Alex Dowsett believes that Dan Bigham's attempt at the Hour Record may expose a "flaw in the system" that he feels is "hopelessly unfair."

Bigham will be in Switzerland this week to challenge his partner Joss Roden for the women's world record. Unlike Roden, however, he is ineligible for the official world record and his distance will not be officially recognized by the UCI.

Even if he were to beat Victor Kampenaerts' 55.089 km, he would only have the British record, currently held by Bradley Wiggins.

That is because Bigum does not participate in the UCI's anti-doping system, the Registered Testing Pool, which requires athletes to provide their whereabouts information and establish a biological passport program.

All WorldTour and ProTeam riders automatically participate in the RTP as part of their professional contracts, while outsiders may participate at their own expense, which Biggum estimates to cost around £8,000.

"It's a shame Dan won't be able to challenge for the World Hour Record. Certainly, if he goes ahead of Victor, it will expose the flaws in the system," Dowsett, a former UCI Hour Record holder, told Cycling News at the recent World Championships, where he and Bigam competed in the team time trial mixed relay and Great Britain finished fifth.

"It's a financial flaw. Because it's all about whether or not you are in the test registration pool, which results in financial problems and trade teams to support. It would be unfortunate if Dan's world record comes to a halt for financial reasons"

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While Bigham will not be going for the world record, Roden will live-stream her challenge on September 30 at the Velodrome Suisse in Grenchen. Roden's challenge is being funded by her trade team, Drops LeCol.

For Dowsett, it is a difficult balance between ensuring fair play and keeping the historic Hour Record a democratic discipline.

"It's a difficult issue because there should be a test registration pool. We all want a clean sport.

"But the idea that it should be limited to World Tour riders and a few pro conti riders is grossly unfair. The Hour Record is a specialist event, not just for World Tour riders, nor should it be. As we have seen in cyclocross, a fast-rising rider like Milan-San Remo can be a very different competitor to a rider who takes more than an hour.

In any case, Dowsett intends to watch Bigum and Roden rise to the challenge. He himself had hoped to compete in this event, but was infected with COVID-19 last winter and had to abandon his plans.

Dowsett took the UCI world time record from Rohan Dennis in 2015 with a distance of 52.937 km, but lost it a month later to Wiggins, who clocked 54.526 km. A repeat attempt at this record, now held by Kampenaerts, is clearly not out of the question for him.

"I have plans, but no news," Dowsett said.