Aboard the Garmin-Transitions team bus

We were out in the New Forest today getting all hands-on with the new Garmin Edge 800 GPS unit – more on that later. But while we were there we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a nose round the Garmin-Transitions team bus. And here's what we saw.

The Garmin-Transitions chaps weren't exactly bigging up their bus, describing is as "not as posh as the Sky one", but hop on board and it's a pleasant enough place to be. Up the front there's a driver (natch) and behind that enough swanky leather seats for the riders, soigneurs, hangers-on and such. There's a projector too, and behind that a couple of leather couches for relaxin' and that.

Step a bit further back and there's a kitchen type area, with a microwave, good quality coffee machine and – unusually – a slushie machine which we're told the team use for smoothies but we reckon it's blue raspberry flavour all round, assuming it's UCI-legal. We also discovered Dan Martin's secret super-breakaway lunch ingredient to fuel him on those flights of fancy:

After that you're into the showers; there's one each side. We didn't photograph them because it was a bit dark and, well, they're showers. If you don't know what one looks like you could take a wander down B&Q...

Behind the showers there's a treatment room: If you're the lucky pro getting a massage on the go then you're right by the back window. Presumably there's some sort of blind to spare other users of the UK motorway system the sight of shaven legs been given a thorough rub down. There's a spot for the race radios back there too, and huge piles of energy gear for the team to munch through on their rides.

And that's about it, really. Pretty nice as buses go but we're guessing everyone gets a bit stir crazy on those long transfers from Glastonbury to King's Lynn and the like. If we get a chance to step aboard the posh Sky team machine we'll certainly take it for the purposes of comparison...