The Most Controversial Race of 2024 – Road Bike TT Nationals

The results are still pending an enquiry into the Winner’s Bike (no spoilers), I predicted issues but share my opinion on the results and if they should stand as they are.

The following companies (that you’ll see in my content) support me either financially or with free stuff, so huge thanks to these guys for helping the channel thrive:

https://c-ams.co.uk/
https://veloforte.com/
https://www.oakley.com/en-us
https://silca.cc/
https://wattbike.com/
https://www.specialized.com/gb/en

📲 SOCIAL MEDIA

📷 https://www.instagram.com/alexdowsett/
🐦 https://twitter.com/alexdowsett
🚴‍♂️ https://www.strava.com/pros/505408reeees

Marginal Gains, Maximal Losses Cycling & Casual clothing
https://nopinz.com/product-category/club-nopinz/thighs-club-lifestyle/

🚴 Coaching
coaching@thighsclub.com

📞 Get in Touch
hello@thighsclub.com

🔴 Charity

Home

[Music] hello welcome to the channel there is a spiders web on the front of my camera that’s telling it’s been a little while going to point up cuz my garage has never been as messy as it is right now it’s been a week it’s been a heck of a week been land for a couple of days with a Time TR that bike that fits in this bike box bike box is built for my road bike it’s from a company called Bo and boxs it’s built from a road bike but to fit my time tral bike in there was a bit of a mission uh I had to pop the bars off at the stem which meant undoing the breake calipers at the bottom anyway that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about today we’re off to the road bike national championships in the morning time trial for those of you watching from abroad we have a very strong time trial scene here in the UK that is uh well it’s up and down it’s it es and flows and the moment I’d say it is more of an e than a flow and it’s not something I haven’t talked about on this channel before but I’ve got stuck back into the scene uh this year and in the last couple of years in the hope to make cycling a little more or make time traling a little more um welcoming the road bike category was introduced as a standalone category in every race what was the knock on effect of that was the road bike TT Nationals now the rules are no Arrow helmet so your ears must be showing and no visor of course time trial has been time trialist were like what about the gyro arrowead and the cycling time trials Council the CTT clarified that the aead would not be allowed of course the next question is the that Cask that um inos are using with the covers but I don’t know if that’s come up in I don’t even know if that’s available to buy just yet and the other rules are no wheels deeper than 90 mm which ruls out my head jet 180s they are 180 mm deep um and it also rolls out the AOW coach Titan which I use on my TT bike normally no Puppy Paws position as per the UCI and couple of other bits and pieces but yeah just sort of road bike but not the well now I’m going to show you some bikes in this video that people have gone to Great length to make bikes as Z as possible and I am no different I don’t know how I feel about it I doing what I’ve done to my handlebars it hurts me a little bit inside but I want to be competitive tomorrow and you know there’s there’s a there’s a line between the spirit of what we’re doing and the rule book so I am inside the rule book for this but I I I don’t know if I agree with it I don’t know if I agree with it so I’m going to run you through what I’ve done quickly cuz I have just finished like I said got back from Lotti had to do a ride on Friday on my road bike as it was it was round s which is hilly and then what I’ve done since then is put a 581 by Chain ring on uh my TT bike which would not have got round any part of s on Friday so um we’ve spent tonight making bike ready for tomorrow morning which is not advised like kids do not get your bike ready the night before a race and adults so what have I done well here it is uh we’ll start with arrow bottles um it’s only 22 Mi I’ll put some fluid in both of them cuz those are the rules and I will drink during the TT but honestly not much I feel like they probably make the bike a little bit more aerodynamic we’re talking marginal here 581 by ring no power meter 165 cranks normally I’m running the power to Max 170 cranks but I’ve put my time tra cranks across so no parameter uh usual rear end I’ve swapped out the tires under some advice from uh listening to Alex Richardson and R and running 28s with the roal cxs and also from specialized so these are now 28 they’re not the TTS because I couldn’t get them in time they’re quite expensive so these are the GP 5000 uh s TRS which are still not cheap Arrow valve cover honestly it’s not going to make the difference between winning and losing tomorrow but you know when in Rome um and yeah this is the bit I don’t like really this is the front end it looks like a junior a Junior’s front end from 3 years ago and what I’ve done is it’s an air it’s the area coach uh orx bars which are a great set of bars when you set them up properly not like this I’ve T tipped the hoods down so basically I can ride kind of in this position and get as much rest kind of here as possible light on the front light on the back these are magic shine