A couple of weeks ago I went all the way to the Basque Country to watch cyclists. This weekend the cyclists came to me! Or almost. I had to go to Ipswich, which is about 1.5 hours away. And it has to be said that I prefer the Basque Country to Ipswich. Anyway, here is a little photo album from the start of stage 1 of the Tour of Britain, run in lovely warm sunshine through Suffolk and Norfolk. Urlaub is a Suffolk boy, so he came too. We wore orange, which I'm sure will be a shock to you all.

Ipswich really looked rather charming this morning. Almost like the French Riviera. Almost. The stage started just on the other side of this quay.

In order to get to most of the team buses, one had to negotiate the vast crowds around the Sky bus. I think quite a lot of people forgot there were other teams in the race given the lack of crowds around everyone else. This was fine by us though, as we were FAR more excited by certain other teams! The Euskies were fairly slow to emerge but there was a pretty bike standing outside the Big Orange Bus. I wonder who this belongs to?

The British development team in relax mode

Marc de Maar in his awesome kit. As one of the few pros I actually know a bit he came over for a lengthy chat, which made me happy! He was very pleased that we had produced some Caribbean style sun for him.

LOOK! An ACTUAL Euskie, in Suffolk! Ongi etorri Adrian Saez de Arregi!

Saur. I'm not really very good at telling them apart in sunglasses, to my shame.

BASSO! Excitement abounds!

Victor Cabedo was wearing woolly shoe covers. A bit hot for that one would have thought, but then I guess he is Valencian.

Pablo Urtasun, a jolly soul

Ricardo Garcia

Cabedo was oso lasai (very chilled)

Samu attracted a bigger crowd than most non-Skys and he was very obliging, making time for all the fans, including his British superfan. Gracias Samu!

A Greenedge dude. I'm really not sure who..help?

And this...?

Willem Wauters makes some checks

Oh, WHAT a charmer! :-)

Basso with new boy Benfatto, who appears not to have a team bike yet!

The Liqui boys were very amused about something. No clue what.

Damiano Caruso

Tyler Farrar was the only Garmin we saw all morning. Did they teleport to the start or something? I was a bit sad not to track down Sep(s)

Will's mate Jerome Coppel

Fabrice Jeandesboz. I love that name.

The actual start area was rammed with people and there was no chance of seeing anything, having lingered at the buses for so long. No matter though, for we had a truly lovely morning, even if Ipswich isn't Pamplona.