British time trial specialist Alex Dowsett (Katusha-Alpecin) will be turning his watts to the 25-hour Red Bull Timelaps endurance event later this month.
Dowsett, a former UCI Hour Record Holder, will join around 800 riders at Windsor Great Park for a full day in the saddle.
Taking place on the night the clocks go back, Timelaps pushes participants to their limits on a 6.6km closed circuit for 25 hours.
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Dowsett said: “Now the World Championships are finished I’m really looking forward to competing in Red Bull Timelaps later this month.
“This race has a really interesting and different concept compared to other 24 hours races with the addition of Power Hour.
“This is where I will look to really make an impact for my team, we can play to my strengths as a time triallist and hopefully pick up extra laps.”
This year’s Timelaps comes with an unusual twist for an endurance event – between 2am and 3am when the clocks go back, riders will take on a shorter course during the ‘Power Hour’ where laps will count double.
The event is the longest one-day road cycling event in the world, as 200 teams of four race through the night.
At the end of the 25 hours, the team with the most laps wins.
Dowsett will be riding with ‘Team Walrus’, alongside Francis Cade, endurance cyclist Chris Hall and Ribble Pro Cycling’s Lawrence Carpenter.
How does it work?
Only one rider from a team can be on course at any time, and that rider scores laps.
That rider must then enter the transition area via the pit lane, then approach their dedicated stopping area and hand over the team baton to the next rider.
Last year’s even saw the winning team of Wellingborough Cycles complete an incredible 138 laps, meaning they covered more than 900km at an average speed of more than 36kmh.
Unsurprisingly the team will be back to defend its title in 2018, with team leader Jack Patmore saying: “We were ecstatic. We ended up entering the 2017 race as a bit of fun at the end of our season, so it’s really great that we ended up winning the whole event.
“We didn’t really have a game plan apart from just letting one of the guys hit it really hard! We are looking forward to coming back this year to defend our title”.
