Racing on home soil in the Tour of Britain, Sky Procycling’s Alex Dowsett sped to a superb time trial champion on today’s penultimate stage of the race. The national time trial champion blitzed the 8.8 kilometre London course to set a time of ten minutes 14 seconds, a mark rapid enough to beat race leader Lars Boom (Rabobank) by a full five seconds.
Boom, who won the prologue in both the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour of Qatar, extended his overall lead on his main rivals and looks almost certain to win the 2.1-ranked race this afternoon.
Many had tipped the double stage winner to make it three victories in the race against the clock, but Dowsett had more to give on the day and snagged the biggest success thus far of his career.
That good ride was enough to be a winning one, something which pleases him greatly. “It’s amazing; it’s one of those things I would hopefully tell my children in years to come. It’s going to take a while to sink in. London has been pretty kind to me, it’s amazing.
Boom’s strength in the race makes Dowsett’s win all the most rewarding for him. “Today has really shown that I can mix it with the top guys and onwards and upwards hopefully,” he said.
The early best was set by former Swedish national champion Alex Wetterhall (Endura Racing), who had targeted the stage. This stood for twenty minutes but was then beaten by a rapid ten minutes 19 second time by Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil). Dowsett finished 17 minutes after that and grabbed the hot seat by going five seconds faster.
Sky Procycling team-mate Steve Cummings was also on a flyer and went second fastest at the second time split. He had started the stage fifth overall, but leapfrogged Linus Gerdeman (Leopard), Daniel Lloyd (Team Garmin - Cervelo) and Leopold Koenig (Team NetApp) with his ten minute 23 second time, moving up to second in the general classification.
As race leader, Boom set off last and threatened Dowsett’s time when he was just one second slower at the intermediate split. However the Briton had covered the latter part of the course faster and ended up with a comfortable winning margin of five seconds.
It was a big achievement for the rider who notched up his first pro win in August’s Tour du Poitou-Charentes, and has now beaten some of the top names in the sport in the Tour of Britain.
Boom also has plenty to celebrate, holding a cool 36 second lead over Cummings heading into the concluding 88.8 kilometre circuit race. Jan Barta (NetApp) and Gerdemann are the only other riders within a minute of the race lead, but need to make up 56 and 57 seconds respectively; a practically impossible task.
NED 3 Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
AUS 7 Michael Rogers (Team Sky) s.t.
ESP 12 Iker Camano Ortuzar (Endura Racing) s.t.
POL 25 Marcin Bialoblocki (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
AUS 27 Michael Matthews (Rabobank) s.t.
GBR 29 Jonathan Mcevoy (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
GER 31 Dominik Klemme (LEOPARD - TREK) s.t.
GBR 34 Kristian House (Rapha Condor Sharp) s.t.
AUS 37 Zakkari Dempster (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
FRA 38 Alexandre Pichot (Europcar) s.t.
NOR 40 Gabriel Rasch (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
BEL 41 Kenny De Ketele (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
NED 42 Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) s.t.
AUS 46 Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
NED 47 Boy Van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
GBR 51 Andrew Tennant (Rapha Condor Sharp) s.t.
NED 54 Bert-jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
GER 56 Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
BEL 57 Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
AUS 66 Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
ITA 71 Giacomo Nizzolo (LEOPARD - TREK) s.t.
AUT 74 Bernhard Eisel (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
BEL 78 Stijn Joseph (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
ESP 8 Iker Camano Ortuzar (Endura Racing) s.t.
EST 40 René Mandri (Endura Racing) s.t.
GBR 57 Ben Swift (Team Sky) s.t.