Chris Hoy

Chris Hoy the Scot putt in an awesome display to win on the track where a Keirin crash cost him almost a season of competitive riding, and collects Team GB’s first rainbow jersey. After the disappointment of the team sprint all eyes were on Hoy’s solo efforts, which started badly in the heats after he was brought down by Josiah Ng (ML) just after the gun. The Malaysian was disqualified and Hoy went on to progress easily.

In the second round Hoy went off the front early and looked untroubled as he moved through to the final with Awang of Malaysia on his heels. Matt Crampton didn’t make it through to the final after a poor heat but put in an impressive display in the minor final, taking the line for a seventh place finish. The final itself went to a restart with Malaysian rider Awang unable to take a place in the line, ending up off the track.

Hoy, with the inside draw, lined up second from the restart behind the German Maximilian Levy and left a gap to the leader with three laps to go with. The French rider Francois Pervis managed to steal a march on Hoy to relegate the Scot to third on the track but he showed the best of his form to ride round both of the front runners on the penultimate lap to take the lead position at the bell. Hoy’s not an easy guy to go round and he managed to hold the front for gold depsite a massive late effort from Awang which brought him to within half a wheel at the line. Levy ran in third.

“it’s been a difficult year and to come out tonight against a very competitive field and win just feels amazing. It was a hard fought win as well. There was a few guys in there who are really strong kilometre riders like Pervis and Mulder, if i tried to the two and a half laps full gas there was a chance they’d stick behind me and come past. I wanted to make sure I was at the front but not for the full two and a half,” said Hoy afterwards,

“Whilst it wasn’t in my mind, to come back to this arena where I had a nasty crash – in the Keirin final as well – and make amends is very special indeed”

In the women’s team pursuit Team GB’s trio of Wendy Houvenhagel, Joanna Rowsell and Lizzie Armitstead made it to the final for a showdown with Ashlee Ankudinoff, Josephine Tomic and Sarah Kent of Australia but the more composed Australians time of 3:21.748 won the gold, their fourth of the championships. Team GB finished a half second down. New Zealand saved their best for the bronze medal ride, setting a new World Record of 3:21.552 and taking the mark from the British team.

“This is probably a good lesson for us to learn”, said Houvenhagel. “It gives us another couple of years to get things together and work on a few weak areas. Clearly there are some and we’ll have to get them straightened out.”

“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise”, added Rowsell. “Now it’s an Olympic event the other countries have stepped it up a notch, we have to do that for next year”

Team GB’s women’s sprint pair of Jessica Varnish and Victoria Pendleton were edged out in the bronze medal race and finished just out of the medals. With Shanaze Reade away on BMX duty it was always going to be tough for Varnish in only her second team sprint with Pendleton and so it proved on the night with Gintare Gaivenyte and Simona Krupeckaite proving too strong. In the gold medal match up the Australian pair of Kaarle McCulloch and Anna Meares had to work hard to overcome a strong challenge from Jinjie Gong and Junhong Lin of China with the Australian riders setting a new World Record of 32.923 on their way to the gold.

In the Men’s individual pursuit it was all about Taylor Phinney (USA) who looked invincible as he powered to gold, taking nearly two seconds out of Jesse Sergent (NZL) in the gold/silver ride, with Jack Bobridge (AUS) finishing off the podium. In the Scratch race Chris Newton, who finished fifth with Alex Rasmussen (DEN) taking the win ahead of Arango Carvajal (COL) and Mori (JPN)

Victoria Pendleton

The Manchester Velodrome will play host to a packed day of cycling action on Saturday February 27th as Great Britain take on the Rest of the world in a final test before The Track World Championships in Copenhagen four weeks later.

The programme will feature the National Madison Championships in the afternoon followed by the season finale of Revolution in the evening giving spectators a double bill of racing and entertainment.

Team GB will be out in force as riders including Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny look to fine tune their form in advance of the World Championships. They will line up against riders from Holland, Italy and Switzerland as well as a full strength German team including the current World Kilo Champion Stefan Nimke.

In the women’s sprinting current Sprint World Champion Victoria Pendleton will be the home favourite and will be using the Revolution as an important part of her Worlds preparation,

“The Revolution is a really good opportunity to get ..Continue reading..

Revolution track racing

British track sprinting stars will line up at Revolution 28 against a host of international talent in preparation for the World Track Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Star of the show, Sir Chris Hoy, will head up the British contingent racing for Sky+ HD in the Revolution sprint events and team Flyers in the Revolution Championship. It will be the first appearance in the UK for Hoy since the Manchester World Cup so his performance will play a crucial part of his Worlds preparation. “It could go either way; I could gain psychological points by winning but could lose those points if I get beaten,” he conceded.

“I tend not to worry too much about the competition and just focus on my own performance,” he added. However, Hoy, Ross Edgar and Jason Kenny will have to keep an eye on strong opponents from Germany, especially World Kilo Champion Stefan Nimke, who could cause an upset.

Great Britain Head Sprint Coach Iain Dyer is well aware of the threat that the Germans pose at the Revolution and World Championships. “They’ve shown that they can do it at the highest level and we know they’ve got a great team sprint squad,” he praised. “They’ve got two exceptional Team Sprint start riders which gives them a good chance at the World Championships. It’ll be a very hard event for us to do well in, they’re a quality and respected sprint nation.”

There’ll be a notable absence at Revolution 28 of another leading track nation, the French. While the Germans appear keen to race against the British ahead of the World Championships, Dyer played down suggestions that the French want to avoid confrontation before the big event in Copenhagen. “The French guys have had the Grenoble six day and have kept busy leading up to the event. Some of them also did the Beijing World Cup, so I don’t think any team’s doing any more or less than another, it’s just their timing and their choice of preparation,” explained Dyer.

With only four weeks separating Revolution 28 and the World Championships, Dyer also insisted that there’s no risk of showing Great Britain’s hand too early. “Whatever condition we hit the Revolution in we are confident there’s a bit more to come. The team will be coming off the back of an important training camp in Australia; their taper will be starting so you’ll see a bit of that form come through at Revolution.”

In the women’s racing, Victoria Pendleton will lead the Brits against tough opposition from the Germans and also the Dutch, with Willy Kanis likely to be strong competition. Pendleton will be looking to fine-tune her sprint performances in the competitive Revolution sprint environment, before tapering towards the World Championships.

Theo Bos

Theo Bos made an impressive entrance to the 2010 season and an indicative prelude to the coming road racing season with the Cervélo TestTeam by winning the team sprint event at the Rotterdam 6 Days track tournament in the Netherlands yesterday. This victory was taken riding a brand new track version of the ROTOR 3D crankset.

Theo made a powerful and impressive sprint at the end of the event to take the title, showing that the ex-world champion has lost nothing of his phenomenal speed since he last took the rainbow jersey.

This was the first of the team events of the 6 day tournament, giving Theo and his team mate Peter Schep a strong position for the overall winner’s title, at just 6 points behind the overall leaders.

There is no official date for the launch of the 3D track model to date.

Cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy says he will not risk his gold medal chances by chasing three Olympic titles at the 2012 Games in London.

The three-time Beijing champion is one gold short of rower Sir Steve Redgrave’s career record of five.

But the Scot, who will be 36 in 2012, said: “I wouldn’t risk losing a gold medal for the sake of having three bronzes or three silvers.

“It’s about winning gold medals and I’d rather have one than three silvers.”

Hoy became Britain’s second most successful Olympian when he powered to three track cycling titles at the Laoshan Velodrome last year.

But despite his overwhelming success, Hoy admitted he took a risk entering four events in the space of five days in Beijing and could easily have returned empty handed.