DOWSETT AND THE HOUR RECORD'S CRUEL EMBRACE

 

He made it look deceptively easy,  Britain’s Alex Dowsett chasing Belgian Victor Campanaert’s Hour record of 55.089 kilometres, broadcast on BBC iPLAYER.

Smoothly stroking a big gear he gracefully powered around the high-altitude 250-metre Aguascalientes Velodrome in Mexico at 54/55kph.

As we know, he completed 218 laps when he was looking for a shade over 220.

He finished 500 metres short of the mark!

Dowsett had failed – but magnificently so.  The clock had stopped him at 54.555km.

This was still 1.618 km further than the 52.937 km he rode in May 2015 when he took the world record from Australia’s Rohan Dennis.

In this latest bid he also finished just short of the current British record of 54.723 set by Dan Bigham on October 1^st this year in Switzerland – the day after Britain’s Joss Lowden broke the women’s world hour record.

Attempting cycling’s most coveted and most difficult record is nothing short of torture, say those who have succeeded and those who have failed.  

Eddy Merckx, the greatest cyclist ever, after his successful attempt in 1972, said that he had never suffered so much. It had taken years off his life, he said. He achieved 49.431km.

I recall Chris Boardman’s successful bid at the Manchester Velodrome in 1999, when he squeezed past Merckx’s figures, adding 10 metres. 

When he came to a halt helpers lay the bike, with rider still attached to the pedals, flat on the trackside so that Boardman’s body - still in his aerodynamic tuck – could be prised free.  

When British multi-time trial champion Michael Hutchinson gave best 40 minutes into his 2003 attempt he was as white as a sheet. He looked like a corpse. He’d been forced to call a halt as numbness crept along his arms and he    feared he might lose control. He had been a couple of minutes off Boardman’s pace.

Lest we get too over dramatic, a few hours later Hutch was out on the town for a Chinese meal and a beer. Such is an athlete’s remarkable powers of recuperation.

When Dowsett rolled to a halt, his helpers quickly moved to steady him until he got his bearings.

Dowsett, who held the record briefly in 2015 with 52.937km - which Bradley Wiggins beat one month later - offers a different perspective on what it takes.

Alex Dowsett

It’s only an hour, not a six hour stage in the final week of a grand tour, he said.

That might be bravado of course, Dowsett determined to convince us, perhaps himself, that he would relish the Hour Record’s cruel embrace.

 “Agh, de Pain”, as a first-category club mate of mine would utter, gleefully weighing up his prospects for a weekend of suffering in road races.  Suffering, that’s the name of the game. The Hour takes this into a different realm.

Dowsett is a time trial specialist, like Joss Lowden who broke the women’s Hour record in Switzerland in September, with 48.405 kilometres.

Both have mastered the solitary effort of riding against the watch, when time is the enemy.

Not that riding on the road – where you go in a straight line for mile after mile -

can ever be compared to a race to nowhere on the track, especially lapping every few seconds and trying to remain focused for a full 60 minutes.

No headwind on the track, that’s a blessing – nor tailwind either! -  no variable surfaces to bring temporary relief, no changing scenery, no downhill stretches to ease effort of striving to stay on top of a huge gear.

Relax that pressure in the banking and G-forces will have you soaring up the track, take you off the pursuiter’s line. The track requires a different mind-set.

Fascinating how technology was optimised to give Dowsett the best chance. 

The new Factor track bike with £950 gold chain ring which it was claimed would save him 25cm per lap… at 60kph.  The £2,750 skinsuit. The wheels, the wind tunnel tests, all the fixtures and fittings, all chosen in the quest for speed.

He made the attempt at high altitude, which offers an advantage over sea level. And there is the human himself, a  six times British time trial champion, double stage winner in the Giro, key rider in the Israel Start up Nation team.

Having broken the record before he was quietly optimistic.

Of the many reports, Cyclenews.com’s Daniel Benson and Simone Giuliani provided the most thorough, describing how Dowsett’s valient challenge began to “unravel” in those final moments.

On target for the first 20 minutes he then began to slip second by second off the pace.   He must have known, felt it. Not that we, the viewers could tell. The commentators followed his every metre, telling how he rallied with 20 minutes left, raised the stakes to 55kph in a final do or die effort.  

He needed to go even faster if he was to regain the ground lost. It was simply too late. He nevertheless flew on, fighting all the way, but coming adrift now, shifting his position slightly, his face betraying the superhuman effort he was making,  now exacting its toll.  

The scientists and coaches will put their heads together to try and figure out the maths, of exactly where and why he lost it. 

But can maths define the unfathomable human factor? In the end, perhaps body and mind, having to cope with such extreme demands,  reached a consensus and said “whoa, that’s your lot.”

Dowsett has haemophilia, and in his record attempt he was raising awareness for the Little Bleeders Foundation and the Haemophilia Society. 

 

 

 

A budget bike shelter/shed

 

On a point of accuracy I am moved to correct three errors made in the previous blog concerning the Budget spending review which so disappointed environmentalists, the green movement and cycling campaigners.

It has been pointed out to me that:

• the Chancellor’s speech DID mention bikes. Well, bike shelters. These should be considered as a property improvement business – which would allow claims for business rates relief on the cost.
• Although the Chancellor’s speech omitted to mention “climate” or “environment”, he did talk about ‘Net Zero’ and did say how the Government will fund some actions to tackle the climate crisis.
• The Chancellor claimed to be “investing £30bn to create the new, green industries of the future”, in addition to announcing the issue of a second Green Bond, and “investment relief to encourage businesses to adopt green technologies like solar panels.”

