For over an hour, Alex Dowsett regaled us with some of the highs and lows of a fascinating life story. Growing up with haemophilia, transitioning from swimming to cycling, life in Team Trek-Livestrong, Team Sky, Movistar and Katusha-Alpecin, rounding his career off with Israel Start-up Nation. We talked time trials, grand tours, equipment, marginal gains and small goals. Humility abounded; this was a guy who had made all the sacrifices, gave 100% to be the best that he could be, and his results were nothing but impressive. Winning two stages at the Giro d'Italia and celebrating with a beer (that's one beer): preparing for the Tour de France, over-training and being burned-out in the first week. We heard of good coaches and poor coaches. The insights kept on coming...bikes and their set up make a huge difference at the elite level, but sometimes you just have to go with the sponsors and their gear. You can podium on a good time trial bike: on a poor one you can lose minutes! This short summary could go on...
Alex's book, "Bloody Minded" is out in the autumn. If last night's BDOVELO “an audience with...” is anything to go by, it will be a bloody good read!
Also, many thanks to award-winning British Illustrator, Simon Spilsbury, for displaying some of his artwork. You can take a look at www.spilsburystore.com.