Alex Dowsett was diagnosed with severe haemophilia A at 18 months old, with almost no clotting factor VIII and no family history of the condition. Told from an early age what he might not be able to do, he found sport through swimming and then cycling. He went on to spend 12 years as a professional rider across Team Sky, Movistar, Katusha–Alpecin and IPT, taking 15 professional wins including two Giro d’Italia stages, six national time-trial titles, Commonwealth Games gold and the UCI Hour Record in Manchester in 2015. Since retiring at the end of 2022, Alex works as a performance engineer at XDS Astana, focused on aerodynamics, rider position and the marginal gains that decide bike races. He is the only elite professional sportsperson in the world with severe haemophilia and founded Little Bleeders to support young people with bleeding disorders.