Alex Dowsett: Haemophilia no barrier to cyclist’s hour record bid

Dowsett, who won gold in last year’s Commonwealth Games time trial, and silver in 2010, is a trailblazer. Amid warnings of future days spent in wheelchairs, doctors recommended he take up chess or a musical instrument.

He chose professional cycling for a career instead, with sports cars as a hobby.

There are not believed to be any other able-bodied, elite sportsmen or women with the condition, which has contributed to some interesting incidents in professional cycling – a sport in which the use of needles is banned because of its drug-tainted past.

“When I was riding for Team Sky [2011-12] they didn’t actually warn any of the riders that I was a haemophiliac and what that would involve,” said Dowsett – who has special dispensation to inject himself every 48 hours with an engineered version of the clotting protein Factor VIII as his body doesn’t naturally produce it.

“One of my team-mates – [Norwegian] Lars Petter Nordhaug – walked in when we were at the Tour of Qatar one year and said, ‘Alex what the hell are you doing?’ I had to explain it to him.”