Dowsett excited to reunite with old pal Froome
ALEX Dowsett is looking forward to catching up with an old friend as he races alongside Chris Froome for the first time in almost a decade this week.
Four-time Tour de France winner Froome will make his Israel Start-up Nation debut at the UAE Tour which begins on Sunday, the first time he and Dowsett have raced as teammates since what Dowsett calls the “Team Sky C team” in 2011.
“I very much feel like we’ve pretty much achieved the same things since Team Sky,” Dowsett told the PA news agency with a laugh.
“He’s won six Grand Tours and I’ve won six national time trial titles.”
It was pointed out to Dowsett that Froome now has seven Grand Tour titles to his name, having been awarded the 2011 Vuelta a Espana in 2019 after Juan Jose Cobo was disqualified for doping offences.
“Ah the b ***** ,” Dowsett joked. “That’s ruined my Youtube video.”
Dowsett and Froome often shared a room in their Team Sky days, but their paths quickly diverged.
“We got on really well, but beyond saying hello we haven’t really spoken for a long time,” Dowsett said. “The way Team Sky raced, he was always seventh or eighth wheel, you never saw him in the bunch to chat with.”
The best chance for a proper catchup will come this week.
Froome spent his winter in California continuing his rehabilitation from the career-threatening injuries he suffered in 2019, missing his new team’s training camp last month.
As the 35-year-old continues to build fitness, Israel Start-up Nation will this week line up behind Ben
Hermans in the general classification battle, with Andre Greipel contesting the sprints.
“It will just be fun racing with (Froome) and getting stuck in,” Dowsett added. “It’s quite inspiring. With riders like Andre and Chris, these are seriously good bike riders with a lot of history.”
Dowsett comes into the race after an off-season of highs and lows. His planned assault on the revered Hour Record was postponed in December after he contracted coronavirus, but there was much happier news as he became a father for the first time.
LOCAL club motorcycle racers will have to hold on a few more weeks to find out if and when they will get to turn a wheel on track this season.
After the washout of the 2020 season, which left many of the smaller clubs across the country unable to hold any events, hopes remain high that action could return sooner rather than later this year.
The local North East Motor Cycle Racing Club is among those clubs which is still unable to confirm any dates. As has become tradition, the club was due for its early start at Croft over the weekend March 27 and 28. The first round tends to attract extra entries from local BSB paddock riders and road racers looking for signatures and is one of the club’s most popular events on the calendar.
However, at present nobody is sure if this event will run or if racing will be held back.
A statement from the club last week said: “At this time we are unable to confirm what will happen until the Government announce what measures will be taken for relaxation of the current restrictions.
“As soon as we are updated by both the ACU (Auto Cycle Union) and circuit managers, we will let everyone know.”
HARLEQUINS SALE
MARCUS Smith has been urged to continue placing himself on England’s radar after he steered Harlequins to a 24-12 Gallagher Premiership victory over Sale.
Smith has been influential in Quins’ four-match winning run built since Paul Gustard stepped down as head of rugby last month, but has not appeared in one of Eddie Jones’ squads since 2019.
The 22-year-old fly-half set up a try for Alex Dombrandt and kicked nine points to help his team climb to third place. Assistant coach Nick Evans insisted he must show patience in his pursuit of a first England cap.
“Marcus is playing well and that’s all you can do. Sometimes you’re just not flavour of the month, I’ve been in that situation,” former New Zealand half-back Evans said.
“He’s got to concentrate on playing well for us. If the team does well, he does well and then you’re in the shop window, putting pressure on and forcing them to look at you. Hopefully he’ll get his reward sooner rather than later.
“It was another good performance from Marcus. The ceiling is so high with him. He didn’t influence the game as much as he’d have liked in the second half but that happens.
“He will get it wrong, like any 10, but it’s all learning and this was another step in the right direction.”
Two tries in three minutes by centre Joe Marchant, followed by Dombrandt’s touch down, powered Quins 21-0 ahead, but Evans viewed his team’s work without the ball as decisive.
“Defensively it was a really good performance. The stats show we made over 200 tackles while they made 70. We showed intent and aggression, especially when defending our 22,” he said.
Sale boss Alex Sanderson admitted his players reacted poorly to Quins’ second-quarter salvo of tries.
