MEET THE MAKER ALEX DOWSETT AND HIS DAD PHIL

What did Giro stage winner and Hour record holder Alex Dowsett learn from his rally driver dad? Chris Marshall-Bell finds out

- Chris Marshall-Bell

Long before Alex Dowsett was setting Hour record times, winning Grand Tour stages and repeatedly becoming British time trial champion, there was another Dowsett from Essex who was speeding around and breaking records: his father, Phil.

Hailing from a motor racing family - Phil's nephew Oliver runs a successful British touring car team, Napa - the 74-year-old raced single-seater, saloon, sports and touring cars for 22 years.

Though he never accomplished his dream of becoming a Formula One driver, Phil was regarded as one of Britain’s best drivers throughout the 1980s. But it wasn’t how he paid the bills. “I had a job, and that was my biggest downfall because I only had one day a week to prepare and test the car before racing,” he says. In 1989, the year after Alex was born, Phil turned down the opportunity to race in Japan for Toyota Factory, instead beginning an upholstery, carpet and curtain business in London. Phil’s wife Jan gave birth to the couple’s second child, Lois, in 1991.

Alex, who was diagnosed with the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia at 18 months old, began cycle racing at age 13, despite no history of the sport in his family. “My nan on my mother’s side would have swum in the Olympics had it not been for the war, but other than that, neither side of my family was particularly sporty,” Alex says. The father and son have made the Dowsett name synonymous with speed.

Phil’s success was a source of inspiration for Alex from a young age. “I heard these stories asa kid about how good my dad was,” Alex says, “and I thought, How am I going to excel at life to the point where I can tell my own kids similar successful stories?” Phil nods: “He more than achieved that goal - he’s got better stories to tell than I have.”

ALEX DOWSETT

Age: 36 Height: 5ft 10in Raised: Chelmsford, Essex Lives: Chelmsford, Essex