With the Tour de France coming to Essex next year, Giro stage winner Alex Dowsett says â€œI want a part of the Tour in my home town!â€

Gordon Wiseman writes

Every rider in the Tour de France has to make their debut sometime and somewhere but Alex Dowsett (Movistar Team) is one of just a few who hopes to be have made their first appearance in la grande boucle and race through his home town all at the same time.

Itâ€™s been known since the end of last year that Yorkshire would be hosting the first two stages of the 2014 Tour but, apart from knowing that the third stage would finish in London, little was known about the exact route that would be taking the 200 strong peloton into the capital.

Since then there have been leaks and rumours but last week it was confirmed that the roads of Essex would feature heavily in the 159km journey from Cambridge, past the 2012 Olympic Park and into Westminster.

And whilst no rider can guarantee a place in their teamâ€™s line up at any race â€“ even where â€œhome advantageâ€ is certain to create even more exposure for that rider and their team â€“ Dowsett already has both the race start in Leeds and the finish along the prestigious Avenue des Champs-Ã‰lysÃ©es three weeks later firmly in his mind.

â€œWhat more of an incentive do I need? To race in the Tour, in my own country and though my home town? That really is a once in a lifetime opportunity and Iâ€™ll be doing all I can to grab that chanceâ€ said the Movistar professional.

2013 was a year of change for the Maldon born rider. Many questioned why he wanted to leave Team Sky, the then worldâ€™s number one team, at the end of 2012 but his decision was based on how he wanted to progress as a rider looking towards Grand Tour experience. And thatâ€™s certainly what he got with his new Spanish employers.

And he more than proved that he could take on the challenge of a three week grand tour when he competed in, finished – and won a stage â€“ at the highest level in this yearâ€™s Giro dâ€™Italia, the 2013 edition proving to be of the toughest for years.

â€œThat result in the Giro time trial was certainly the highlight of my year but already I know a result like that, no matter how good it was, doesnâ€™t mean Iâ€™ve done enough to warrant a place in Movistarâ€™s 2014 Tour line-up.

â€œThereâ€™s only one time trial in next yearâ€™s Tour routeâ€ â€“ the 54kms from Bergerac to PÃ©rigueux on the penultimate stage â€“ â€œand itâ€™s got my name written all over it but next year Movistar will be riding for Nairo and thereâ€™s nearly three weeks of racing to be gone through before we get thereâ€.

The rise of Nairo Quintana, second overall in this yearâ€™s Tour and winner of the Mountains and Young Rider competitionsâ€™, does mean that Movistarâ€™s management has some interesting decisions to make over the winter as they plan their rosters for the full seasonâ€™s racing to come but Dowsett is hoping heâ€™s done more than enough to merit a place in the nine man team that lines up in Leeds on Saturday 5 July.

â€œIâ€™ve had a very strong finish to 2013 and put in some really strong rides in the Tour of Britainâ€ â€“ where the 25 year old was trying to recover from an illness for most of the race â€“ â€œand the Tour of Beijing which we won with Rui and Iâ€™m hoping the team knows itâ€™s team based rides like that that I can bring to the Tour squad.

â€œThey wonâ€™t be able to just pack the team with another eight climbers. Nairo will need help and support on the flat and over the cobbles on stage 5 and Iâ€™m hoping my experience in these sort of situations â€“ and the fact that I can time trial â€“ will go in my favour in terms of team selection. If I get to race itâ€™ll all be to help Nairo and to help the teamâ€.

That experience over the cobbles may well prove to be the ace in Dowsettâ€™s hand. Spanish teams arenâ€™t exactly renown for their competiveness in the cobbled spring Classics but Dowsett put in a hard months racing in Belgium and northern France in the spring and although he wasnâ€™t that surprised with his results â€“ â€œmy training for the Giro didnâ€™t really prepare me for the short, sharp bursts needed in the cobbled racesâ€ he said at the time â€“ he will know from those experiences whatâ€™s needed to protect Quintana, and/or Valverde and that experience could prove to be invaluable.

Alex relaxing by doing some commentating at the last Revolution meeting with some help from his friends…Â

And thereâ€™ll be the experience of riding on the English roads he raced on as a junior and trains on virtually every day. So does he think â€œhome advantageâ€ will give him the edge over other riders?

â€œItâ€™d be nice to think so and if we werenâ€™t going for the outright win then perhaps some sentiment would play a part and, with the race going through my home town, Iâ€™d be selected on that basis. But I canâ€™t expect that, not with the outright win as a possibility. Anyway, I want to get into the Tour team on meritâ€.

The Giro stage win was an obvious high point for Alexâ€™ 2013 season. But what was the low point?

â€œThatâ€™s not difficult. It has to be the Worlds. After the high in the Giro time trial not being able to ride like that in the World Champs was a huge disappointment. I really knew within about 10 minutes that it wasnâ€™t going to happen but I still had nearly 50kms to go and I couldnâ€™t just climb offâ€.

It wasnâ€™t how heâ€™d wanted or even expected the Worlds to go. In 2012 Dowsett had finished in eighth place and, with his Giro result on top of that many pundits had Alex at the top of their list of riders who could pull off a medal ride.

But it wasnâ€™t to be. He said at the time â€œit simply didnâ€™t work. In my training leading up to the championships Iâ€™d been hitting times and power outputs Iâ€™ve never seen before. Iâ€™d trained for ages just for this ride, Iâ€™d trained so hard as I wanted to repeat my success at the Giro.

â€œThen in the weeks leading up to the Worlds I got a cold that turned into a viral infection and my form just disappeared. After my ride I felt absolutely gutted and it seemed that everything had just been taken away from meâ€.

But even now the 2014 racing season is only weeks away and already Alex has attended Movistarâ€™s first get together. Since getting back from Beijing â€“ â€œI nearly didnâ€™t get there, my passport only came back with my Chinese visa 15 minutes before I was due to leave my house to fly to Chinaâ€ â€“ Dowsett has been recharging his batteries, in Alexâ€™ case spending time in the gym working on areas he knows he needs to improve on.

2014 is a huge opportunity for the Essex based rider. He missed out on a â€˜once in a lifetime opportunityâ€™ in 2012 when early season injury saw him not as fit as he needed to be to gain Olympic selection in his â€œhomeâ€ Games. With the Tour now coming to his home roads next year, another â€˜once in a lifetimeâ€™ chance is there for the taking.

â€œMy spirits are high. I know what chance lays ahead of me and I want it. I want to be part of and do a job for Movistarâ€™s 2014 Tour line up. Itâ€™s the sort of chance I joined the team for and Iâ€™ll be doing all I can to make sure that chance becomes realâ€.

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