Currently sitting in second place, two points behind Maxgear, in the Revolution Championship standings, the riders from Team Sky are hoping to make up some points in this Saturday’s races. Revolution 31 will see Russell Downing, Pete Kennaugh and Ross Edgar competing in the colours of the ProTour team.
With Revolution regular Geraint Thomas joining a number of other Sky riders on an early training camp, Downing makes his debut in the Manchester track events and is expecting a tough evening.
“I’ve been training pretty well on the turbo [indoor trainer – Ed] over the last few weeks,” he said. “The track is a different ball game and the caliber of racing at Revolution is always top class. It will be a tough night of racing but I’ll do my best to score some points for the team.”
World and Olympic medallist Edgar is hoping to use the Revolution Series to provide a bit of variety in his training as he gets himself ready for the big targets of the season. With much of Saturday’s opposition already well into their racing seasons, he also knows how tough the racing will be.
“Revolution will provide a good opportunity to break up the training with competition which is good for motivation and to give a tactical refresh,” he said. “I’m currently in the middle of a gym training block which is going really well. My strength is good so I’ll probably be pretty fast over the first 60m but after that, who knows!”
“All competition is important,” he continued. “Everything is being scrutinised in the build up to 2012 so the racing will be full on at events like Revolution. Dutchman [Teun] Mulder will be on good form off the back of the first World Cup so it will be a good test.”
Edgar will team up with Craig MacLean and Dave Daniell in the climax of the evening’s racing: a Great Britain vs Netherlands team sprint against Mulder, Roy van den Berg and Hugo Haak. He hopes that the events will stand him in good stead and help him to gain form in his fight to get into the actual three-man sprint team in the Great Britain squad.
“I’m targeting the Team Sprint and hope to get a run out at the Manchester World Cup,” he confirmed. “I’m also aiming for one of the Keirin spots. I’m pleased with my progress so if I can convert the gym work to speed on the track things will be looking good later in the season”.
The international team sprint match up is just one of the innovative races to feature in the programme; after the three-man Madison in the previous event, this time the evening’s competition will include an Australian Pursuit.
“We’ve put a twist on several of the races to test the endurance riders and make the racing even more exciting,” explained Revolution Promoter James Pope. “The Australian Pursuit will see eight riders pursuit on the track at the same time. If a rider is caught they are eliminated and the winner is the first to cover the 3km distance.”
The pursuit will feature all the European track stars on the bill, who include Iljo Keisse, Franco Marvulli, Leif Lampater, Jens Eric Madsen and Claudio Imhof.
Full details and tikets are available on www.cyclingrevolution.com, or by calling 0843 208 1840. Tickets will also be available on the door.