Alex Dowsett has started his UK time trialling season with a bang after taking the power meter off his Specialized Shiv and instead riding to speed and perceived effort.
The Essex-based former WorldTour pro, who rides for Nopinz, has won two out of two open time trials this season – with the Diss & District '25' last weekend being the most recent. His time of 50.19 was just five seconds off the course record in what were less than ideal conditions. He also won the 22-mile Maldon Hilly last month.
The 35-year-old, who retired from the WorldTour at the end of 2022, says that removing his power meter has helped significantly with his pacing, as he is no longer chasing the wattages he was once capable of.
"Last year, [riding] with a power meter, I didn't really like what I was seeing because I'd compare it to the best best rides I've ever had," the six-time national TT champ told Cycling Weekly. "I am going to come up short on that, so it was pretty demoralising.
"It would throw my pacing as well," he added, "because even if I take realism into a TT – what used to be 400 watts is now like 380 or 370 for example – I'd be like, 'maybe today's the day that I can hold those numbers of old again'."
He even ended up riding the first 10 minutes of last year's National 100-mile time trial at around 400 watts – "which is just idiotic really – I don't know, I had maybe a bit of adrenaline and enthusiasm, and wishful thinking takes over," he said. "So I've just kind of taken the power meter off and it has kind of made me focus more on speed than power and I think I'm having a nicer time."
Losing the power meter also means there is no temptation to expend unnecessary energy pedalling hard everywhere in order to finish with a power PB, he says.
"I think [a power meter] actually makes it harder for a lot of people to take a recovery on a downhill, because how much power you did is something that people talk about in the village hall afterwards," he points out. "Nothing tanks your average power like a corner or an extended descent where you do zero watts. It's great for pacing, but it's terrible if you want to finish with a big average power."
In terms of heart rate, he does record it he says, but doesn't have it set up as visible during competition, largely due to its unreliable nature. He learned that lesson in 2013 during the first Giro d'Italia he rode.
"I did the Maldon club 10 before the Giro," he explains. "That was the usual – quite a lot of training fatigue – and my heart rate crept into the 180s by the end of it. That's about right for me. Then I did the time trial in the Giro, which was stage eight, so heavily, heavily fatigued – I think my heart rate crept into the 160s by the end… it went very well because I won it."
After the Giro he had a week off the bike and then rode another club 10 – during which his heart rate soared into the 190s inside the first two miles.
"They were similar performances for all three events," he says, "so that certainly said to me that it's not worth modulating my effort around it."
Dowsett's set-up, refined for 2024, includes a Specialized Shiv time trial machine kitted out with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, Aerocoach wheels and Drag2Zero bars. He's wearing a Nopinz Hypersonic skinsuit and aero baselayer, plus Specialized TT5 helmet – famed for its balaclava addition (Dowsett wasn't wearing this in his recent Diss time trial win).
Dowsett has a lot planned for this year, including vying for numerous standard-distance National Championships again (he podiumed in the 10 and 100 last year, fifth in the 50). He is also set to also dabble in gravel, riding the upcoming Gralloch in Scotland – won last year by Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers). He may even take part in the National Hill-Climb Championships – "just to experience it".
More pressingly, though, he is set to ride this weekend's road bike National Championship, based on a 22.4-mile course at Sawtry in Cambridgeshire.
