Red buses, black cabs…and Argyle!

Dan gets a few last minute tips from his mother Maria before the start of Britain stage 1 in London.

A very special Tour of Britain report from Neil Martin, Dan’s father
After a journey by car and the famous (infamous?!) Underground, the main protagonists of the Martin Family descended on London to celebrate Dan’s return to racing on British soil. He last raced the National U23 Championships in 2005; his last as a Briton. Grandma Martin (a.k.a. the G. Ma. M - pictured below) was along for the ride to watch her No.1 grandson race for the first time since the Verona Junior Worlds in 2004. Also along was Dan’s potentially No.1 fan, Uncle Paul and wife Liz.

Having previously raced myself on a variation of the London circuit, it was easy to locate. However, a few streets away it appeared to be London’s best kept secret with no signage or warnings of road closures to indicate there may be something big going down and worth a look! Inspite of this, the crowds were more than impressive and there seemed to be no more popular attaraction in the ‘paddock’ area than the Garmin boys. They were leapt on at every opportunity by an eager young crowd to sign anything and everything. In fact, one of the highlights of the day for me was when, just as the bus was about to leave after the finish, a young fan pleaded with Sandra the Soigneur to take his waterbottle onto the bus and get Julian Dean to sign it. This she did; however, the look on the lad’s face was priceless when J.D. himself got back off the bus and signed it in front of him and had a brief chat.

The race went well, all round safe with C.J. omni-present in the main break of the day and Big (Strewth! How big?!) Maggy B. rounding off the day with a fine 3rd place in the gallop. Personally, I was more than pleased to see that Dan and C.J. were over their attacks of ‘Portugal Gut’ and well on the way to top form again. We had a great day; wonderful to see the close knit family of a team at work but obviously enjoying life at the same time.

Finally, one thing intrigued me: Why did the mechanic turn every wheel of the bikes on the car rack so that the valve was hidden behind the frame or fork? Answer next week?!