Dowsett: It's desperately unfair that Bigham can't go for official Hour Record
Former record holder sees 'a flaw in the system' dueꦬ to anti-doping rule🐲s

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alex Dowsett believes that Dan BIg♕ham’s upcoming Hour Record attempt could potentially expose a “flaw in the system” that hꩵe feels is “desperately unfair”.
168澳洲5𒉰最新开奖结果:Bigham is set to make an attempt in Switzerland this week, in conjunction with his partner Joss Lowden’s assault on the women’s world record. However, unlike Lowden, he&r🌳squo;s ineligible for an official world record, meaniಞng his distance will not officially be ratified by the UCI.
Even if he surpasses 1✤68澳洲5最新开奖结果:Victor Campenaerts’s benchmark of 55.089✅km, he woꦫuld only walk away with the British record, curꦍrently held by Bradley Wiggins.
That’s because Bigham is not part of the Registered Testing Pool, the UCI’s anti-doping system in which riders have to provide whereabouts information and build Biological Passport programmes꧟.
All WorldTour and ProTeam rider💃s are automatically part of the RTP as part of their professional contracts, while outsiders can ♉enter in at their own expense, but Bigham estimated that to cost in the region of £8,000.
“It’s a shame that Dan can’t take on the World Hour Record.♉ Certainly,ꩲ if he goes further than Victor, then it’s kind of going to show up a flaw in the system,” Dowsett, a former UCI Hour Record holder, told Cyclingnews at the recent World Championships, where he and Bigham rode in the team time trial mixed relay, with Great Britain finishing fifth.
“It’s a financial flaw, because it all comes down to whether you’re in the Registered Testing Pool, whi💫ch then comes down to finances, or what a trade team is wi🌼lling to support. It’d be a shame if finances stop Dan getting a world record.”
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While Bigham won’t be going for a World Record, Lowden will, with an attempt locked in for September 30 at the Velodrome Suisse in Grenchen, to be streamed live. Lowden’s attempt has been funded by her trade team, Drops LeCol - something described 🔯as “nothing short of epic” by Bigham.
For Dowsett, the balance between ensuring fair play and ensuring the historic Hour Record re🌟mains a democratic discipline is a tricky one to sᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtrike.
“It’s a tough one, because the Registered Testin💝g Pool should exist. We all want clean sport,” he said.
“But the idea that it should be limited to WorldTour riders and some ProConti riders is despe🍎rately unfair. The Hour Record is a specialist event, it’s not exclusive to WorldTour guys and it shouldn’t be. We’ve seen in cyclo-cross,ꦇ it can be a very different set of competitors over one hour compared to guys who are at the sharp end of Milan-San Remo.”
Either way, Dowsett will be tuning in to follow Bigham and Lowden’s attemp🦋ts, saying it’s “very exciting” that his compatriots are breathing new life into the event. He himself had been hoping to do so, but had to scrap plans last winter after contracting COVID-19.
Dowsett took the UCI World Hour Record from Rohan Dennis in 2015 with a distance🐽 of 52.937km, but lost it a month later to Wiggins, who set 54.526km. Another assaul🐼t on the record, now held by Campenaerts, has clearly not slipped off his agenda.
“There are pl♒ans, but there’s noဣ news,” Dowsett said.
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degre🀅e in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.