BBC Radio 5 Live's Phil Sheehan is following this year's Tour of Britain with presenter Peter Slater.

Another year, another Tour of Britain. This time last year I was espousing the merits of our own domestic Tour, having been impressed with the quality of racing, the emergence of some of young GB talent and the fact that the yellow jersey wasn’t decided right until the final day. It struck me that the Tour was maturing nicely, albeit with a couple of small lessons to learn, and that it would improve.

Well it’s certainly a pleasure to be back this year. Okay, the weather’s not nearly as good as the south of France in July, but there are worse jobs than reporting on a bike race - especially one that starts down the road from where I live, where I ride most days and where it’s usually congested with cars and trucks going nowhere fast.

A big ‘chapeau’ to the ToB organisers for getting the opening stage on such a picturesque circuit in central London.

My day was made when I managed to blag a ride in the Rapha-Condor Recycling team car - team manager John Herety was at the wheel and on the radio speaking to his riders, while Andy Verrall was on hand to assist riders with mechanicals and punctures. I’d never ridden in a team car in a race before so it was a big eye-opener following the race from behind. I couldn’t have asked for better hosts - even if I did fear for my life a couple of times as John put the car through its paces as the peloton cranked up the speed!

Rapha-Condor Recycling are one of our domestic teams, a mix of experienced riders such as Dean Downing, Kristian House and Olympic points race medallist Chris Newton, as well as some younger hands who are being blooded against world-class names here. John explained that the objective was to look out for stage wins wherever possible this week, and also to go for maximum exposure and try to go after a jersey or two.

He certainly wasn’t let down by his troops on stage one, as Kristian House got into the break of the day, which included former Giro d’Italia winner Danilo di Luca (a slightly controversial character, for the record), and then took the first polka dot jersey by getting sufficient points on the fearsome Col de Tower Hill.

Much of the time I was wondering what the heck was going on as the information on race radio crackled through in what was at times English, then French and occasionally what sounded like Swahili. The big drama of the day, as far as my hosts were concerned, came around the middle of the stage when Dale Appleby punctured – cue some madcap driving from Mr Herety to get to his rider and a lightning-fast wheel change from Mr Verrall.

It all happened as the bunch was picking up speed and Dale, trying to make his way back to the peloton behind the team cars, was being advised to shift it so he wouldn’t lose contact. Now it’s one thing to ride right on the bumper of a car on perfectly smooth continental roads, but this is London and the roads are shocking… poor young Dale hit a pothole just as he was moving his hands from the tops to the drops on his handlebars and he was thrown right off balance, unclipping one foot from his pedals and landing painfully on a rather delicate part of his anatomy on his bike’s top tube.

Quite how he managed to avoid crashing I have no idea – he said afterwards that his life flashed in front of his eyes for an instant. I captured most of it here on my audio recorder, so here’s a taste of what it sounds like in a team car.

Anyway, I’m glad to say Dale finished in one piece (I think). The Rapha boys had done a good job getting a rider on the podium and ensuring it wasn’t just the likes of Alessandro Petacchi taking all the plaudits at the end of the day.

It’s encouraging to see our domestic teams with the bit between their teeth, making the most of racing against world-class riders on home soil. I’ve a feeling this week will see some brave performances from the Brits and I hope to be speaking to many of them between now and next Sunday. If you have any questions you’d like me to put to the riders then post them here and I’ll do my best to get them answered.

In the meantime, happy pedalling, folks.