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Alex Dowsett Making His Mark
Story posted February 15; by Larry Hickmott
It is many a young man’s dream to race with their heros but very few actually get to achieve it but one rider who has is Alex Dowsett. I’ve seen this Under 23 rider steadily making progress, rising out of the junior ranks and into the senior category through hard work that has had made the most of the potential that lies within.
As with so many young and talented riders, it’s impossible not to want them to succeed when you see them giving it everything to be like their heros but sadly this sport is so tough, there is an element of luck, good choices and talent required. Alex started racing bikes at the age of 13 with the Maldon and District Cycling Club before being signed by well known development team in the East, Glendene CC/Biketrax.
Many riders of Junior age get the choice of which pathway they want to take to be a professional. Some will rely on the network that they are tapped into for gaining rides with foreign teams whilst others will choose to take up the offer of a ride in GB Cycling Team’s Olympic Academy. This is the pathway that Alex chose.
This invariably means racing the track but Alex was also fortunate that the then Academy coach and manager, Rod Ellingworth, was looking to develop road riders as well, and Alex along with a few others, were based in Italy. His time there saw mixed results and experiences but through sheer bloody mindedness and hard work, Alex pulled out a super ride at the 2009 Under 23 World Championships in the Time Trial where he was 7th.
It was against the odds that Alex managed to dig out a result like that during a year which had not been one of his best racing wise. The result also opened a few eyes and soon he was packing his bags and heading for America to race with Lance Armstrong’s team, Trek-LiveStrong. He’d been talking to them during the season and he knew he needed a big ride to go back to them and ask for that spot in the team. That 7th place at the Worlds was just the ticket he needed to ride for this Under 23 team with the likes of Taylor Phinney and so on.
Talking to local paper, the Maldon Standard, Alex explained at the time “this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the timing could not be better. So, yes, I am over the moon. Racing in the Armstrong team and seeing how they go about things can only be a benefit and they do focus on Time Trialing, which is where I have achieved most of my successes.”
Alex is still retaining a strong link to the GB Academy team through that programme’s new coach, Olympic Gold Medallist Paul Manning.
“When the opportunity with this team (Trek-Livestrong) came about, I had a chat to Shane (Sutton), Paul (Manning), and Max (Sciandri) as well as others in RDT and talked it through. There were a few other offers but it was clear this was the best option” Alex explained to me on the phone from Qatar.
The team is owned by Lance Armstrong and Alex says on meeting the great man, “I think it was the first time I have ever been star struck”. His new team, Alex explained, has a very similar set up to the Under 23 GB Academy. “It is a development team like GB’s and like them, we on very good bikes but not the best which are reserved for the Radioshack riders. I want for nothing on the team though and have all the support and more that I need”.
Alex has joined Trek-Livestrong to forge a career on the road and in 2010 has three goals; to win the European Time Trial title, the Under 23 World Time Trial title and to do enough to get a place in a ProTour team such as Team Sky or Radioshack. “I'm not too fussy which to be honest” Alex adds laughing.
They are huge goals for any rider but Alex, a quietly spoken racer who specialises in the Time Trial, is not daunted by any of them and his confidence is sky high after the road worlds last year. When we spoke, Alex was staying at the Ritz in Doha and he joked “I think I may have reached my peak -- maybe I should retire now!”
Yes, he was joking, especially as the hotel in Oman was apparently even better! “Racing here is quite something” he explained “and I have settled in well with the team. The whole experience is quite incredible. I'm racing with guys I watched on tele winning stages of the Tour de France!”
After a winter training back home with the likes of Orbea/For Goodness Shakes rider Andy Lyons who has been around so long he was telling Alex about the time he used to train with Wiggins and Millar when they were youngsters, Alex headed for the States to prepare for his ProTour race debut by training at altitude.
Despite that block of training not going so well, Alex arrived in Qatar in good shape and said of his ProTour debut that it was not the baptism of fire it could have been because the riders had very light winds and the racing was quite controlled.
“The difference between this racing and amateur racing is that the latter is on all the time and this isn't but when it is on, it really is on in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before.”
