Doug Dewey: Training hard and feeling the benefits

Tenth in the Perfs may not be a result to shout about but being chased down by Magnus Backstedt (UK Youth) is and that is what happened to Doug Dewey when he attacked on the climb to the finish. All or nothing may have been the motto.

Doug was 4th in the British Pursuit Championship last year and won the Under 23 Time Trial Title. He is coached by Jon Sharples at Trainsharp and Jon explained recently that the power Doug can produce now at the start of the season is higher than it was at the end of the last one. No surprise then Doug broke a course record the weekend before the Perfs.

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Doug (left) with  Conall Yates both riding for InGear/TrainSharp and coached by Jon at Trainsharp.

Doug was one of the riders who helped break up the domination by Team UK Youth at the Perfs Pedal, seen on or near the front each time he passed the finish area and says the winter has gone well. “The training has been harder than I am used to but I am feeling good for it now.”

“I feel better on the bike this year and I have the numbers to back it up which is reassuring when no-one really knows how they are going at this time of the year.” His first race of 2012 didn’t go so well, the Madison Championships at Manchester Velodrome which he says was down to inexperience and technically he wasn’t really up to it. I’d done a few sessions on the track and thought it would be okay but it wasn’t!”

Doug then went out and broke the record for the South Downs Bikes Time Trial last weekend, breaking a record by top time trialist Wouter Sybrandy (IG-Sigma Sport). “It was nice to break a course record and he (Wouter) was really good about it” says Doug. “The ride didn’t feel any different to normal, it was just as painful but I was going faster.”

Doug explains that he trains using power cranks and that has proved to be valuable. “I am used to what the effort feels like now in training” he says.

Doug heads over to Belgium a week on Wednesday (riding for Terra Footwear Bicycle Line) and there’s no hanging about with races on the programme. “I think the races we go straight into are 180k so I have put the hours in over the winter and am now working on race speed.”

Doug isn’t intending on coming back to Britain much during the season, the National Champs he says and may be another Premier around the same time. “I want to give it a good go in Belgium and see if I can get the results I want.”

Good luck to Doug in Belgium.

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