Dowsett smashes British TT championship

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Movistar's Alex Dowsett reclaimed the national time trial title of Great Britain with an exclamation point in Lincolnshire, topping his next competitor, Ed Bradbury (NFTO) by three and a half minutes, while Ryan Perry was third. The result equals the British record set previously by Stuart Dangerfield for time trial titles at four.

"It's lovely having it back," Dowsett said of his champion's jersey. "It's special being a national champion. Every time I do a time trial I get to wear this. I couldn't have lost it to a more talented guy last year in Brad [Wiggins], but it's nice to have it back."

Scott Davies held onto the U23 time trial title, beating Owain Doull and Tao Geoghegan Hart in a much closer race.

Dowsett hurtled around the 45km course picking off rider after rider who started earlier. Although he made it look easy, Dowsett acknowledged that the Lincolnshire course was deceptively difficult.

"That was tough. I didn't have a radio so I had no idea where I was in relation to anyone else," he said. "The course itself - in training I thought it would be easier in the race but it was actually harder, so I had no idea how well I was going out there. But when I saw Mat (Bottrill) I knew that either he was on a horrendous day or I was on a good one."

He was on a very good day in comparison to the competition, nearly cracking the hour mark for the 45km, and besting Bradbury by 3:31. But Dowsett said his ride was far from incident-free.

"I had a bit of a moment on the second to last corner," he said. "I've got quite a few friends who race British Superbike and I'm not going to hear the end of it from missing that apex!"

Dowsett is normally an expert at pacing, as witnessed by his performance in the UCI Hour Record, but didn't quite get his efforts perfect. "I thought I'd overcooked it a little bit early on. Being as hilly as it is it's difficult - you don't want to give away too much early on but you don't want to go too hard. It wasn't easy getting it right.

"On lap one I got stung by a wasp just inside my thigh, which kind of added insult to injury. Something always happens at nationals for me. I think I've had a crash, a bike change, being sick as a dog and this year a wasp sting so - yeah - a thrill a minute!"

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