There was a huge amount of excitement in the air as the Revolution Series kicked off early this year with a three day festival of track cycling, a host of the sport’s mega-star riders including Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Francois Pervis and Laura Trott – and at a new venue in Derby. The first session on Friday note was hopefully a taste of things to come.
Photos by Andy Whitehouse
Women’s Individual Pursuit
The crowd settled in as the Women’s Individual Pursuit qualifying got under way and it was trackcycling columnist Ciara Horne who topped the time sheets for Great Britain by the end of the session – her time of 3:37.278 just ahead of Joanna Rowsell Shand’s 3:37.438. Laura Trott and Emily Kay ensured that the Finals would be an all Great Britain after with Revolution stalwart Leire Olaberria in fifth.
Horne went out faster in the Final but couldn’t match her qualifying pace – dropping two seconds on her earlier ride – while former World Champion Rowsell Shand showed her experience and pulled her rival back and improved on her qualifying pace by a tenth to take the win with a 3:37.320. Laura Trott finished third.
Men’s Team Pursuit
It was Wiggins that many of the crowd had come to see and they weren’t disappointed with his first appearance in the Men’s Team Pursuit qualifiers. The GB quartet of Wiggins, Owain Doull, Steven Burke and Jon Dibben qualified comfortably fastest with a 4:00.324 – four seconds ahead of the young 100% Me quartet of Germain Burton, Mat Gibson, Chris Latham and Ollie Wood with a 4:04.568. Dutch quartet Dion Beukeboom, Roy Pieters, Jan-Willen van Schip and Tim Veldt were a couple of seconds back in third with Austria’s Stefan Mastaller, Stefan Matzner, Dennis Wauch and Tobias Wauch 20 seconds off the Dutch squad’s pace.
The Derby crowd raised the roof as Clamcy stepped in for Dibben in the final of the Team Pursuit and Wiggo led the GB squad to a fantastic time of 3.54.974 – just 3 seconds off the World Record. The youngsters took inspiration from the Senior squad and took another 3 seconds off their qualifying time, clocking a very impressive 4:01.055 – with the Netherlands comfortably taking third.
Women’s 500m Time Trial
The sprinters were up next and although BMX superstar Shanaze Reade returned to the track it was GB team mate Katy Marchant who took the honours with a 34.117 – almost two tenths ahead of Jess Varnish on 34.292. Young Dannielle Khan took 3rd with 34.961. Sandie Clair of France was first non-Brit in fourth.
Men’s Kilometre Time Trial
The biggest shock of the night came as Great Britain’s Callum Skinner lined up against the current 1km Time Trial World Champion and World Record holder, Francois Pervis. Pervis’ 1:02.33 was only good enough for third – team mate Quentin Lafargue half a second quicker on 1.01.878 – but Skinner took the win with a 1:01.135. Lewis Oliva took fourth with a 1:02.749.
Youth Scratch Races
As always, it wasn’t all about the elite riders at Revolution and a pair of Youth Scratch Races saw Brad Dransfield of Kirklees Cycling Academy take race 1 from Thamana Nel of i Team and Dransfield’s team mate Tom Humphrey with Ellie Russell of Sportcity Velo the last of the quartet a lap up on the field – a result that was repeated in race 2.
Sprinter’s Longest Lap
Pervis’ disappointing night was made worse by a crash over the finish line when he got caught up with Matthew Rotherham of Maloja Pushbikers in the Sprinters Longest Lap. Rotherham looked to come off worse of the two but it was Oliva that took the win, ahead of Skinner and Lafargue.
Women’s Scratch
Katie Archibald took the Women’s Scratch Race – taking a lap over the rest of the field half way through the 15km race. Horne also tried to get away – perhaps looking to make up for her disappointment in the Individual Pursuit final against Rowsell Shand earlier in the night – but it was Trott that led the field home to take second ahead of Olaberria.
A great opening start to Derby’s first Revolution with the next two days dominated by Men’s and Women’s Omniums – and all eyes on Mark Cavendish and Laura Trott.
