Sir Chris Hoy won the keirin in front of a sell out crowd at the Manchester velodrome on Saturday (28) in the final round of the televised Revolution track series.
In a further sign that Great Britain’s key athletes are hitting top form, world champion, Jason Kenny, won the sprint competition, and the Team Sky sprint squad of Hoy, Kenny, and Matt Crampton, beat the France team sprint line-up by more than two seconds.
Speaking afterwards, a delighted Hoy said: “It’s been a good day and it’s a stepping stone towards the World Cup in London. I want to win whether it’s the Revolution or the Olympics.”
Kenny beat Sir Chris in their first head-to-head on his way to claiming overall victory. Hoy said he was disappointed with his sprint, describing it as an area in which he was trying to make fewer mistakes, adding that he was pleased with victory in the keirin.
Team Sky’s sprint squad overcame what Hoy described as “a bit of an issue” to post a convincing victory over their French rivals.“Matt’s saddle rail broke on turn three and he went off the track but came back on; for a minute I thought he was going to crash in front of me. I almost bailed completely and went up the track, but in the end I didn’t realise how far the French were down,” he said.
The team sprint line-up fielded by Sky on Saturday will change for next month’s closing round of the World Cup, with Crampton set to be replaced by Ross Edgar in the Great Britain line-up.
But the dominant performance of British athletes at Revolution is a timely return to form after a disappointing performance at the opening round of the World Cup in Kazakhstan last November, where a line-up of Edgar, Kenny, and Jason Queally finished seventh.
“We’re far from worried about the team sprint, all you can do is train the best you can; train hard, train smart, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re putting in some pretty horrendous training sessions at the moment,” said Hoy.
While the presence of Sir Chris and his sprint colleagues stole the show, the excitement witnessed in the endurance events in earlier rounds of the Revolution series continued on Saturday.
The Maxgear team won the team elimination event, while Team Sky’s Alex Dowsett, fresh from the Santos Tour Down Under, won the points race.
Team UK Youth won the 1km madison time trial, while Simon Yates (Maxgear Racing) won the derny scratch race in which each rider was paced by their own derny rider, before a sprint decided the race.
Howies’ Michael Mørkøv won the scratch race after finishing second to Dowsett in the points race, and Emily Kay (Cunga Bikes) and Jake Ragen (Maxgear Racing) sealed overall victory in their respective categories in the DHL Future Stars series.
Maxgear Racing took overall victory in Revolution 9 with Sky Pro Cycling runners-up, and Howies, who fielded Mark Cavendish in the second round of the series, third.
ITV4 will show an hour highlights programme from 7pm tonight (Mon Jan 30).
Revolution Championship – final standings
Maxgear Racing – 685
Sky Pro Cycling – 654
Howies – 636
Chep UK – 624
Team UK Youth – 619
Rapha Condor Sharp – 559
Rouleur – 549
Cunga Bikes – 433
