Team Sky leads Revolution series before 30
The next round of the Revolution track cycling series will be held this Saturday at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester. Revolution 30 is the second of four rounds in the event’s seventh season and Team Sky, who earned the maximum of 10 points in round
one, will begin the day as the series leaders and intend to finish the day the same way.
"I'm looking forward to getting on the track and racing as Team Sky at Revolution," said British national road champion Gerraint Thomas to Cyclingnews. "It's great that the event has evolved and I think the team idea is good. It will change the way we approach
the racing so we'll all be focused on keeping Sky at the top of the table."
Thomas wore the best young rider’s jersey for four days at this year’s Tour de France and is spending the off-season on the track. He will compete in the endurance events on Saturday on a three-man team with Peter Kennaugh and Ben Swift. Their biggest opponents
will be the Danish pair from team Saxo Bank, Alex Rasmussen and Michael Morkov, who won the World title in two-man Madison in 2009.
"The endurance field at the next Revolution will be one of the strongest we've had at an event," said event director James Pope. "Morkov and Rasmussen are a class act, so we're expecting them to make an immediate impact on the Championship. With such an
exciting and attacking field of international riders, joined with the calibre of British riders, Revolution 30 is set to be a display of endurance brilliance."
The season began with Revolution 29 on October 23 and will continue with races on December 11 and January 15. Team Sky’s Chris Hoy was the master of round one, which focused on the sprints. This Saturday’s race will focus on this being the first time the
series hosts a three-man Madison. The Madison is an endurance race usually competed by two-man tag-teams. One rider races while the other rests, hand-slinging each other onto the track during the switch.
“Three man is cool,” said Swiss rider Franco Marvulli to VeloNation. “We raced it in Stuttgart where I won twice so I have good experiences of the format. It means less time in the race but this makes it much faster so I think it will be fantastic. I always
love racing Revolution, because of the crowd, the hard racing, the support of all the fans, I have made a lot of friends there, so will always give my best to try to win.”
Franco Murvulli will race for the Le Col team with Jon Mould and Andrew Fenn. Fellow top six-day racers Leif Lampeter, Andreas Muller, Christian Grassman, Sebastian Donadio and other will be making the trip to Manchester on Saturday as well.
"There are some great European guys coming over for the occasion but I'm just going to enjoy it," said Thomas. "Revolution will be a good way for me to get back in the track mindset against some top riders."
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