Revolution 56 – Preview

Forget the fireworks bringing in the New Year. The real fireworks begin this weekend on the boards at the penultimate round of the #RevolutionSeries.

Revolution 56 in the National Cycling Centre at Manchester will set the scene for the final push to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Big names are beginning show their intent to get on the long-list of potential athletes that will be in with a look at boarding that plane to Rio this Summer, but who will going?

Before we can answer that question, we need to tie up the Revolution Elite Championship.

Team Pedalsure top the table with the final round only a couple of weeks or so away, also in Manchester.

Andrew Tennant and Chris Latham will be defending their lead, but Official TEAMIES Jon Dibben and Owain Doull are hot on their wheels for Team WIGGINS.

Joining the party are last years Champions Christian Grasmann and David Muntaner for Maloja Pushbikers RT sitting in third position at the moment.

Mark Cavendish makes a return to the track for Telegraph Allstars bolstering up his desire to represent Team GB at Rio. He along with Wood, Gibson and Latham will race against Team WIGGINS Tennant, Burke, Doull and Dibben in a special Team Pursuit Challenge.

Fred Wright returns to take up the HOY Future Star Boys competition challenge for the Telegraph Allstars, but he’s going to find it hard to catch series leader Lewis Stewart from Team Scotland who has an eight-two point lead over him.

Meanwhile in the Girls competition, Jessica Roberts, Team USN still holds a comfortable forty-one point lead with two rounds remaining.

Big names in the men’s Sprint competition are set to grace the boards in Manchester once more, none bigger than Robert Fӧrstemann. Joining him to push our lads to their limits are American Dominic Suozzie, Netherland’s Sam Ligtlee and Alex Joliffe.

Pushing our best female Olympic Hero Laura Trott in the Elite Women’s events this time round is no other than the current Scratch Race World Champion Kirsten Wild. Wild finished third place behind Trott’s Silver in the Omnium Event at the Worlds, to be held in two months time in London, and she is joined by Poland’s Gosia Wrotya along with regulars Leire Olaberria, Emily Kay and Elinor Barker.

Another big name for Rio 2016, in attendance at the #RevolutionSeries riding for Team Sky is Italy’s Elia Viviani. We spoke to Elia back at the first stage of the Aviva TOB after beating Cavendish and Griepel. Check out what he said after the win and what his plans where for in 2016, here.