Mark Cavendish to lead GB team pursuit at Revolution in Manchester

Mark Cavendish’s quest to win Olympic gold at Rio next summer will begin in earnest at the start of the New Year when he returns to the track as Manchester hosts Round 5 of the Revolution Series.

The most eagerly anticipated race is likely to be a team pursuit that pits a Great Britain quartet led by Cavendish against Team Wiggins – though the latter will be lacking Sir Bradley.

The event, taking place at the National Cycling Centre on 2 January 2016, comes a fortnight before the Track World Cup in Hong Kong.

It will be Cavendish’s first competitive ride since he crashed out of the Tour of Britain in September with a shoulder injury after hitting a parked car.

He is targeting the Omnium in Brazil but faces strong competition from London 2012 bronze medallist in that event, and 2010 world champion, Ed Clancy.

JLT-Condor rider Clancy, a double OIympic champion in the team pursuit, has struggled with a back injury in recent months and has undergone surgery; he is not currently listed among the riders in Manchester.

Great Britain endurance head coach, Heiko Salzwedel, said: “The Revolution event on 2nd January is symbolic as the first track race in Olympic year.

 “It will be a good motivation for the riders at the start of 2016.”

Regarding that team pursuit, he said: “I’m pleased that the Revolution organisers have given us the opportunity to run a Team Pursuit with GB versus Team Wiggins.

“For the GB team including Mark Cavendish” – alongside Ollie Wood, Matt Gibson and Chris Latham – “it will be a good test ahead of the Hong Kong World Cup,” he went on.

“For the Team Wiggins riders we want to see if they are on the right track – it will be quite interesting and we will be using it as a performance assessment to see how everyone stands up at this point in our preparations.”

Double Olympic team pursuit champion Steven Burke will be one of the Team Wiggins riders, alongside Andy Tennant, Jon Dibben and Owain Doull.   

Another winner of two Olympic gold medals, Laura Trott, tops the bill in the women’s programme.

The evening session will be broadcast live on British Eurosport from 8pm-10pm, and tickets for that and the afternoon session are still available via the Revolution Series website or by calling See Tickets on See Tickets on 0844 854 2016.