The afternoon session of the third round of the tenth Revolution series saw one of the most exciting races of the year as Sky’s Peter Kennaugh tore up the UCI Elite Men’s Points Race. As ever, the mix of Sprint, Endurance and Future Stars racing kept the crowd on the edge of their seats…
The afternoon session kicked off with qualifying for the evening’s Sprint competitions and it was Junior World Sprint Champion Dani Khan of Great Britian who topped the 200m Time Trial results in the Women’s event. Her time of 11.218 seconds was just a whisker ahead of Elis Ligtlee of the Netherlands who clocked 11.226. Khan’s team mate Katy Marchant rounded out the top three, also squeezing under 11.3 seconds on 11.294.
In the Men’s competition it was Scot Callum Skinner who clocked the fastest time with a 10.068 – just ahead of Great Britain team mate Matt Crampton on 10.139. Hugo Haak of the Netherlands prevented a GB 1-2-3 with a time exactly sixth hundreds off Crampton’s but 19 thousandths quicker than Jason Kenny’s 10.218.
The last of the afternoon’s Time Trials was a Flying Lap for the Endurance riders. Skinner’s 200 was an average speed of 71.513km/h while Ed Clancy of Rapha Condor JLT managed 68.1km/h over the slightly longer distance to clock 13.208. Nico Hesslich of Rudy Project Racing was just a couple of tenths off in second with Ross Edgar showing his Sprint background with a 13.651.
Katie Archibald took the UCI Women’s Pints race, taking a lap with Amy Pieters of the Netherlands and Elinor Barker of Wales. Consistency – scoring in fiveof the ten sprints and taking a first in one and a second in the other – left her three points clear of Pieters in the run to the line at the finish. Nina Kessler of the Netherlands took the final five points, with Dani King taking three but Archibald’s third place, ahead of Pieters, left her on 33 points with the Dutch rider on 29.
Next up was the UCI Men’s Elite Points Race and it’s fair to say that Sky’s Peter Kennaugh dominated – if not from start to finish, not far off. He missed out to Adam Blythe in the first sprint – taking second ahead of Steven Burke and Jon Mould, fourth in the second and no points at all in the third.
He took the fourth sprint from Owain Doull, Oliver Wood and Nico Hesslich – en route to what would be the first of seven laps that he would take on the field (with another two sprint victories thrown in) for a total of 161 points. To put that in perspective, second placed Clancy was 6 laps and 61 points behind, with third placed Hesslich a further lap and 13 points back.
