Team meeting tonight and it is my usual rest day anyway. Last night was the first night I hadn't taken any cold medication since the cold started and I really felt it in the morning. My nose was really stuffed up and I kept trying to hack up stuff but nothing of substance came, just thick saliva. Still, it was good to get that stuff out.

News Item of the Day: LUCCA, Italy, March 7 - Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini will be 38 this month but he showed his younger rivals he can still win races after 16 years as a professional by taking the Giro di Lucca race in Tuscany on Monday.

Cipollini beat fellow Italians Paride Grillo and major sprint rival Alessandro Petacchi after a hilly 177km race that served as a warm up for the seven-day Tirreno-Adriatico that begins on Wednesday and next week's Milan-San Remo.

Petacchi was unbeaten so far this season after winning eight races and was the favourite to win again but a misunderstanding with team mate Marco Velo in the final corner left the door open for Cipollini to sprint to victory in the race near his home.

"I'm very surprised I won but I'm also very happy. People keep telling me I'm too old to win at 38 but I'm enjoying proving them wrong," Cipollini said. "In the last few weeks I've been training hard for Milan-San Remo and I think my form is pretty good. I needed to see if I'm still competitive with the other sprinters and I think I got the answer I was looking for." It was Cipollini's second victory of 2005 after winning stage four of the Tour of Qatar in early February and the 189th win of his career.