Alex Dowsett on the high of winning at the Giro to the low of Covid scuppering his assault on the Hour record
After a stellar year that saw him win a Giro d’italia stage and renew his Israel Start-up Nation contract for another two years, Alex Dowsett set his sights on recapturing the Hour record. Then he caught coronavirus…
Cyclist: You recently announced that you would be attempting to recapture the Hour record but plans were curtailed when you tested positive for Covid-19. How frustrating was that?
Alex Dowsett: I feel like I’ve been at the centre of every Covid scandal going this year, from being at the UAE Tour in February when the race was abandoned, being sent home from Vuelta a Burgos, racing the Giro and then ending up catching it at home, in isolation, while not seeing anybody in Essex. I took as many precautions as possible but it’s sod’s law I guess.
I started to display some symptoms at home, like the dry cough and being a bit tired, but I thought that was because I had just finished the Giro d’italia and had been training in really cold weather. Then I went out training and was unable to do a simple 20-minute session I’d done easily the week before, which made me start to panic about the Hour record. It was a relief when I tested positive actually, as it proved my form was down to being ill rather than not having any.
It’s gutting, but it’s 2020 so anything can happen. I’ve learned to expect the worst and anything else is a bonus, but this is just a postponement rather than a cancellation.
Cyc: When did you decide to re-attempt the Hour?
AD: To be honest it was immediately after the last one in 2015. When I did it my mind cast back to the old Graeme Obree situation where he went again the next day because all the UCI commissaires were still there and they still had the track. Then I was just like, ‘Ah, don’t be silly, Alex, you got it, you’ve done it, your name’s on the list.’ And with Movistar [Dowsett’s team at the time] it was certainly job done for them as well so I didn’t even bring it up.
Deep down, however, I knew it was easier than an Hour record should have been, and the numbers confirmed that. I think a few of the coaching staff at the time thought the numbers were out because it was much lower than we had anticipated, but in hindsight I knew it felt like 360 watts. It didn’t feel like 400 watts.
So even though I had the record, there was a real element of knowing that wasn’t what I was capable of, which is quite frustrating and disappointing when you put all that effort in. Given the time again I’d do exactly the same thing but I’ve been wanting to go again for quite a long time.
Then when lockdown started and all the racing was cancelled I saw this as the perfect time to do an Hour record. It doesn’t get more socially distanced than an Hour so that was in my mind from March/april time. It started with just Chanel [Dowsett’s partner] and I working on it initially; then it became a team of only six. It was all-handson-deck so having to postpone made it an even bigger shame.
What I’d really love to do is just quietly go away and do it and say, ‘Hey, did the Hour,’ but you can’t. You can’t be a former record holder or a Worldtour time-trial specialist and quietly go and do an Hour record attempt.
Cyc: Since your record of 52.937km in 2015, the benchmark has been increased to 55.089km by Belgian Victor Campenaerts, who went to altitude in Mexico to set that distance in 2019. Is it daunting to consider riding that distance? AD: I’d have to lap my previous efforts nine times to break Victor’s record,
‘I went out training and was unable to do a simple 20-minute session I’d done easily the week before, which made me start to panic about the Hour record’
and when you put it like that it’s pretty daunting. With the altitude thing, interestingly, I don’t think the gains are as big as people say. Certainly with shorter events there’s a benefit because the oxygen deficit is far less significant. But for Victor, who only did 340 watts to go 55km for his record, that was a very hard 340 watts. I live at 2,000m in Andorra; I know what 340 watts for an hour feels like and that’s not easy at all.
We ran tests and modelled my potential efforts depending on good or bad air pressure and we’re looking at somewhere above the 400-watt mark in Manchester, but not much above it. That’s something I can do. It’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s what I did for an hour to come sixth in the TT at the Worlds last year and is realistically no harder than 340 watts at altitude.
Cyc: Will advancements in technology since your last attempt help too?
AD: Oh absolutely. The bike I was going to use was a track-specific bike and not from Factor [his trade team sponsor]. There are a few at the top of the tree that are really fast such as the Hope/ Lotus and one from the Malaysians but I wouldn’t have been on either of them. Below that are five or six options that are about the same and I’d have been on one of those – but I can’t say which. Compared to the Canyon I used in 2015, which had a standard Power2max crank arm, wheels with standard screw-on track nuts, standard tri-bars and none of this 3D-printed stuff, there are big gains to be had.
Another big change has been the permitting of overshoes, which were not allowed when Victor, Bradley Wiggins and I did it. Skinsuit technology is so much better now too. I also had the choice of three or four helmets, which all helps to save precious watts.
Cyc: Let’s talk about road racing – how good did that stage victory at the recent Giro d’italia feel?
AD: It was emotional. There was never any planning around that. As far as I was concerned that was a rest day and we had a plan on the team bus to all get stuck in, have a go and get in the break.
Eventually, Matthias Brändle [Dowsett’s Israel Start-up Nation teammate] and I got in the break with four others and I thought, ‘I’m on a good day, I’ve got all the aero kit possible on, there’s no reason why I can’t win this.’ Then we went up that climb the first time and we were both dropped, and I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I can’t win this.’ We battled back on and then I attacked and got a gap they should have never given me by getting super-aero. It wasn’t until 4km to go that I thought I was going to do it. Then with 2km to go they said I had 40 seconds and I knew they couldn’t catch me. That was when I really started enjoying it. Cyc: That win must have been even more important considering you were still looking for a contract at the time?
AD: It didn’t cross my mind at the time that this could help me negotiate a contract. I didn’t think about the significance of the win for the team until I was told afterwards that it was their first ever Grand Tour stage win. But it did then begin to dawn on me how well timed the win was.
It crossed my mind a lot that this could be my last Grand Tour. Certainly the stage win made me think I would stay in the Worldtour but I knew it still could be my last win and so I was really going to enjoy it.
Just winning a road race was the biggest thing. I’ve got 15 pro wins to my name and only one of them was in a road race. Time-trials are great, but I think of those 15 victories I’ve crossed the line with my hands in the air on the bike once. There’s nothing quite like winning a road race.
Cyc: The climax of the Giro GC was quite spectacular too, but did you care or were you happy to just reach Milan?
AD: I was very invested in the GC battle this year because I’ve known Tao Geoghegan Hart for a long time and
I’ve got to know Jai Hindley because we have the same manager.
Our manager actually asked whether I could help him with that final timetrial and we rode some of the course together in the morning, but Team Sunweb has stuff so dialled I didn’t have too much to offer. Jai is a really nice guy. We rode to the start of the Stelvio stage together and he was asking me whether I’d be OK.
I also had a good chat with Tao early in the race. He wasn’t in the frame for the win for a while, still turning up to stages in legwarmers, jackets, not invested in the race from a breakway point of view and quite a few of his teammates had taken stages, so I almost said to him, ‘Isn’t it about time you did something?’ I’m quite glad I didn’t in the end.
‘With 2km to go they said I had 40 seconds and I knew they couldn’t catch me. That was when I really started enjoying it’