Dowsett seals time-trial treble in Ayrshire

ALEX Dowsett secured his third consecutive British Time Trial Championships, becoming the second-most successful rider in the discipline.

The Team Movistar cyclist recovered from a crash in the first lap of the race in Stewarton to lead by five seconds at the halfway point. He eventually won with a 13-second advantage over Matthew Bottrill. Dowsett had won by over two minutes in his last championship victory in 2012.

Team Sky’s Ben Swift was less than a hundredth of a second back from the silver medal position. Sky’s Ian Stannard was absent after being called up for the Tour de France yesterday

A crowd of 3,500 lined the streets of East Ayrshire with Ben Peacock, who rides with Paisley’s Velo Racing Team, finishing in eighth, as the highest-ranked Scottish competitor.

Dowsett who originally displaced Sir Bradley Wiggins as the time trial champion, said: “It’s nice. When I first took the jersey, Wiggins said I’d just be looking after it.”

The 24-year-old added: “But I’m feeling really attached to it. It’s been a great year and I’m hoping to reach the Tour de France next year. I’ll see what I can do in the lead up to that.

“I’ve got to thank Team Movistar for such a swift bike change, and I managed to get up pretty quickly. I had a great Giro, too, so I’m really grateful to them.

“I’ve never crashed before, so it was a bit of the unknown. The course was excellent. I didn’t really know what to expect actually. The crowd was excellent, and I’m surprised because we’re nowhere near Glasgow. It’s kind of the middle of nowhere actually.”

In a thrilling finish, former world champion and Olympic gold medallist in the women’s team pursuit Joanna Rowsell beat the impressive Lizzie Armitstead to the winner’s jersey by just 0.32 of a second.

Rowsell was the second-last rider to enter the Stewarton course and met her pre-season targets, beating fellow Wiggle Honda team-mates Laura Trott, who finished fifth, and Danielle King in 13th position.

“It means the world,” she said. “I’ve been targeting this since the beginning of the season and to get a jersey, it’s so important, as it doesn’t matter whether it’s a world championship or others.

“I felt better on the second lap. It’s a really tough course, especially with the speed bumps which makes it a bit harder. Since the Olympics, I wanted a bit of a break in track over the winter. It wasn’t specifically to focus on the race, but for myself.

“I still wanted to meet the target, though. I’m coming into the road race where everything is new. I really enjoy time trialling, so it means everything to me.”

Katie Colclough took bronze after a strong first half of the race with her first senior podium finish while Emma Trott was fourth. Lucy Coldwell, who hails from Glasgow but is based in Australia, was the highest-finishing Scottish rider coming in sixth place behind the Trott sisters by a narrow-margin.

Meanwhile, Welsh 20-year-old Sam Harrison retained his British under-23 time trial title for the second consecutive year with a 0:23 advantage ahead of Team IG’s Joe Perrett and team-mate George Atkins.

Harrison took just over 47 minutes to complete the 35.2km course with the best Scottish performance in the category coming from Finlay Young of Rapha Condor CC in 20th and eight minutes further back.