Writtle College's Mark Walker is coaching the Commonwealth time trial champion cyclist for his one-hour record attempt tomorrow 2 May and has spoken from Manchester about how the bid is going.
The attempt at the prestigious title was scheduled for February but the Movistar Team rider, from Chelmsford, crashed while training in Essex in January and broke his collarbone.
Alex, who helped present the awards at one of the College's Graduation Ceremonies last year, will attempt to set a new Hour Record in Manchester.
Speaking from Manchester today 1 May, Mark said: “It’s going really well. We knew London was slow as a track and we came up to Manchester and his lap is 0.2 of a second faster. His power outputs and blood lactate are all looking good.
“On Tuesday in Manchester he had really good numbers. He was a little bit tired after. Then he did a long stint on Thursday.
“He had his final test today and we heated the velodrome up to 25 to 26C and measured the air density, as that causes extra drag and we want to get it as fast as possible. The bike’s all running fine; we had the full racing package on for the trial run, with all the fastest equipment. The data looks good and it’s pointing in the right direction. There was a tiny bit of tiredness with his legs yesterday but I think, once he freshens up tomorrow, he will be good to go.
“The amount I have learnt in the last week of being here is incredible, with the collective experts in aerodynamics, bike design and the fantastic Movistar team. On a personal level, there have only been a handful of attempts at the one-hour record in my lifetime so being a coach for this is absolutely brilliant.”
• For more information about the FdSc Cycling Performance – which enables students to gain a qualification while pursuing their competitive or coaching ambitions - please visit www.writtle.ac.uk