Where was Roger Federer on my horrible Valentine's Day?

I'm a bit nervous but, at the end of the day, all I have to do is talk about cycling and I'm good at that although I'll have to do my homework as I've been away from the track for a bit.

I'm sure it'll be hard watching some of the bunch races that I'd ordinarily be competing in but I'm looking forward to doing the punditry.

I've been inhabiting a slightly surreal world of late, staying for 10 days in a Dutch hotel full of Dutch people in the heart of Girona, Spain.Clearly riding for a Dutch team - AA Drink-Leontien - has had an effect on me as I found myself watching their equivalent of Blind Date the other night.

I can understand a bit of the language so I got into it. On the language side of things, my manager and the other riders were talking about me in Dutch and I heard him say, "Don't worry, her Dutch is slow", but I gave him a bit of a shock by saying back, "It's not that slow." Anyway, they weren't saying anything bad - it was only my fourth day with the team so I'd hope that was the case!

It's odd as a lot of the girls in the teams used to be rivals, ones I'd be elbowing out of the way to get a sprint win and you have perceptions about what they're like as individuals just by their riding styles or the faces they pull when they race.

My perceptions have been wrong and it's a great group but thankfully I'm the sort of person that stays friendly with most of the riders in the peloton as you never know who your next team-mate might be.

Sticking to Blind Date, it was Valentine's Day on Tuesday and we have a Spanish guide out here who kept on about how romantic it was being out on the road but it wasn't, it was a horrible day of training. If I had to go for an ideal Valentine, it'd probably be Roger Federer. Okay, I know he's married and he's probably a bit old for me but I love the suits he wears at Wimbledon, he seems like a gentleman and he's a bit rugged, too.

I finally start racing the weekend after the Track
World Cup and it'll be good to see how the winter's training's been going. It's certainly been varied. Last month, the weather was lovely out at a Team Sky and Team GB training camp in Majorca.

Then I was back at home in the UK and riding in the freezing weather. My brother and I set off on what we thought were gritted roads but ended up going over a snow-covered road pedalling with one foot and dragging the other along the ground. I think we invented a new sport - cycle sledging.

Well, it's been nice and sunny in Spain for the past 10 days but the temperatures have generally been freezing. It's the perfect preparation for the cold races I've got coming up.

Going back to Majorca, the biggest revelation was that Dave Brailsford, the performance director of British Cycling, has his own travel ironing board with the words "hot to iron" on it. Who'd have thought it?

Follow Lizzie on Twitter: @L_ArmiTstead