[one_half]A tough day is only a good day if I’m more or less happy with my photos. Today was a tough day and I’m happy with what I’ve got.

There was good racing across the board, this was the first time that Marianne Vos unleashed her usual, super-strong attack and she TT’d the last three laps – of a four-lap race.

On a separate but equally impressive note, I was pleasantly surprised when I learnt that Nikki Harris is now occupying the second place of the World Cup overall ranking! She’s been so consistent at World Cup races (and all other races, for that matter) so far, that she is now comfortably sitting between Katie Compton and Helen Wyman. Not literally, of course.[/one_half][one_half_last]The elite men’s race brought yet another Sven Nys vs Niels Albert battle. I did find the race exciting but as always, I’ve only seen fragments of the race so it might have been boring on the telly – you tell me.

Lars van der Haar seems to find his form again but Radomir Simunek’s 4th place was maybe even more impressive, with only 10 seconds behind Stybar.

A good day, all in all. Now it’s time for a well-deserved day off and then back in the mud on Friday. In the meantime, I’ll start to pull together a ‘Best of 2012’ gallery, so keep an eye out for that.[/one_half_last]