British cyclist Alex Dowsett broke the one hour world record on Saturday, recording 52.937km kilometres for the iconic 60-minute challenge at the Manchester Velodrome. The 26-year-old Commonwealth time trial champion rode a perfectly-controlled race to enjoy a powerful last quarter of the solo trial and to shatter Australian Rohan Dennis's three-month old mark of 52.491km.
Dowsett, who has lived in the shadow of elite British riders such as Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome, made it another red letter day for the booming sport in Britain as he was cheered to glory by an enthusiastic 4,000 full house in the velodrome where he once trained as part of the British Olympic academy. It was an emotional triumph for the Essex rider who has been renowned for competing with haemophilia, a potentially life-threatening condition which stops the blood from clotting properly.
For the first 45 minutes of the challenge, Dowsett was behind the schedule set by Dennis in February, at one point being over nine seconds adrift, but he revealed afterwards that it had always been the plan to keep enough in reserve for a big push in the final 10 minutes. "I was expecting it to be horrific, but it was just terrible," Dowsett smiled after the plan was executed so perfectly that he surpassed the record by well over a lap.
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