“For 70 minutes we dominated territory but they’re the best in the league on the transition at the moment,” Sanderson said.
“From an attacking point of view we have to rake our opportunities. We left a couple of tries out there. And if we’d been a bit sharper we could have stopped a couple of theirs.”
WALES hooker Ken Owens has warned England to expect no less intensity at an empty Principality Stadium than if there were 70,000 Welsh fans screaming at them.
Eddie Jones says his England side are suffering from the drop in aggression that is evident across rugby and football due to the coronavirus-enforced absence of spectators at grounds.
England suffered their first Twickenham defeat to Scotland since 1983 before beating Italy 41-18 in another underwhelming home display.
But Wales have registered wins against Ireland and Scotland to head into Saturday’s home game with England dreaming of Six Nations Grand Slam glory.
“I think the two games we’ve played have been really physical, top-end Test matches,” Owens said.
“It feels exactly at the level we’ve had in previous years playing in Six Nations, how Test rugby should be played.”
On the absence of crowds, Owens said:
“People have heard me singing the anthem out of tune, which hasn’t been great.
“It is different. In the Ireland game all the pyrotechnics stopped and then there was this deathly silence, which was almost surreal. You didn’t know what to make of it.
“It obviously does have an effect not having a crowd because you feed off the energy of the crowd and that atmosphere pushes on.
“I can probably see what he (Jones) is on about to a certain degree. Back-toback efforts, especially defensively, and a couple of big hits, if you get a tackle on the front foot you are feeding off the energy of the crowd.
“But it’s something we’ve all got to deal with and learn to adapt. We’ve had enough time and everybody’s in the same boat.
“As a professional player there’s no real excuse. You have to find your own motivation, that energy to play at the intensity needed in Test level.”
Wales won a 12th Grand Slam under Warren Gatland two years ago, the third leg of which was a 21-13 victory over England in Cardiff.
But expectations were low this year after autumn defeats to Scotland, Ireland and England in various competitions piled the pressure on head coach Wayne Pivac.
“In the past we had a bit of expectation, the autumn we’d had going into 2019 was really good,” said the 79-times capped Owens.
“We’ve gone under the radar the first two weeks, no one really expected anything from us coming into the competition this year.
“But it’s similar how the games are set up, a week off leading into England with areas to improve and step up. It’s all about momentum now and keeping it up there.
“Everyone was really frustrated with the autumn. There was a lot of hard work put in which was perhaps maybe not quite translated on to the field.
“The time the boys and coaches have spent to get through that period, plus the review in between has really helped.”
Owens should lock hooking horns with British and Irish Lions teammate Jamie George in Cardiff.
Saracens star George started the three Tests on the Lions’ 2017 tour of New Zealand with Owens his deputy.
“I’ve always rated Jamie as a player and got on with him as a bloke as well,” Owens said.
“I saw the energy he brought, he’s always been great around the field, dynamic carrier, good defenders, set-piece wise he’s a great scrummager and very accurate at the line-out.
“Working with him, both of us pushing each other along with Rory Best, I think we got the best out of each as a unit, as a three on that Lions tour.
“It’s been great to see how he’s really kicked on since that tour, prominent during the World Cup campaign and very set as first-choice with England. He’s one of the best in the world.”
You have to find
your own motivation, that energy to play at the intensity needed in Test level
Ken Owens
BLYTH Spartans manager Michael Nelson believes the club have to learn the lessons from the last two seasons.
The Croft Park outfit have spent the vast majority of that time sat in the lower reaches of the National League North table after collecting just seven wins in their last 47 league games.
However, Spartans were saved from suffering only the second relegation in their history last season when all results were declared as null and void as the Covid-19 pandemic brought an early end to the campaign.
This season – Nelson’s first full season in charge – followed a similar path as they sit bottom of the table after winning just one of their 14 games.
Once again, it appears that off-field matters will save Spartans from the drop after it was announced National League North and South clubs had voted in favour of curtailing the season.
That decision is yet to be ratified by the Football Association and a number of clubs are threatening legal action over the vote.
Friday night brought news that 19 Step Two clubs that voted against ending the season had proposed a new mini-league to allow them to compete for promotion places.
But it seems likely Spartans have played their final game of the 2020/21 campaign and Nelson is keen to move on and learn from what they have experienced over the last two years.