A bike shelter (above) and a bike shed (below) fit 
for a Chancellor

 

• Boris Johnson and recycling;
• He didn’t say that all recycling was pointless. He said that recycling plastic "doesn’t work".  

If he was referring to single-use plastic he’s half right. Because that cannot be recycled.

But a lot of plastic waste can be recycled.

It would be helpful if the industry stopped making the single-use stuff.

It will be a pity if people who heard what he said stop recycling the recyclable plastic waste.

 

 

 

 

 

England shamed by the Dutch, the Welsh and the Scots

Here’s a few mind-boggling facts and figures to titillate our senses. First off we know how the extensive Dutch cycling networks put England to shame. But now, both Wales and Scotland are also putting England to shame by providing decent funding to make their roads safer for cycling. 

Meanwhile, Chancellor Rishi Sunak had no extra money for cycling in his recent Budget. So no surprise there, as the humble bike –“This machine fights climate change”– is ignored AGAIN. 

In a mo I’ll move on to impressive Dutch cycling stats, gleaned from Cycling UK’s latest report from Policy Director Roger Geffen. 

                                            Classic image of Holland, bikes, canals and windmills.

He has provided his usual thoroughly comprehensive update of the government’s continuing failure to adequately fund its own cycling and walking strategy. Except that they, the government,  think they are funding cycling more than adequately. That’s the view from Planet Tory, where the sun shines out of …. “

The Chancellor's failure to back active travel leaves DfT’s admirable cycling and walking team with the unenviable task of creating a second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2), with insufficient ring-fenced funding to meet their targets,” writes Geffen. However, he adds that by no means is this a hopeless task.” 

Yes, Geffen, amazingly, remains upbeat despite his growing frustration. Me? I’m convinced nothing will ever get done on the scale needed unless the Dutch can secure a franchise to take over the Treasury. And talking of the Dutch, Geffen clearly envies this small country across the North Sea, the indisputable leaders in cycle planning. He provides the following facts, which illustrate just how far behind England is. 

The Dutch, he says, have a 35,000km network of protected cycle lanes. That amounts to about a quarter of the length of the Dutch road network. If England had the equivalent we would have some 76,000km of protected cycle lanes. He’s worked out, based on DfT figures, that this will cost about £36bn between now and 2040. “By comparison, our government has promised £2bn of funding which they claim will provide ‘hundreds of miles of protected cycle lanes. 

Cycle parking in Amsterdam.

 If England is ever to have a decent cycling network it will require tens of thousands of kilometres and a lot more cash. Nevertheless, Geffen says it is worth remembering how much funding has increased. The £2bn is six times greater than the figures for 2017, for instance, and a huge 80 times more than the £5million provided by Labour in 2005, when a national cycling budget was first set.

Which is all very well. But remains pitifully small. I like to think of that initial £5m as a few peanuts which 15 years later amounts to only a few more bags of peanuts. 

Geffen remains positive, even though he calls England's planning policies  "lousy".

However, he insists on saying: “In short: we've made a lot of progress - and investment in cycling and walking in England is at last moving towards the right ballpark, creating opportunities that local councils now need to seize. But we also still have long, long way to go!” 

Indeed, a long way to go. And just a few £billions short! Especially as the Welsh and Scots are now leaving England behind as well. The Welsh Government is investing £75m this year in cycling and walking, equating to £23.66 per person annually. “It has excellent planning policies and has set a target to increase the proportion of trips made by cycling, walking and public transport, from 32% in 2019 to 45% in 2040,” says Geffen. 

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government is investing £155m this year (equating to £21 per person annually). It has promised to raise this to £320m in 2024/5. They aim to reduce car travel by 20 per cent by 2030. In contrast, the £2bn allocated for cycling and walking in England amounts to £8.42 per person annually. 

“England has lousy planning policies and no target to reduce either the amount of mileage or the proportion of trips made by car.” This rather puts the DfT’s plans into perspective and begs the question how on earth do they think they will have “A world class cycling and walking network for England by 2040". 

Well – and here is the cynical view – I really don’t think the Tory party believe their own bullshit for one minute. What they do believe is that statements like these seep into the public consciousness to create the impression the job’s done. 

Finally, over to the serious matter of climate change which cycling can help address, given a chance. Cue for the Chancellor to do something! 

Sadly, the Chancellor’s Spending Review made no mention of bikes or the climate crisis and how the government might fund measures to combat this. It bitterly disappointed sustainable transport campaigners and other environmental groups on the eve of COP (Conference of the Parties) in Glasgow which got underway last weekend. 

This is attended by the countries that signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty that came into force in 1994 and who have been ducking the issue ever since.

As for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he flew off to join other world leaders for the G20 Group meeting in Italy at the weekend,  to tell them all: “If we don’t act know it will be too late”. He’s at his best/worst at moments like this, full of the talk, the soundbites, aware that this gives the impression we’re on top of the situation. When we’re not. It was tantamount to saying “Do as I say not as I do”.

For that same week his chancellor was criticised for continuing with the freeze on fuel duty - for the ninth year -  and he also cut levies on shorter, domestic flights which threatens to take people away from trains, which are far less polluting.

And did you hear Johnson rubbishing recycling last week, in answer to school children’s questions about things to do to avert climate change? 

Johnson said recycling was a red herring, not worth bothering about! When I think of the years of effort by Friends of the Earth to promote recycling - oh, it must be three decades ago in the days before it became good practice - for the PM or anyone to utter such a misleading statement beggars belief. 

Well, Mr Johnson, you know well enough that new products are created from recycled material, saving  depleting raw materials and also ensuring a lot of stuff doesn’t go into landfill! Perhaps Mr Johnson could be recycled?