faster and faster. After the small selection on the climb, we finished on an even faster circuit. Wow it was dangerous, and unfortunately there were some bad crashes. Goose had some bad luck earlier in the stage and ended up finishing in the second group because of that.

Tomorrow is stage 2 and we all hope it's gonna be a good day for Team Astana, with some sunshine and warmer weather.

- That's it for now...from the massage table - JB junior.

Feb 15 - After three weeks of staying in Albuquerque, we finally flew to Palo Alto on Thursday to get ready for the start of the Amgen Tour of California. Not that I didn't like ABQ; in my eyes it was great; I had some really quality training, I've experienced training in sub zero temperatures (ed. Centigrade), snow and wind. But overall, I think it was good idea to stay there instead of going home to Europe and coming back again. We got the benefit of training at high altitude, good training roads and especially sunshine. I love when I wake up and the skies are blue and the sun is shining. It gives me some extra motivation!

Anyway, we arrived in Palo Alto yesterday afternoon. Right after we got here we did some light training. I was really happy to see my teammates again, have a chat with them, and share some thoughts. They didn't believe me that we were training in the snowy conditions in ABQ, so when I show them a picture of Sandia Crest with me and Levi on the top , they were stunned.

We actually climbed that 14 mile climb of which last 7miles the road was completely covered with snow. We still have couple of days until the race starts and a lot of things to do: team presentation, some interviews...and of course every day's massage from our great guy Ritchie.

More about him and the race next time. Thanks for reading, I hope it wasn't too boring - Jani.

Greetings, all - Gusev, Andrey Mizurov and I arrived in San Diego Thursday evening for some important TT testing while our teammate Chris Horner would come in to meet us the next day. We met Steve Hed and Dino at the hotel and had our schedules set for Friday in the low speed wind tunnel at the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

I was first the first to be tuned by speed specialist Hed and his team at 8AM. After a few shots taken by photographer Dave Wrolstad it was time to get down to some serious work.

After a few runs Steve and company managed to fine-tune my position, resulting in a savings of one minute in a 50km time trial! We lowered my position by 1.5cm and made my elbows sit in very close to the body, making me in a very narrow position. It was amazing to see how much less drag I produced with that position! The only thing we need to test now is to see if I can actually produce the same power output. We will test that soon.

Next up was Gusev. Again the experts in the wind tunnel managed to solve some aerodynamic issues right away for Gusev. He actually gained a massive 150 seconds over previous testing in 2006! Next was Horner and then Mizurov and again we saw big improvements through working with Steve.

At the end of the day we were all pretty tired but extremely happy and thankful to Steve Hed and his team who did an amazing job with us once again. It was just awesome to see him and listen to his ideas and watch the results of his work as drag numbers dropped from one run to another.

Thanks again to the San Diego wind tunnel team, Steve Hed and company for an amazing experience!

Chris Horner gets aero