lights very good they’re very good they’re very very shiny my little Garmin rather than my big Garmin with my power output written on there at at any given time and this is my light on the back I think tucked out the wind cuz of my ass so there it is I’m not proud of it but want to go fast CTT National Title has eluded me and I’ve tried very hard on multiple not like a lot of occasions but enough now that feel like it should have happened it’s a funny old field not one I recognize names but more coming from a road scene than anything else it’s I I could not tell you tomorrow whether I’m going to win it or finish 20th I I honestly don’t know because is road bike aerodynamics is a bit of an unknown for me um there’s a lot of educated guessing going on here so yeah we we’re going to see what happens I can use my long socks so I will be using knee high over shoes but otherwise pretty yeah somewhere between CTT and road bike road bike rules so let’s see how it goes [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] how how wide uh 25 cm Hood Center to hood Center back pain Express right so here we are race out at the road bike Nationals time tral not the road bike Nationals which happens in July and you get a different stripy Jersey if you win it this is the CTT one dad it warning warning I could pretty much cut any like start of a race where we sat in a car the same car the same passenger and it would be um just be the same uh Grim Day 6 and 1 half degrees outside as you can see rain rain might be easing but I’m less bothered about it cuz it’s a time trial I’m not really bothered much at all about it only that it’s going to be a bit cold before we get going but it’s because it’s a time trial it’s done in 50 minutes and you go flat stick so you you get pretty warm pretty quickly anyway the other racing options today with the Rutland Melton classic which is the muddy gravel race which I went to the women’s and juniors version which you can see in this video just here or here depending on which corner it pops up on the screen i’ really need to learn that that on a day like today that’s that’s going to be disgusting there was also the Andrew trophy which is one I’m disappointed to miss cuz it’s like my local National be but this is also quite local we’re in Peterborough salry I raced on a variation of this course in 2008 when I was trying to compete with Michael Hutchinson and usually failing and the late Matt Jason McIntyre won it I think I was third I think McIntyre won it Hutch was second and I was third in the National T it was first year first year under 23 so it was it was a decent result but it wasn’t obv obviously wasn’t the result we wanted anyway nice course we just driven it the women’s and the juniors are out looking strong as headwind tail and there’s a fair bit of wind going on at the moment as well so it’s you know this is not a this is not a simple time tra there two laps and there is even a climb at the end in peterb a hill in the Southeast so uh there is a bit to think about there is a bit to think about the now the interesting thing with the road bike time trial is that time tring is about balance between if if it’s flat a balance between aerodynamics and power and it’s a pretty fine balance moving the needle on one of those things will affect the result quite a lot with this I would say that range is bigger which is why the result is going to be more of an unknown there going to be guys that can do a lot more power than they can on a Time tral bike but it potentially will be a lot less aerodynamic and there’s guys who are ridiculously aerodynamic like James Jenkins and George Fox on their road bikes they’ve really worked hard on getting low long and slippery so that I think that’s what makes this race quite interesting is I have yeah I’ve got no idea if I’m going to finish 20th or first cuz I think I can get quite Arrow it’s going to be in the back end of it when my arms start getting tired especially my triceps um as to whether I can maintain the low position it’s just going to make things very interesting so I’m going to stop rambling you’re going to see images of me getting ready and and then going and doing a warm-up and then going and doing a bike race and I’m going to hand the camera to Dad dad’s going to film some other bike races going to film me and then we’re going to talk about what happened afterwards a very British specific product no speed band for putting your national champs numbers in most a lot of riders will be using these today it does take somewhat away from the effectiveness of uh base layer and and sleeve technology in aerodynamics but it’s the same for everyone it doesn’t matter does it last year we put a number straight onto a suit but uh well I just haven’t been organized enough to do that for this because we have a newborn it’s cold iing you could turn this into a sport how fast someone can get into a skin suit without ripping it could be a could be a sport just put numbers on as well should have thought a little bit more about sponsor placement for National Championship races as well I’ve just gone and put them over the all of my cams W bike and oh no pins and bond Turner yeah oops oh no no still keep B Turner still keep Bon Turner in show remember when we used