British Time Trial championship

Blue rider becomes first-ever consecutive three-time British national champion after overcoming a crash and a bike change in the first half of the Ayrshire course

Blood, sweat and tears were needed for Alex Dowsett to claim a historic exploit in British cycling. The Movistar Team rider took the telephone squad’s 20th success of the 2013 season by winning the National Time Trial Championship for the third time in a now, a success never achieved up to date.

The Essex rider clocked a great time in the unofficial intermediate time at the first of two laps (48th) in Ayrshire, southeast Scotland, but a crash before reaching the line for the first time caused him bruises in both arms and legs and forced him to change his bike, seeing his 30-second margin against nearest contender Matthew Botrill (Drag2Zero) reduced to just five seconds.

Dowsett bounced back after the double misfortune and made a second part of his time trial full of class and courage, winning with 21 seconds ahead of silver-medal Botrill and the same time over Ben Swift (Sky), who claimed bronze. Dowsett will still tackle another challenge on Scottish soil this Sunday: the 178-kilometer British national road race on a circuit in and around Glasgow.

REACTION / Alex Dowsett: “I’m really happy – it’s not easy to win three times in a row. When I claimed the first one, Wiggins told me I had to take care of it, and to be honest, I feel really committed to it and it’s becoming my favourite jersey. It was a hard one, because even though I got back well after the crash, I had some wounds in my hands and couldn’t grab the handlebars well. I don’t know what really happened, but it might have been a problem with the front tire. Besides, I lost my powermeter and didn’t know how I was doing. It’s the first time I crash into a TT, and it’s important to look at the watts all the time. I also had pain in my elbow, but my pedal stroke was good, I was going well and had no other option but suffering until the end. I did a great Giro, now this championship… this season is being a really great one and I hope to stay like this for the remainder of the year.”