Dowsett wins fifth British time trial title

Alex Dowsett (Movistar) secured his fifth time trial title at the British championships on Thursday in Stockton-on-Tees. He covered the 46.08km course, that was held on a four-lap circuit, in 55:38, beating James Gullen (Pedal Heaven Race Team) by 1:16 minutes, with Ryan Perry (Langdale Lightweights Racing Team) a distant 2:14 minutes in arrears.

"Win number five, it’s as special as the first," Dowsett said. "I get to wear this (jersey) for another year. It’s special. It’s always special. It’s nice I didn’t have any problems this year, every year, nationals seems to throw something at me but that went very smoothly."

The men patiently waited for their starting positions following the women's race, won by Hayley Simmonds. There were a few withdrawals at the start of the men’s championship, including George Atkins, Mark Christian, Owain Doull, Steven Burke, Dan McLay, and last year's silver medallist Ed Bradbury.

The four-lap challenge made for a spectator-friendly event, as riders were seen multiple times. Liam Bromiley had the fastest first lap at 15:02.516 to set the tone for the day. His lap-2 time check was 30:15, still the fastest, but even though he finished with a time of 1:00:35, that time would not hold as Ashley Cox set a new fastest lap time of 14:44, and the speeds just kept getting faster.

Dowsett, the obvious favourite for the championship event, having won four times before, set the fastest lap time of the day at 13:42. His halfway split was 27:00 and three-lap split was 41:42, and it was clear the he would go under the one-hour mark. It was the fastest three-lap split of the day by over a minute.

Richard Handley (ONE Procycling) as the first rider to break one hour, finishing at 59:09. His teammate Peter Williams came in quicker, though, at 58:15. Perry was even faster but it was Gullen who took the hot seat, as they all waited for Dowsett to cross the line for the victory in 55:38

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