Two-time Olympic gold medallist Alastair Brownlee will be enlisting Alex Dowsett (Israel-Premier Tech) and Dan Bigham as pacemakers in his attempt to record a sub-7-hour Ironman triathlon as part of the Pho3nix Sub7 Project.
Kristian Blummenfelt, who set the current world record for a full distance Ironman –7:21:12 – in Mexico last November, is set to go head-to-head with Brownlee as part of the Sub7 Project.
The attempt, which is sponsored by Zwift, will take place in a few weeks, with the date planned for June 5 or 6 (dependent on weather conditions) at Dekra Lausitzring in Germany - cycling on a 5.85km fixed circuit.
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Brownlee and Blummenfelt will likely have to maintain a speed between 45 and 50 kph over the 180km bike leg to get near the 7-hour target – after a 3.8km swim and before a full-length marathon run. Brownlee and Blummenfelt are permitted to draft other riders, and so will be using a team of pacers to help them beat the record.
Brownlee has selected a team of eight pacers, predominantly from the Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling Team, but headlining the pacemakers will be Dowsett, who unsuccessfully attempted to break the world hour record in November.
Dowsett rode 54.555km in an hour, falling just over 500m short of Victor Campanaerts current record. It also fell short of Dan Bigham's British Hour Record, which he set in October with a distance of 54.723km.
In addition to Bigham, four of the other riders are also from Ribble Weldtite, including Commonwealth Games medallists and fellow yorkshiremen Charlie and Harry Tanfield, alongside their teammates Ollie Peckover and Zeb Kyfinn.
“These athletes have specialised in team time trialling and their performance coach and rider Jacob Tipper has brought these riders together,” says Nigel Mitchell, Brownlee’s technical manager for the Sub7 project. “We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve got what we think are some of the best riders in the world for this type of event.”
Jacob Tipper is also the effective directeur sportif for the record attempt.
For Blummenfelt’s pacemaker team, British time trial veteran Matt Bottrill is overseeing the team, which will include British riders Gruff Lewis, Kyle Gordon, Chris Fennell and Phil Williams amongst others.
