TOMORROW lunchtime a young man will seat himself on a bike in a velodrome stretch his arms in front of him and ride round and round in circles as fast as he can for exactly 60 minutes.

He won’t change position, he won’t leave the track, and he will be cheered on by people who will have paid good money for the privilege. The hour will be broadcast live on television.

No, he’s not mad, nor are they, nor are the bosses of British Eurosport TV. I will be following every minute of it and I speak as someone who much prefers road racing to track racing. So why am I interested in a single man riding by himself in a velodrome?

His name is Alex Dowsett and he will be attempting to break the World Hour Record set in February by Australian Rohan Dennis.

He is also a haemophiliac, with the severest form of the condition, and needs regular injections to stop himself bleeding to death.

His motivation is the countless people like himself whose blood doesn’t clot naturally, all of whom will have been told at some time or other “you can’t do this or that or that because of your condition”. He’s out to prove that the only thing that holds you back is yourself.

He will be attempting to cycle further in 60 minutes than the record of 52.491 km, or in other terms, cycle at more than 30mph for a whole hour on pedal power alone. Just writing it makes me feel tired and I don’t have a potentially fatal condition.

But then Dowsett has never been one to sit on a sofa bemoaning his fate. This is a man who chose to ride for a Spanish cycling team when he couldn’t speak Spanish, and a man who during his off season, instead of taking it easy like many sportsmen, bangs the drum loudly and ceaselessly for haemophiliacs worldwide.

In his day job, he’s a class act. His victories include winning gold for England in the Commonwealth Games time trial last year, a stage of the 2013 Giro d’Italia, and wearing the leader’s jersey in the Tour of Britain, and he’s among the top time trialists in the world.

He’s been training for months for tomorrow’s hour which he’s called the “perfect hour” even though it will push him to his absolute limit, and breaking his shoulder earlier this year hasn’t deterred him.

He’s already achieved the not inconsiderable feat of persuading his Spanish team, Movistar, who last year were the Number One team in the world, to back him up to the hilt in his endeavour, despite him not being either of their two superstar riders or Spanish.

Together with its commercial partners, his team has designed and created a special bike and super-streamlined cycling kit for him, provided the equipment and technicians to check his position and technique in a wind tunnel and arranged training time in the velodrome.

Whether or not he succeeds in becoming a world-record holder, and he will give it a very good shot, he will show that it is possible to live with a major medical condition and do the incredible.

If, when you get bad news from the doctor, you respond by, “Okay, don’t tell me what I can’t do, tell me how can I do what I want to do”, as opposed to, “What does that stop me doing?” it’s amazing what you can do.

Remember Jane Tomlinson, the inspirational woman who didn’t let cancer stop her achieving so much? Dowsett is in the same mould.

I very much hope he not only achieves the World Hour Record tomorrow, but sets it so high Sir Bradley Wiggins won’t beat him when he makes his World Hour Record attempt in June.