It’s a done deal folks. Marvin meets Great Britain! Last Sunday on August 29th, 2010, the Marvin UK Pro Cycling Team Classic wowed a captive audience in the UK during its last official race of the year. Marvin Watch C° was a proud supporter of this event and donated a beautiful M107 (Valjoux 7750) to the lucky winner. We have a full lineup of the day’s events on our Flickr slide show.

Why is this exciting news? Because it coincides with the imminent opening of our Marvin online store serving six countries so far including, you guessed it, Great Britain! – This will allow us to fulfill and process the numerous product requests we have gotten from the UK over the past six months. So make sure you sign up for instant notification  as soon as the eShop opens (just sign up for our newsletter in the upper right corner of this page).

And off they go!

The race was held last Sunday in dry and temperate weather around the tough 4.97 mile Brentor circuit.  A mix of professional and amateur racing cyclists took part in a 56 mile slog climbing the Brentor hill a total of ten times.

Winner takes home the Marvin Valjoux M107

The Men’s race was a hotly contested affair with a surprisingly strong field (attracting the likes of Rapha Condor Sharp and Willier Big Maggys Prendas) probably because of the attractive prize of an £2000 M107 fine Swiss watch from Marvin Watch C° 1850.

Rapha discussing tactics before start

The start sheet included some of the best riders in the UK including a full Rapha Condor Sharp line up with the likes of Dean Windsor, Tom Southam, Zak Dempster and Graham Briggs.  Pendragon Le Col Colnago had also brought out the big guns with local legend Yanto Barker.  And finally Willer Big Maggys had a strong team with number 1 ranked UK rider Marcin (the Polish express) Bialoblocki.

Chris Opie takes off

The race started at a frenetic pace with early attacks from Pendragon’s Chris Opie and James Smith Probikekit.com. These were quickly nullified before John Locke Rapha Condor put in a strong early move up the Brentor climb.

Finally, the string broke and Zak Dempster and Darren Lapthorne (Rapha Condor Sharp) pulled away to form the winning break.  These two were never more than 30 seconds to a minute from the bunch so it was by no means an easy race.  It was not until the bell lap that they knew they would stay away.

Finally the two leading riders came over the brow of the hill for the sprint, there were no favors here as Zak Dempster narrowly took the victory from Darren Lapthorne.

Zak Dempster accepts winning M107 gift from lovely Carleen Bush

Zak was over the moon about his victory “I really wanted that watch, I can’t believe it this is the best prize I have won racing here in the UK”. Looks like the rumors are true after all. Marvin watches are indeed the only way to ride to the top

And starts proudly wearing it

For the official British Cycling results with placements, check out British Cycling Magazine online.