For more than three decades John Barclay and his trips for young British riders to race in Belgium was central to the development of swathes of British racing talent.
Croydon-based Barclay had been travelling to race in Belgium with his club Festival RC for over a decade when a promising set of junior riders arrived in the club. He decided to take them abroad to race to gain valuable experience.
His trips to Belgium would become legendary. Almost every British rider of note will have been present on one of them at some point, and many others besides. The extensive list of alumni includes Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Tao Geohegan Hart.
In the early 1990s David Millar was among them. He recalled just turning up at a “house in Croydon”, unaware of what lay in store.
Millar said: “He had this Mercedes estate car. Three or four of us crammed in, with the bikes on the roof and off we went.”
It was a formative experience for Millar, as it was for so many others: “I came back from that first trip and it completely changed my outlook on what cycling was… It was what made me think this is what I want to do. I want to race on the Continent, I don’t want to race in the UK. The level
