When we left Dowsett, he was telling us that Team Sky had worked with Pinarello to design the bike maker's new time trial bike. Dowsett's team, Movistar, had a long relationship with Pinarello, but because of Team Sky's new "partnership" with Pinarello, that relationship was over. The only team that could use the new, faster time trial bike was Sky...
And just as bad...
Team Sky made their own handlebars, at about 12,000 pounds a set - unthinkable money at Movistar at the time. We had ugly, bolted-on Vision bars that weren't adjustable and with cabling that was an aerodynamics monstrosity. Wiggins' bike was clean without a cable in sight. All this, according to Rod (Note: Rod Ellingworth, performance manager at Team Sky), gave him at least 30 seconds over me before we started.
On the morning of 11 May, Movistar hadn't left time to recon the whole 55km TT. Of course they hadn't. The first 25km was technical, so we looked at the first 15km of that. There were a lot of corners and it was in fact so technical that I couldn't begin to remember it all. It was going to be impossible for the team car to tell me what I did or did not need to brake for. I had to take this upon myself.
So I did what I've done hundreds of times in Britain and learned on the Maldon 10, study the route, get technical myself, make a plan, and don't make the classic time trialists' mistake of obsessing about how much power I am producing on my computer and, instead, think only of speed.
It's just you and the course. Screw the race. Screw Wiggins. Screw Sky. Just ride your bike f--king fast and don't use your brakes.
There were a lot of corners. I didn't want to be braking for them. So I had to know the route. Even if we had recce'd the whole route, it was too much to remember anyway. I needed a map. Movistar's sponsor, SRM, supplied us with computers that didn't have maps. The solution was obvious, I would do as Sky did and use a different computer, even if it pissed off my team and their sponsor.
I had a Garmin in my bag. I spent an hour or so plotting the route into it and then went to the mechanics.
'Can you put this Garmin on my bike next to the SRM?'
'Have you checked it with the boss?'
'Absolutely not.'
'What!'
One of Movistar's weaknesses was how beholden to sponsors they were. If a company wanted to sponsor Team Sky but didn't produce the best equipment, Sky would tell them that either they would not be sponsoring the team or, yes, they could sponsor the team but until they made something good enough Sky would use the other equipment.
Movistar's stance was: they're the sponsor, so we use whatever they make.
'Listen to me,' I told the mechanic. 'If you get asked, you tell them to come to me. It's on me, my decision, just get the Garmin on my bike, please. Okay?'
'Okay."
Soon, the TT at the Giro, from Bloody Minded, by Alex Dowsett!