Olympic champion Ed Clancy returned to form at the third round of the Revolution Series in Manchester yesterday, taking a hat-trick of victories to give rebranded JLT Condor their first victory of 2015.
A sell-out crowd saw Clancy take victory in the scratch race, Revolution longest lap and Madison time trial setting a blistering time of 54.778 with team mate Ollie Wood. Wood also won the flying lap giving the team overall victory on the night.
“I wasn’t feeling too great earlier in the day” commented Clancy. “Things seemed to come good later in the evening so I’m pleased to get 2015 off to a winning start for JLT Condor.”
The result moves JLT Condor up to fourth place in the Elite Championship on 111 points ahead of Team Sky in fifth place. Maloja Pushbikers retained the lead but saw their advantage reduced to eight points to second placed Telegraph All Stars.
Orica-GreenEDGE moved into third place on 117 points thanks to a strong performance from Jens Mouris and Adam Blythe, who won the points race in his debut appearance for the team.
It was an eventful night for Blythe who was also controversially disqualified in the Revolution longest lap. “Someone in the stand whistled,” he explained. “Of course I was ready for the whistle or gun so I flinched and went forward a little bit over the line. I then rolled backwards properly but they disqualified me!”
“I personally think he just lost his balance,” joked race winner Ed Clancy. “He must have got confused between the whistle and gun which was good for me. He’s really good at balancing so I was kind of hoping something would go wrong… I enjoyed it, it was a lot easier than the scratch race!”
Other notable victories went to Jess Varnish who dominated the elite women’s sprinting and Lizzie Armitstead who lapped the field twice to win the UCI points race.
In the HOY Future Stars Eleanor Dickinson moved further ahead in the girls competition whilst Rhys Britton retained a slender lead over Fred Wright in the boys racing.
TV highlights of round 3 will be shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 10 January at 7am and then will be available to view online on 4OD.
