The winner of the 2024 National Road Bike Time Trial Championships is George Fox, it has been confirmed – seven weeks after the race was originally held.
But the wait and the commentary around his ride has taken its toll, Fox says, and it isn't something he feels like celebrating.
Fox beat Alex Dowsett by 41 seconds in the 22.4-mile event back in April, but the result was left up in the air after a fellow rider lodged a complaint relating to his position and his machine, which uses an Argon 18 E119 triathlon frame.
The 30-year-old Midlands rider was finally vindicated at a Cycling Time Trials disciplinary hearing yesterday, where he successfully defended himself on seven separate points to be able to finally call himself the champion.
But Fox's ride and his bike – which is super-aero and, he admits, pushes the envelope of the loosely written rules – have proved divisive, with many shots fired from both sides on social media.
"The last six, seven weeks has taken its toll," Fox told Cycling Weekly. "Being totally honest, I don't really feel like celebrating that. Because it kind of feels weird to celebrate something that's given you a lot of anxiety and stress and unhappiness."
Yesterday was "business as usual" after the hearing, he said: "I had the hearing yesterday morning, then I went and did an open '10' last night and won that."
Given the issues the race threw up this year, Fox – who races under the banner of his own company, George Fox Cycling Solutions – is expecting the rules to be tightened for 2025. In fact it's something he would like to see, with rules that are less open to interpretation leaving riders less open to the sort of complaints Fox experienced.
"Almost inevitably, I'm anticipating rule changes for next year, which I think is a good thing. So for me, it needs either refinement or just changing full stop," he said. "It's hard because obviously the tighter you make it, the more you risk people not wanting to get involved… it's not an easy thing to achieve."
This isn't the first time Fox's bike has divided opinion. It also happened when he used an earlier iteration of the Argon 18 frame to set a new road bike record for 10 miles last year.
The road bike category – introduced as a default category in every open event last year – has proved popular for Cycling Time Trials, which governs the sport in the UK, and a key weapon as it attempts to arrest the decline in race entrants.
Only yesterday CTT also introduced Tribes, which allows riders to ride their local races as part of a national competition.
For Fox though, having had his set-up officially cleared for use, he is going to continue to use it.
"I'm excited to get racing on it again," he says, "because a lot of hard work and effort went into it. And I've literally raced the bike three times.
"For me now it's more excitement, get back out, get racing again, get the mojo back. Let the body kind of get some sleep... and get back to normal."
