If you've got to hang around waiting for something big to begin, then the Ritz's Carlton hotel in Qatar is the right place. On the edge of the desert overlooking the sea, with a brilliant gym, swimming pool and those really comfortable beds, it makes the wait for the 2008
MotoGP season start with practice on Friday evening just about bearable.
This is it. The moment everybody has been waiting for. All those cold cycle rides around the Chilton Hills and the runs over Shotover Hill on the outskirts of Oxford are forgotten as we prepare for a 17-round World Championship that will take us round the globe.
Both myself and the team are ready for what lies ahead.
Pre-season testing has been fantastic, but racing can be so very different. None of us are getting carried away because, for 40 minutes in a race, you have to put in those fast laps when it counts. In practice and testing, you get a second chance if you make a mistake but, in the race, you don't have that luxury.
I led the way after three nights of testing in Qatar, which was due to a lot of hard work by a lot of people, including my Polaris World team and my trainer, who put together a fantastic plan to prepare me for racing at a strange time and under floodlights.
It was the very first time I'd ever ridden a motorbike at night, and it certainly was very different and made me concentrate very hard. The track is well lit, but you can see nothing else which is really strange. It took a little getting used to because the track appeared shiny with a glaze-like surface. Also, there were a couple of problems with shadows, but you have to accept that and get on with it.
