Annual winter track events add new league format
The Revolution series kicks off its 2010/11 season at the Manchester Vélodrome this coming Saturday, with organisers Face Partnership introducing trade teams to the season-long competition. Each team will consist of three endurance riders and one sprinter, whose points will be added together over the four events of the season and count towards the Revolution Championship.
“We created the Championship to develop a premier league of track cycling,” said Face Partnership’s James Pope. “The introduction of trade teams is the next step in this development and will give our audience the chance to get behind their favourite teams on the road as well as bringing those road rivalries onto the track.
“More and more pro teams are running track squads alongside their road teams,” he said. “Team Sky best typifies the blend of road and track squads so we hope to bring more teams like Sky into the competition.”
With its high-profile presence in British Cycling, the favourite for the competition will be Team Sky, but Pope expects the other teams to be just as competitive.
“There will be high expectations for Sky to win,” he continued. “They are the strongest on paper but the smaller teams will benefit from the introduction of six day stars across the later events. This will make the competition unpredictable and will hopefully take it to the wire.”
Sky will be led in the first event by multiple Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy, who is on his way back to full fitness after illness earlier this year.
“Revolution will be a nice warm up for the Europeans and the start of the international track season,” he said. “I allowed myself some time to get over the illness I had during the Nationals and didn’t start training again until I felt fully recovered so preparations are going well. I certainly won’t be peaking for the Europeans but I hope to get some valuable qualification points for the London Olympics in the process.”
Many of the top domestic road teams will be represented on the Manchester boards including Motorpoint and Rapha-Condor-Sharp.
Tickets are still available via www.cyclingrevolution.com and will also be available on the door.
Revolution series events 2010/11:
October 23rd, November 20th, December 11th, January 15th.