Essex boy Dowsett ready to sign off in style
British star tells Tom Cary he is quitting Movistar with no regrets and that a win on his native roads would be the perfect way to say goodbye
Alex Dowsett is diplomacy personified but ask him about Geraint Thomas’s victory in the opening-day time trial at this summer’s Tour de France, which saw the Welshman become the eighth Briton ever to claim the maillot jaune, and he is honest enough to admit it was a bittersweet experience.
As a friend and former teammate of Thomas’s at Sky, Dowsett was delighted for him. But as a time-trial specialist himself, the Essex rider could not help wondering how he might have fared in a cold and wet Dusseldorf had his team Movistar not elected to leave him at home.
“Yeah, it was a little [bittersweet],” he sighs. “I do seem to be quite good at wet technical TTS, provided I don’t bin it. But I sort of knew from a long way out that I probably wasn’t going to the Tour this year because of the type of riders the team were going for and what they could do for Nairo Quintana. It wasn’t ideal. But I think I also knew then that it was time for a change. It helped to focus my mind.”
The change to which Dowsett is referring was confirmed a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that the 28-year-old – one of the dark horses for this year’s OVO Energy Tour of Britain which begins in Edinburgh on Sunday – would be leaving Movistar after five seasons to try his luck with Katusha-alpecin.
Dowsett says he is looking forward to being a key member of a sprint leadout again, for German star Marcel Kittel, just as he was for