to have to pin these on uh celerate Cel yeah that that you had some flexibility issues with that once you did them too tight you’d start losing the feeling in your arm too loose and it’d be flapping and undo pretty quick rush to the Finish good time yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] how’d you go [Applause] Paul uh George beat me did he yeah yeah not uh maybe minute or something right I mean he’s i’ I’d never mean it in uh to discredit yeah but yeah hats off to him the work he’s done on making lot of work into it yeah making that set up really quick yeah you just see him going the other way I was like Jesus Christ that’s uh really he looks really good so yeah I I’d never i’ never want to sit here and go he won because of that cuz it’s bik racing part of it yeah like you’re given a set of rolls and it’s up to you to make the most of them yeah preparations so that’s of him I I don’t know if I would have been I don’t know where I was after that I I beat JJ James Jenkins I know hat and 142 off behind me yeah no that was fine 143 no 144 might have been Reon to 430 WTS for yeah watching [Music] itol Simon Pitchford [Music] Andy King and last but not least Ellie [Applause] s the citation was awarded former World hour record older and Grand to Stage winner for raising the awareness of Emilia in sport and his charity little bleeders as he is the only known Able Body person to compete at the lead level with this condition can I just say that I’m not the only other award recipient in the room Michael G and laora also in the past so you know it’s it’s a it’s very special thing and everybody that’s got one all of the things that you’ve got your gold caps and all that kind of thing you know but you could fail anything else failed into insignificance because there’s only this one this is the only one that for you and mine you said for me and it means so much to sit there special if I made just just for your final pick can I have Michael in a team photo of B Lake me this please [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in second place with a time of 47 minutes 9 seconds from no pins is Alex dower and the 2024 National Road Bike Champion with a time of 46 minutes 28 seconds from George Fox s Solutions is George [Applause] Fox there we have it road bike road bike Nationals done and dusted and another another silver medal to add to my collection I have quite a few now few different colors but none of them are gold in the CTT senior National TT Champs so it’s uh yeah Michael finds it hilarious um but also you said really wants to see me win one or yeah one would be nice no but that was a fair and square beating on effort effort put into this race George through everything at the and the kitchen sink to it and and I know people are going to question that bike and I’m preempting it now like George beat me fair and square and I do not question that bike in the slightest this is not UCI rules this is CTT rules and that bike was within all the rules so some people might say forearm resting and if you’re going to talk about before I’m resting you can probably disqualify the top 20 uh because we’re all holding on to the brakes and resting our like wrists various points of our wrist on the inside of the forearms so like that that cannot be point of contention for George either so you know imagine yeah but I finished second and I have no quals at all about that bike in fact I’m you know of a lot of admiration for what George has created there with argon 18 yeah I think that sounded like a joint project with them so hats off to them as well they make good bikes yeah it’s uh I could do that with a shiv a shiv has a regular I think George would have had more headaches with that bike than I would have had with a shiv because the shiv has a regular um Fork stem stem clamp Mount Circle I enjoyed that I think it’s a really good category it wasn’t many Juniors which is sad um but you plenty of women uh and a lot of men 145 riders in total so it’s well entered nice course horrible conditions but that could be on any any day but a nice course low traffic say few things to think about undulations roundabouts yeah don’t know how much power I did didn’t have a power meter and I’m all right with that George said he did 3 60-ish um Mikey M said it was 430 which is a lot that’s an awful lot of power Christ uh he was last year’s winner um I love these events I really do I really do um they’re just everyone’s so nice everyone’s out here on a Sunday morning trying to trying to do the best they can and hopefully Come Away with a gold cap Jersey medal or a PB well just a good ride that’s what we trained for so um yeah hats off to George from winning hats off to Laura for winning the women’s everyone else at won prizes and um going to go away and well turn my road bike back into something that I want to use every day which does not involve a 58 one by Chain ring uh I will be putting uh my 52 back on and I’ll be um I don’t I don’t think I’ll Road B TT more this year but I’ll be back next year probably yeah we got circuit Champs National 10 and the national 50 uh three more opportunities to get that CTT win that I so like thanks for watching thanks to Dad DSA for being videographer as usual and um yeah see you soon [Music]