Revolution Season 3 ended in style with yet another superb night of racing at Revolution 12 on Saturday night. With more international riders than ever before, a junior sprint competition, the culmination of the Raleigh Future Stars and a farewell presentation for Jimmi Madsen there was more than enough action and entertainment to keep the Manchester Velodrome crowd on the edge of their seat.

The absence of Rob Hayles due to illness meant a reshuffling of the Madison teams with Matt Brammeier coming in to race with Alex Aeschbach which left Chris Newton paired up with Franco Marvulli. Riding for Science in Sport, Newton and Marvulli proved to be the most aggressive and focussed riders on the night taking victory in the 1km Madison Time Trial and the hard fought 20km Madison finale,

“Yeah, it was really tough” commented Marvulli after the Madison victory. “There were four teams at the beginning that took a lap and I told Chris to wait for a little bit and hope the bunch would get them back, but unfortunately they took the lap really quick. So we had to react. It was a really good performance from Chris who put me in some really good positions for the sprints.”

The Madison was certainly a highlight going right to the wire where Marvulli knew he had to take the final sprint to ensure victory over Matt Gilmore and lljo Keisse, “I knew Iljo and Matt were really strong as they won last week in the six day Lotto-6-daagse and I knew I had to come from second position. It’s really hard on this long track to go from the front so I hoped that Iljo and Matt get a little tired towards the end so I could jump them. It worked but it was really tight all the way!”

Another highlight was the farewell presentation for the retiring six day star Jimmi Madsen who made Revolution 12 his final race. In an emotional ceremony he received flowers, whiskey and a crystal decanter before revealing his retirement plans to commentator Mike Smith, “I’ve done at least a hundred and twenty six days races, so I will sleep for at least a year. It’s strange to say goodbye,” he concluded, “it’s over and out from me.”

In the Raleigh Future Stars Peter Kennaugh took the boys title with Lucy Richards winning the girls competition. Both these riders received a Raleigh team road bike and look set for a bright future ahead as part of British Cycling’s Olympic Development programme.

One of the main reasons the Revolution Series was created at the Manchester Velodrome was to nurture young British cycling talent with the Future Stars competition. The Future Stars provides a competitive framework for our up and coming riders and provides them with the experience of riding in front a capacity crowd in one of the world’s premier Velodrome venues.

For season 3 the Future Stars has been sponsored by Raleigh, one of the UK’s best known cycling names. Raleigh’s involvement has meant that Future Stars competitions have been set up for both girls and boys. With Raleigh team road bikes up for grabs as first prize the competition this season has been intense with the winners being decided at Revolution12 on Saturday night.

In the girl’s competition the Welsh have dominated with Cardiff based rider Lucy Richards leading from the start. Richards took victory in the 5km Scratch Race on Saturday to secure overall victory ahead of Welsh team mates Katie Curtis and Alex Greenfield who finished second and third respectively.

“I’m very happy to have won the first Girls Future Stars” commented Richards. “It has been a fanatastic experience”. With a lot of racing ahead for Richards the future looks bright, “I’m first year junior this year so I will probably be doing the women’s national road series and I will do the women’s national track series again because I really enjoyed doing the track series last year. I will probably do the women’s national track champs again as well as the juniors track champs. I will just have to see how my training goes.”

In the boys competition a star of the future has definitely emerged with Peter Kennaugh providing and awesome display of racing and track skill to take overall victory, “I’m obviously delighted with my performance”, commented Kennaugh. “Riding in front of thousands of people who pack the velodrome once a month for the Revolution series is an amazing experience and to take the Future Stars victory is fantastic.”

Kennaugh won the Devil Endurance and the 5km Scratch Race at Revolution 12 to secure the title ahead of Welsh rider Rhys Lloyd and Scottish born Mark McNally. The Future Stars will be back in the autumn with Revolution season 4.

With season 3 now over the organisers are looking ahead to season 4 with plans to make Revolution even bigger and better, “Season 3 has been a huge success,” commented James Pope from Face Partnership. “We are already making plans for the next season and hope to mix things up a bit to make the Revolution events even better. Dates will be confirmed very soon.”