By way of example, Alex recalled the first stage in Qatar. “On the first stage, we hit this headwind and rode into it for ages and it was that easy, I stopped three times for a nature break. Then we hit this cross wind section and the pace went from like nothing to faster than any race I think I've ever done. Before I knew it, I'd been shoved off the road, got back on, hit a cateye and punctured, and that was it, I was in a back group for the rest of the stage. All in the space of about five minutes.”
“We’ve hit cross wind sections twice in the race so far and it’s crazy trying to stay with the leaders which I haven't been able to. All the teams are so organised and ride so well together. Not only are they older and more powerful than us (the Under 23 Trek-Livestrong riders) but it can be amazing to see how well drilled they are. A couple of times, Cervelo have shot up the outside of the peloton and its amazing how quick they get organised and get going.”
“I am though trying to get through the race with what I have got physically and I'm learning a hell of a lot.”
Alex chilling out in the GB team bus at last year's Worlds.
When I put it to Alex, that it must be amazing to be on the start line with so many of the World’s best around him, he replied that “I don't feel at home in this race because we're the only continental team of under 23's here. I do feel it is quite an honour though to be at this event and racing at this level.”
“A lot of the pros are fascinated that we are here as well. It is quite surreal at times when you're sitting on Fabian Cancellara’s wheel or chatting with Filippo Pozzato and Tom Boonen like I was the other day. The whole experience is quite incredible when I think back to where I was this time last year.”
“I would never have foreseen me being on the start line in Qatar; even after the Worlds last year I would haven't thought it was a possibility.”
There are no doubt riders in the GB Olympic Academy who would right now swap places with Alex in a second if the opportunity came up. So did the academy prepare him for racing at this level?
“The academy teaches you a lot of things which at the time you don't really realise and you take for granted” Alex told me. “Loads of little things like discipline or what to do when you're in the convoy. Loads of tiny details that all add up to making life a lot easier in races like this.”
Looking back at the Qatar race, Alex said it started quite well with the team time trial. “We rode well as a unit and although we lost a couple of riders a bit earlier than we wanted to, I think that was mainly due to the wind. Okay, we finished last but we were only two seconds behind AG2R and they are a Tour de France team. I don't think anyone was displeased with our performance.”
Trek-Livestrong has also had some top 10’s in the race thanks to World track champion Taylor Phinney. “Taylor's top 10s' have been really good” Alex says. “There has not been a lot we can do to help him in the finale. In the last 30k, all the lead out trains come to the front and we don't get given a lot of room being a conti team in a ProTour race.”
“So it has been better for Taylor that he bounces around the leadout trains and then does his thing. Before that, we'll ride in the wind to shelter him in the latter stages of the race and then we'll leave him to it. He manages to find gaps that he probably shouldn't be able to.”
The season ahead
Looking ahead to the races that follow Qatar, such as Oman, Alex is keen to show his face and do well. In Qatar, Alex got himself into an early break and on stage 2 of Oman (Feb 15), he did the same although that break stayed clear a lot longer than the Qatar one did and he was less than ten miles form home when the peloton caught his small group.
The race in Oman finishes with a Time Trial so naturally I asked, is Alex looking for a great result there? “Sure, I'd like to get a good result but I'm more interested in how I compare against the pros and see where I am in this world” he replied. Alex added that he hasn't touched his TT bike or done any TT training this year so far because his targets, the Euros and Worlds, are still a fair way off.
Following the race in Oman, Alex heads back to Boulder in the US for three weeks training before a series of three day races in the US, one of which is Redlands which his coach Paul Manning has competed in. Another block of training follows before more stage races in Mexico and the US.
Then the team head for Europe for some races including the Under 23 Paris-Roubaix and the Baby Giro which Alex is looking forward to as it will give him a chance to catch up with the GB Academy riders. After that comes the British Road Race championships and the European Road Time Trial championships in Turkey.
It is certainly a busy schedule and one that will keep him away from home for a long time but Alex is at least getting the chance to prove himself, not just to his team and others, but also to himself.
Good luck to Alex in 2010.
RELATED LINKS
http://bloodsweatandtyres.blogspot.com/ | Twtter: http://twitter.com/alexdowsett
